Books in Brief: Assured Survival

Assured Survival, by Ben Bova (Houghton Mifflin, 343 pp., $15.95)

The debate over President Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative has generated much more heat than light: Impassioned pamphlets and diatribes have spilled out in profusion, but not much in the way of rational, objective, informed analysis. Happily, Assured Survival is just such an analysis. The book’s subtitle, “Putting the Star Wars Defense in Perspective,” exactly describes the author’s accomplishment. As an aerospace executive, former executive editor of Omni, and world-class science-fact and science-fiction author, Bova knows his subject—which includes politics, economics, science, and strategy—and he presents itsoasto give the intelligent non-specialist a clear and lucid understanding of the pros and cons. As with most issues, there are two sides to this one, and Bova, though personally in favor of SDI, bends over backward to be fair. Besides examining SDI, Assured Survival presents a lot of historical background: space development, space weaponry, geopolitics, and scientific and technical history. Its subject is nothing less than the survival of the human race, concerning which Bova remains optimistic without glossing over the very real dangers. jack d. kirwan

Assured Survival, by Ben Bova (Houghton Mifflin, 343 pp., $15.95)

The debate over President Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative has generated much more heat than light: Impassioned pamphlets and diatribes have spilled out in profusion, but not much in the way of rational, objective, informed analysis. Happily, Assured Survival is just such an analysis. The book’s subtitle, “Putting the Star Wars Defense in Perspective,” exactly describes the author’s accomplishment. As an aerospace executive, former executive editor of Omni, and world-class science-fact and science-fiction author, Bova knows his subject—which includes politics, economics, science, and strategy—and he presents itsoasto give the intelligent non-specialist a clear and lucid understanding of the pros and cons. As with most issues, there are two sides to this one, and Bova, though personally in favor of SDI, bends over backward to be fair. Besides examining SDI, Assured Survival presents a lot of historical background: space development, space weaponry, geopolitics, and scientific and technical history. Its subject is nothing less than the survival of the human race, concerning which Bova remains optimistic without glossing over the very real dangers. jack d. kirwan