Book Review: Orion by Ben Bova

Book #82 of 2023:

Orion by Ben Bova (Orion #1)

I loved this science-fiction novel — and to a lesser extent the loose series that follows — when I was a teen, and I’m glad to find that it holds up pretty well today. It’s definitely a product of its 1984 publication date in some ways: the hero is a muscular ubermensch with such complete control over his body that he can consciously regulate his temperature or speed up his perceptions during battle, his love-at-first-sight romantic interest is practically the only woman in the book and doesn’t get nearly as much characterization as the men, and the perspective on non-western cultures can be a bit simplistic (in addition to using some now-outdated racial terminology). But it’s also a great time-travel story that helped spark my lifelong interests in anthropology, history, and comparative religions.

Our titular protagonist is living in the late 20th century when he learns that he is actually the champion of a godlike being, who directs him to stop an enemy intent on destroying humanity’s progress towards a utopian galactic civilization. They use the names Ormazd and Ahriman respectively, the Zoroastrian deities of light and darkness, and it’s eventually revealed that all earth’s various divine legends are based on them and their ilk (although we don’t get to see much of them until the sequels). Here, the dark figure is attempting to destroy an experimental fusion reactor, and when Orion successfully stops him, he next finds himself relocated over time and space to the Mongol Empire a few generations after Genghis Khan. It turns out he and his adversary are moving in opposite directions across history, and in each era, the warrior must uncover and oppose Ahriman’s plan to subvert the natural timeline. And in their every encounter, he knows the other man better while being less well-known in return, River Song-style. A reincarnation of the same woman accompanies him too, although she doesn’t retain her memories from life to life, only her personality, her physical appearance, and her attraction to Orion.

The plot ultimately reaches back to the Stone Age and beyond, where there are some solid sci-fi twists, which I won’t spoil here but will merely note have stayed with me for a good long while. The saga goes in some odd directions after this point — I believe the next volume dumps Orion into the Trojan War for some reason — but this first one was always my favorite, and it’s been fun reencountering it as an adult, even if the flaws are a bit more evident than I had remembered.

[Content warning for gun violence, gore, violence against children, genocide, and rape.]

★★★★☆

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