User talk:Bob63

As my first *ahem* "official act, I made a relatively minor edit to the Title page for Venus, by Ben Bova. My membership here came about as I was editing my database of e-books.

I was seeking information online about various titles I've acquired, and came across a link to isfdb.org. In particular, as I was working on Venus, I checked to see how it was listed in your database, and discovered that both this title and Mars were both listed as the first book in the Grand Tour series. Although Mr. Bova is a wonderful author, I was fairly certain that he wouldn't be able to write two separate novels as "firsts". I did some hunting and in relatively short order found the series info and timeline on his website, which confirmed his wikipedia page listing Venus as number 16 in the series.

Venus

Liked your explanation! But there are only 5 other books listed (so far). Sure this shouldn't be number 6? ~Bill, --Bluesman 01:01, 15 March 2010 (UTC)

Went and found the chronology and then looked at the over-all series. There are two sub-series that 'remove/alternately place' six of the books. Does look like a few of the first ones could be placed in order. Looks like only the 'heavenly body' books have been given a number. Since Bova draws a separate chronology for the one sub-series, best to leave them as they are. One problem with the database software is that (as yet) no book can appear in two series at the same time. This does make numbering Venus as 16 problematic. I'll get back to you! Welcome, and thanks for editing! ~Bill, --Bluesman 01:16, 15 March 2010 (UTC)