Sam Gunn, Jr.

Multiple Hugo Award winner Bova (1932–2020) does not burnish his reputation with this turgid sequel to 1998’s Sam Gunn Forever; it lacks the plausible science of his best work and is burdened by an overbusy plot and female characters that are mostly sex objects. On a far future Earth, the 19-year-old title character is stunned to learn, on his mother’s deathbed, that his father was the legendary Sam Gunn, an adventurer and “space entrepreneur,” famous for “wooing beautiful women while he built an interplanetary corporation.” His mother dies destitute, but Gunn Jr. bluffs his way into accessing his father’s assets even before a blood test establishes proof of their relationship. The Moon-based S. Gunn Enterprises is also struggling financially, forcing Gunn Jr. to undertake a number of risky ventures to stay afloat, including creating a museum on Mars with exhibits depicting the mistaken predictions about what life on that planet would look like, and a scantily clad robot based on an Edgar Rice Burroughs’s Martian princess. The episodic plot fizzles and the prose never rises above being serviceable. The most devoted fans of the original might find something to enjoy here, but everyone else will be unimpressed. (Mar.)