Twenty-eight year old Sandy Darlington (one of several protagonist in this novel), who will inherit tons of money in two years, was given a job at Caltech Astrophysics because his father is a big benefactor of the school. Sandy was basically drifting after serving with high honors in the military. He is assigned to the “Chuck’s Eye” computer on the ground at Caltech. Chuck’s Eye is a camera pointed to the heavens on the USA’s Sky Survey Observatory (SSO) in Earth’s orbit, commanded by Captain Naomi Fang-Castro (I liked this character). “He (Sandy) had been assigned to nursemaid Chuck’s Eye.The work was not hard. Or, maybe it was, but the computers did it. Sandy was the human eye that double-checked the results, to make sure the computers hadn’t missed anything unusual enough that it fell outside their analysis parameters. And the computers would tell him if that happened, so he could alert a Real Scientist.” As he sat there playing his guitar, “the computer pinged and produced a line of type: Critical Anomaly.” First of all, the reader must know that the camera is pointing towards Saturn. Sandy punched the button that said “Describe.” The computer answered: Object Decelerating. Wow, everybody knows that if a foreign object (such as an asteroid) was entering Saturn’s atmosphere it not be decelerating! Sandy thinks to himself, “Celestial objects do not decelerate.” Sandy touched another menu that said, “Report.” The computer said among other things: The Object is Real-99%, and The Object is Emitting Hydrogen Gas at Unknown Volume. Sandy realizes that it is time to get a real scientist. Is this a starship? If you think that I’m giving the story away...I’m only on page sixteen.
The president of the USA, Amanda Santeros, is worried that the many chinese people working at Caltech will tell China what we found. The USA needs at least two years to convert the SSO into a starship capable of getting to Saturn. China was currently building a ship to explore Mars. Whoever meets the aliens first will likely gain information to be a hundred years ahead of their foe in technology. This is the banal part that I was telling you about as the USA builds it’s starship and tries to hide the information from China. The reader meets Crow, President Santeros’ security guru. Sandy is asked to join the trip to Saturn as a video expert. Dr. Rebecca (Becca) Johanson joins the team as the high-density power engineer. So far you have met four of the major characters. Then, John Clover, an alien civilization expert and his cat, join the team. Finally the last main character is Cassandra Fiorella, the chief science editor for the L.A.Times. With all that goes on in this novel, I think it’s amazing that the authors kept it to six main characters.The USA names their starship the Richard M. Nixon. Why? The Chinese find out about the Saturn incident. They are pissed but launch their starship (Celestial Odyssey) first. They will have at least a nine month lead heading into outer space before Becca fixes the the reactor problems of the USA ship. Once the problems are fixed, the USA thinks that by choosing a route around the sun, they can beat China to Saturn. Also Becca is convinced that her engine differences will get them to Saturn first.
Meanwhile, does Captain Castro think the aliens will be hostile? On page 139, Captain Castro ask Clover, “So, do we need a weapons system to deal with the aliens?” Clover said, “ Basically, no. I’ve talked to Crow about this, and there are only a few ways to fight in space. Some of them are suicidal, so we rule those out. I haven’t been able to think of a situation in which we’d destroy our own ship as a method of attacking the aliens.” Clover concludes, “I’d deduce that they don’t want to destroy us. Simply because they could have, anytime, and didn’t. So we ignore the movie scenarios.” Captain Castro and Crow think that there is a Chinese spy aboard because major problems and accidents keep happening with the engines. Is the spy trying to slow down the Richard M. Nixon so the Chinese starship could get to Saturn first? You bet your sweet bippy! (Supposedly,” bippy” really meant “butt” on the Rowan & Martin TV show. It’s got nothing to do with this review, but I thought that I’d bring it up anyway.) I’m not going to tell you what happens over the next 347 pages, but I will tell you that it is awesome...all the way to the finish. And guess what? The novel actually finishes and you don’t have to read volume two and three to find out what happens. How refreshing is that? I give a lot of credit to John Sandford for his storytelling ability and to Ctein for making the science easy to understand. Do I recommend this novel? Refer to the “bippy” sentence.
RATING: 5 out of 5 stars
Comment: I’m trying to remember the last time I enjoyed a sci-fi novel as much as this one. I can think of many past novels, but currently...I can’t think of any (and I’ve reviewed quite a few). But I did review a couple of classics that were fabulous. The first one that comes to my mind is Larry Niven’s Ringworld (see my review of 2/24/2013). The second novel is Kurt Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle (see my review of 2/21/2015). If you are a sci-fi fan you must read these two superior novels.
I mentioned Clifford D. Simak (8/3/1904-4/25/1988) in the first paragraph. He is a must read, earning three Hugo Awards and one Nebula Award during his writing career. I’ve read two of his novels: the above mentioned Way Station (1963) and City (1952), but I really want to grab a copy of his story about the 600 hundred year old robot in All the Traps of Earth (1962). Was this the model for the Robin Williams robot movie? This writer is legendary to say the least. I absolutely love a good sci-fi novel.
Saturn:
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