Name: James Paden's review of Saturn Run by John Sandford
Item: Saturn Run
Rating: 2
Author: James Paden

John Sandford

Ctein

“Fans of Lucas Davenport and Virgil Flowers will eat this up.” --Stephen King For fans of THE MARTIAN, an extraordinary new thriller of the future from #1 New York Times–bestselling and Pulitzer Prize–winning author John Sandford and internationally known photo-artist and science fiction aficionado Ctein. Over the course of thirty-seven books, John Sandford has proven time and again his unmatchable talents for electrifying plots, rich characters, sly wit, and razor-sharp dialogue. Now, in collaboration with Ctein, he proves it all once more, in a stunning new thriller, a story as audacious as it is deeply satisfying. 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—an epic tale of courage, treachery, resourcefulness, secrets, surprises, and astonishing human and technological discovery, as the members of a hastily thrown-together crew find their strength and wits tested against adversaries both of this earth and beyond. What happens is nothing like you expect—and everything you could want from one of the world’s greatest masters of suspense.

Saturn Run

James Paden

When a mid-21st-century Caltech intern discovers that a spacecraft from a technologically superior alien source is headed toward Saturn, a ragtag crew of competitors races to be the first to claim the ship and its technological advantages.

Avery

A pretty standard �hard� sci-fi plot, though it was written in a style that made it more entertaining to read than many. The first contact aspect wasn�t as interesting as the dynamics between characters which isn�t necessarily what I expected given the genre.

"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--an epic tale of courage, treachery, resourcefulness, secrets, surprises, and astonishing human and technological discovery, as the members of a hastily thrown-together crew find their strength and wits tested against adversaries both of this earth and beyond. What happens is nothing like you expect--and everything you could want from one of the world's greatest masters of suspense"-- Provided by publisher.

Ron Bronson

I liked the concept and given I picked this book up after seeing it at a bookstore, the cover art deserves a nod with a title to convince this sci-fi tv show fan to indulge in a sci-fi book which I don't do much. The Martian put me in the mindset where listening to technical stuff in a book is fine, but this one kind of droned on at times because there were so many characters to keep up with, each with storylines of their own.

The book gets better after a while, but as many have said in previous reviews there are too many dizzying choices that make this book hard to get immersed into. We really get no insight into the characters, the main protagonist isn't all that interesting either as he's both a slacker AND somehow a guy who served in the military capable of being a security badass. The other characters are not memorable and while I do appreciate the book's attempt at direct diversity, I felt like it could have benefitted from some real perspective and insights from actual people rather than a caricature of what the author's thought people like this would be.

If half of the detail that went into the science was put into the character development, this book would truly have been a great one. I appreciated the concept and the initial plot, the execution just isn't really there to make it worth recommending. 

That said, if you're pining for more sci-fi books after The Martian, Saturn Run will leave you wishing for even more. Especially as an audiobook, because while I own the novel, the technical stuff gets very un-fun to read after a while. I read enough technical stuff in my own career, trying to read it for fun drags, so the audiobooks are useful in that way for these types of stories.

Boring and slow. Little character development. Weird logic in the plot/story.

Carlo Zottmann

Enjoyable book when it comes to the page-to-page writing, but —and this is a big one— the overall conclusion managed to sour the entire story and left me angry. Because it carries a somewhat dystopian world view which I found utterly infuriating.

(view spoiler)[

So here's two factions of mankind getting the knowledge of the universe served on a silver platter, so to speak, right? But instead of realizing the gravitas of the situation and all the chances that come with said knowledge, they try to outmaneouver eachother, they fight over it, and in the end, they destroy it. Because neither the US nor the Chinese seem to have a sense about what's actually at stake, both blocs are too busy waving their dicks around, and destroying all that knowledge is preferrable to sharing it with anyone.

So far, so good. It could've been a cautionary tale of shortsightedness on an epic scale — BUT IT ISN'T.

Because at the end, it is revealed that Sandy "big-grin" Darlington managed to snatch a copy of the invaluable data (the scoundrel!). Then he's contemplating whether to sell it to the highest bidder (he's just joking!), before finally and graciously handing it over to Uncle Sam because they're the only good guys and USA…USA…USA…

I don't know how to fully sum up my feelings here, so imagine ol' reliable ¯\＿(ツ)＿/¯ but with an angry face.

 (hide spoiler)]

Bryan Alexander

A fun romp, combining classic suspense with hard science fiction, Saturn Run will appeal to fans of both genres.

The conceit is an interplanetary race between a Chinese and an American spacecraft to reach Saturn, taking place around 50 years from now. Technology hasn't advanced far, and in fact the authors choose to build their world and its ships with tech we currently possess. 

Much of the suspense and fun in the book's first half comes from getting the US ship built and hurled across the solar system. The second half brings the ships together at their mysterious goal, allowing for all kinds of schemes and revelations. 

It's a well put together thriller. I haven't read John Sanford, but know his reputation and can see it on display here. Neatly sketched characters are sympathetic and/or entertaining, and they are embedded in a good variety of challenges, (metaphorical) ticking bombs, and ever-ratcheting-upwards tension. Plots keep ticking over right through the last page (before a nice little coda).

So why am I not raving about it?

Because it's fluff, for one thing. This is what Graham Greene called "an entertainment", not something designed to probe the mysteries of space travel (Saturn is barely described) or international relations, much less the human mind. 

But it's also weirdly gap-toothed. The first 1/3rd or so introduces a variety of characters, then leaves many of them alone for too long. Their interactions are barely allowed to occur.

And in the plot, well, (view spoiler)[the book simply shortchanges the Chinese. We get precious little from their side. They disappear, in fact, for the middle third of the novel - which makes for a weird race, as we don't see the opponent. There's a final flurry of characters, politics, and scheming,
 which is too little and too late. 

The book also loves Darlington too much. He's basically an invincible genius, artist, and sex god.
 It's cute but disappointing that he outwits Crow in the end, since the book built Crow up so far. (hide spoiler)]

But that's probably me taking it too seriously. Otherwise, I enjoyed watching them solve engineering puzzles (yes, this is hard sf) and outwit each other. Some scenes were funny. The novel fades from my memory as I type this, which is all right.

James Paden &
Saturn Run by John Sandford

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James Paden &Saturn Run by John Sandford

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James Paden &
Saturn Run by John Sandford