Saturn Run

Just about every enjoyable aspect of 1970s science fiction is dragged out of the cliché cupboard, given a 21st century splash of dazzle and delivered here with dash and panache. There’s stacks of solid science, credibly extended into the realm of speculation without breaking (or even mildly infuriating) the laws of physics, and deftly rendered easily digestible by John Sandford’s superlative story-telling skills.

The fascinating science stuff is attached to a pretty geopolitical problem, and the thrill of maybe meeting aliens for the first time. The authors assemble a credible cast of characters and then ramp up the tension by turning the perilous trip to Saturn into a flat-out race between the American and the Chinese show more nations.

There's precious little new here; all this has been done before, even down to using ion cannons for propulsion. But there are some nifty twists in the narrative and Sandford’s excellent dialogue makes the tense exchanges between staffers, spacemen, engineers, journos, spooks and politicians both rippingly entertaining and entirely believable. His characters behave, pretty much, like real people – even the super-smart science guys and the glossy, ambitious embedded reporters.

I also struggled slightly with how far ahead the novel is set (2066) yet how little progress had been made. Folks are still using ‘slates’ and have ‘wrist wraps’ to alert them; tech which is doable right now. It’s hard to credit that in another half century, tech development will have slowed so much – even allowing for a couple of major future history events which the authors cannily hint at, but never quite explain.

On any level, Saturn Run is a romp. It’s smart, well informed, and constructed to make the pages fly by. Every stage brings an intriguing revelation, and it certainly succeeds in making a slow-motion race (where neither party knows if the other has a lethal trick up a sleeve) utterly gripping. It may not do much new, but it does everything extremely well.
8/10

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I put this in the category of a fun read. It’s not great, I don’t think it’s deeply provocative, but it’s fun.

The authors are very good at making you feel their words. After having read the book, I remembered scenes as if I had actually experienced them, not just read them. And they know how to pull you from chapter to chapter, with tensions and questions to be resolved.

The plot centers around the discovery of an alien spaceship and an alien artifact near Saturn, but alien contact is itself a foil for a cold-war-like story of competition between American and Chinese space programs.

What plays out is not so much an encounter between humans and an alien civilization, or even alien technology, as an encounter between two highly show more charged, or over-charged, nations. It’s the space race revisited, this time with the new incentive of access to alien technology and the huge potential advantage that exclusive access could provide.

That race is the central tension of the book, with characters and cultures displaying themselves through it.

The science is central to the plot — the detailed and thought-out science of propulsion systems, requirements, and limits for space travel. Those requirements and limits have their own roles in the story. The race has repeated tortoise and hare scenarios, given the technology choices made by the competing players. There is even an “Authors’ Note” at the end of the book, providing more details and an account of how the authors reasoned and calculated their way through the technology choices and their implications.

Overall, like I said, it’s a good story. It’s entertaining. The cold war tones are not new, but they seem to have never really died. show less

I thought this would focus more on the science fiction, honestly. And, while there was certainly a lot of science involved, it reads more on the commentary of politics and how it causes harm to individuals and slows the furthering of science/discovery.

I really appreciate all of the work that the author put into making the science in this book plausible. Most of the tech is close enough to what we have now that I can imagine it being in our reach by the time the story is set, and some of it doable now and just hasn't been done. The social progess (and lack thereof) imagined by the story is hard to swallow, but I can understand the authorial decision to basically freeze politics as it exists today except for slowly ramping up corporate power for a few decades.

What hurt the book most for me were the characters. The best characters get the least attention, though maybe if they had more time they'd look worse too. By and large the characters were a poor combination of flat, ridiculous, show more stereotypical, short-sighted, and (in the case of most of the men) hypermasculine.

To illustrate: The story's protagonist is Sandy Darlington. Tall, handsome, athletic: a thrillseeking surfer dude who is heir to an enormous fortune, and he is cooling his heels working as an astronomy intern until he is old enough to inherit his money. Okay, sure, I can suspend my disbelief for that. He's also a talented photographer, videographer, and editor. That's pushing it, but I'll stretch. But, there's a twist, he's secretly an ex-black-ops supersoldier who is hiding his trauma behind a thin veneer that will inevitably crack, but not enough to prevent him from supersoldiering when needed, and that is a bit too far for me to take him seriously.

More importantly, the depiction of the nation of China and the behavior of its people in this story is offensive. The Chinese characters were even more poorly written and less detailed than the worst of the Americans, and their decisions often come across as horrifically stupid. It reminds me of the depiction of Soviets in forgettable thrillers from the early 1980's.

Overall, I recommend giving this book a pass. show less

No starlight twinkle

I have been reading science fiction longer than most Amazon readers and I very much liked "Saturn Run" for its old fashioned style. That being said, I don't really think it was even close to being as good as it could have been. The authors ran out of creative energy in the final third of the book and they made two grievous plotting errors.

As other reviewers who appreciate the science focus of the book note (and the rest of you should stop reading here and go on to another book choice), "Saturn Run" gets off to a great start as a tribute to the Grand Masters of space opera. Elements of the writing parallel and mimic narrative devices from writers who speculated a century ago on the who, how and why of human expansion show more into the universe. The TV interview with the senior engineer is brilliant, exactly what Heinlein or Asimov would have done to get the tech specs to us.

This, however, does not mean that the book flies true and succeeds in its mission. The writing, from the day the Chinese rendezvous with the alien artifact, fails to convince or excite.

Just for the joy of it I would have held off the Chinese arrival for another day to give the Americans more time to ask clever questions of the interface. Clover and Sandy do a good job and another day would have allowed the authors to insert more xenophillic elements and some clever thinking into the Q&A sessions.

In any case, from the arrival of the Chinese to the conclusion of the book, everything seems hurried. There is no longer any interesting dialogue and while the problems and clever solutions are adequately discussed, there is no drama, let alone melodrama, even in the face of threats, counter threats and death. There are also two glaring omissions in the procedures that I simply can't accept. I am deeply annoyed that Mr. Snuffles drops out of the story altogether and his fate is left to the epilogue. Andre Norton would scold.

I received a review copy of "Saturn Run" by John Stanford and Ctein (Random House – Putnam) through NetGalley.com.

PS The authors reveal their age by saying "LGM" instead of the older "BEM" which is much more fun. show less

The first half of this books is pretty good, the second half, when the Chinese finally show up on the scene? Human nature takes over as do political motivations and sheer stupid greed - all realistic, sadly. Most of the science is pretty realistic too, more happily.

The takeaway here? Humans are humans and are quite, at their most base, stupid. When we pull ourselves out of that cesspit though, amazing things can happen. Just, not in this book.

From Amazon:

The year is 2066. A Caltech intern inadvertently notices an anomaly from a space telescope—something is approaching Saturn, and decelerating. Space objects don’t decelerate. Spaceships do.

A flurry of top-level government meetings produces the inescapable conclusion: Whatever built that ship is at least one hundred years ahead in hard and soft technology, and whoever can get their hands on it exclusively and bring it back will have an advantage so large, no other nation can compete. A conclusion the Chinese definitely agree with when they find out. The race is on, and an remarkable adventure begins.

My Thoughts:

I've read and am continuing to read every series that John Sandford has put his name to. Great murder mysteries show more with personable and smart detectives...so when I saw this I thought it surely was another John Sandford. Nope...it's the the John Sandford that gave us Lucas Davenport, Virgil Flowers, and standalone mysteries such as Night Crew and Dead Watch. He should have stuck with what he did so very well. In Saturn Run the writing style was one reason why I thought it may be a different John Sandford. Usually his writing style is well paced, humorous, and engaging. But here there is none of that. He writes of a futuristic Earth, of which he tells us nothing. He does, on the other hand, spend 300 pages describing made up technology. We get a painful instruction manual for building a spaceship and its operations during travel. There is NO plot, NO character development whatsoever. I will admit that it has to be a pretty good Sci-fi novel to grab my attention but this didn't even come close. People that are Sci-fii nuts will more than likely devour it but I'll just wait patiently for Lucas Davenport and Virgil Flowers to reappear. show less