Thrillers, Science Fiction, and Historical Fiction
(non-fiction as J. Douglas Beason, PhD)
Space Station Down, Doug’s collaborative novel with Ben Bova, was released August 4th, 2020 in hardback, on Kindle, and as an audio book — less than 4 months before Ben sadly passed away on November 29th, and shortly before Space Station Down was optioned for a movie. Ben was my friend, editor and mentor. He encouraged my writing for years and his legacy will be long remembered.
Available in hardback, Kindle and audio versions
Doug and Ben Bova
From the SPACE STATION DOWN jacket: When an ultra-rich space tourist visits the orbiting International Space Station, NASA expects a $100 million win-win: his visit will bring in much needed funding and publicity. But the tourist venture turns into a scheme of terror. Together with an extremist cosmonaut, the tourist slaughters all the astronauts on board the million-pound ISS. Also on board are 4 dozen compact nuclear reactors containing over 400 pounds of plutonium, power sources for the Moon and Mars expeditions. The terrorists plan to crash the Space Station onto NYC at 17,500 mph, impacting with energy a hundred times more powerful than the Hiroshima blast—destroying the world’s financial system and spreading highly-radioactive plutonium over the entire eastern US, making it uninhabitable and causing world-wide panic.
All that stands between them and their deadly goal is the lone survivor aboard the ISS, Kimberly Hasid-Robinson, a newly divorced astronaut who has barricaded herself in a secure area.
Praise for Space Station Down:
“An awesomely realistic thriller.” Larry Niven ― NY Times Best Selling Author, multiple Hugo and Nebula Award winner
“Space Station Down rips through your imagination at Mach 25, a suspense-filled rocket that hurtles off the pad and never, never slows down. This hyper-realistic tale is the stuff of space nightmares.” Tom Jones ― Veteran Space Shuttle Astronaut, Spacewalker, and Author of “Sky Walking: An Astronaut’s Memoir.”
“Think Die Hard happening two hundred and fifty miles above the earth and you have the premise for Space Station Down. There’s plenty of angst, anger, and adventure, all of which will have you watching the skies overhead much more closely in the future.” Steve Berry ― NY Times and #1 International Best Selling Author
"Wow! Not the way any astronaut would ever want their mission in space to go. Kimberly makes John McLane and MacGyver look like amateurs. I found myself feeling like I was flying through the space station, rooting for her as she very impressively used her intelligence and knowledge of the space station to overcome every challenge, just like the astronauts in space are doing every day. And I should know: I’ve been there!” Nicole Stott ― International Space Station & Space Shuttle Astronaut, Spacewalker, Aquanaut, and Artist
“What do you get when high-tech thrillers merge with Sci-Fi? One hell of a fine suspense novel. Ben Bova and Doug Beason really know how to write it.” Stephen Coonts ― NY Times Best Selling Author
“A smart, gripping thriller—Bova and Beason take you on a roller coaster ride from the ISS to mission control to the White House on a race to save the station—and New York City” Terry Virts ― NASA Astronaut, International Space Station Commander, Author and Speaker
“In the nearly twenty years of continuous, uninterrupted human presence aboard the International Space Station, there has been plenty of drama, more than a few operational crises and a multitude of challenges to be overcome—but nothing of the scope and magnitude Ben Bova and Doug Beason have imagined in this thrilling work of fiction. It surely captures the close working quarters and challenges of isolation while keeping readers on the edge of their seats wrapped around this story of intrigue, espionage and human terror on a space lab in free fall 250 miles off the surface of the Earth.” Sean O’Keefe ― former NASA Administrator and Secretary of the US Navy
“Begs for the big screen!” Ward Larsen ― USA Today Best Selling Author and three-time winner of the Florida Book Award
“Bova & Beason’s astronaut Kimberly Hassid-Robinson may be the strongest female heroine since Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games—she’s a one-person wrecking machine in a high-tech crisis, the only thing preventing the destruction of the space station and millions of deaths.” Kevin J. Anderson ― New York Times Bestselling Author of “Spine of the Dragon”
“Bova and Beason's first collaboration is a winner, with a tightly written, swiftly paced narrative full of technical information about the ISS and the inner workings of NASA, empathetic characters from diverse backgrounds, and international intrigue.” — Booklist Review
“ … a tense, claustrophobic, space-bound thriller … keep readers on edge and compulsively turning the pages.” — Library Journal
Kill Zone Doug’s collaborative novel with Kevin J. Anderson was released in hardback, audio and Kindle versions on August 27, 2019 from Forge Books.
Doug’s Op-Ed, “Whatever America's energy future, our nuclear waste problem isn't going anywhere,” inspired by the threat in Kill Zone appeared in the September 3rd, 2019 Washington Examiner
Doug and Kevin J. Anderson
From the KILL ZONE jacket: Power duo Kevin J. Anderson and Doug Beason team up in Kill Zone, a perilous disaster thriller for the modern age.
Deep within a mountain in Albuquerque, New Mexico, a Cold War-era nuclear weapons storage facility is being used to covertly receive more than 100,000 tons of nuclear waste stored across the US. Only Department of Energy employee, Adonia, and a few others including a war hero, a senator, and an environmental activist, are allowed access to perform a high-level security review of the facilities. But Hydra Mountain was never meant to securely hold this much hazardous waste, and it has the potential to explode, taking with it all of Albuquerque and spreading radioactivity across the nation.
This disaster situation proves all too possible when a small plane crashes at a nearby military base, setting off Hydra’s lockdown and trapping Adonia and her team in the heart of the hazardous, waste-filled mountain. Now, the only direction for them to go is deeper into the mountain, through the tear gas and into a secretive area no one was ever supposed to know about.
“A wonderfully imagined, terrifying scenario that reeks of plausibility. It’s a game within a game―a thrilling, dangerous quest for the unspeakable.” Steve Berry ― New York Times bestselling author of “The Art of War”
"Shines light on the greatest security lapse of our age . . . Fans of Dan Brown and Michael Crichton won’t want to miss this high-tech thriller!" Ward Larsen ― USA Today bestselling author of “Assassin's Run”
Other News
Doug’s OpEd in the Wall Street Journal under J. Douglas Beason
Doug was interviewed by Space News
Doug’s article ‘War at the Speed of Light,’ was published in There Will Be War, Vol. X, Edited by Jerry Pournelle.
Doug’s short story, ‘Thunderwell,’ appeared in Carbide Tipped Pens, edited by Ben Bova and Eric Choi, published by Tor.
Doug is currently at work on a science-based thriller, The Carrington Collapse.
The Kindle version of The E-Bomb, Doug's non-fiction book on Directed Energy weapons, was released by Da Capo Press. He has lectured on The E-Bomb at the Carnegie Council, the Heritage Foundation, on C-Span, and numerous radio shows and live web-sites such as Coast-to-Coast.
Some reviews of The E-Bomb
"… a spirited defense of these new weapons and their likely impact on the battlefield … a solid introduction to directed energy weapons." ― Publisher's Weekly
"The most comprehensive and up-to-date depiction of the revolutionary change that is about to happen." ― Naples Daily News
"Directed energy is the wave (and not just the microwave) of the future, the source of weapons that will prove to be revolutionary … will appeal to readers schooled in Tom Clancy." ― Kirkus