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Title: Saturn by Ben Bova ISBN: 0-312-87218-6 Publisher: Tor Books Pub. Date: 01 June, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 3 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.08 (13 reviews)
Rating: 2
Summary: Say It Ain't So, Ben!
Comment: This book is a disappointment. I don't know if Bova is running out of good plots, he was hurried, or it was just a fluke, but this book doesn't deliver.
Part of Bova's planetary series, it continues a background situation of an Earth under the rule of fundamentalist regimes that have little use for scientific study and even less for individual freedoms. He also brings back a couple of characters, albeit he focuses his story on new ones.
The basic premise is that a huge spacecraft the size of a large asteroid containing a self-sustaining, essentially closed-loop ecosystem along with 10,000 people "serving a cadre of scientists" journeys to Saturn for extended study. The habitat is named Goddard. The principal experiment is kept from the inhabitants though. It is "to test the ability of a self-contained community to survive and develop a viable social system of its own."
During the 25-month voyage a villainous set of ringers planted by a fundamentalist group back on Earth plot to seize political control of the habitat. This group is sophomorically patterned after Hitler and his closest henchmen in the budding Nazi Party. Bova has never been strong on character development, but this group is more shallow than usual.
Bova's strength has always been the science he tantalizingly weaves into his stories. Unlike his previous books, there really is precious little science in this one, fiction or otherwise. It is more a study in seizing political power via subterfuge than it is about science. Even the life form in the Saturnian system is undeveloped and seemingly included merely as a sop to his sci fi fans.
In this book his strength is the continuation of several themes that together form the core of this series: outcasts beginning a new life on new worlds, the ubiquity of life within our Solar System, and the benefits of nano-technology if used properly. Another theme from the last few books carried over into this one is that religious fundamentalism can be oppressive and regressive. The overarching message from this series is that there is plenty to do and see, to explore and colonize, within the Solar System while we figure out how to get to the stars. Also, the Solar System may provide a safety valve for overpopulation and the adventurous spirit.
While the messages are positive, the book overall is flat and uninspired. If you're a real Bova fan, like me, then you'll want to go through it anyway in anticipation that it will set the stage for later books in the series. If you're not yet a Bova fan, read his other books first.
Rating: 3
Summary: Just not Bova's best. . .
Comment: . . .but certainly not his worst either -- and far better than the 3rd and 4th entries in the Clarke's "Rama" series.
After tackling the Moon (two or three times), Mars (twice), Venus and Jupiter, I suppose that Saturn was the next logical adventure. However, unlike the previous books (even "Venus" which I disliked) there is very little about Saturn actually in the book!
The book deals largely with an artificial habitat sent from Earth to Saturn, and the interactions and machinations of the persons living on that habitat. Once again, as in "Jupiter", Bova takes whacks at religious fundamentalism -- but without the benefit (or relief) of any sympathetic religious character. Issues of sex, politics, manipulation, and violence are played out -- with varying amounts of success. The life-form? eventually discovered
in the rings of Saturn are certainly more believable than the silliness in "Venus", but really are a bit far-fetched.
Passable, but certainly not extraordinary.
Rating: 4
Summary: Seeding the future
Comment: First- this isn't bovas' best work, but I still think it was a good read. It expands nicely into the grand tour idea. For me I saw it as a way for him to seed the future once he was done with the solar system. It wets the whistle for a chance to revisit the colony and the rings of saturn. For those who want to read Bova for the first time its not a good place to start I would suggest Mars or Jupiter.
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Title: Jupiter by Ben Bova ISBN: 0812579410 Publisher: Tor Books Pub. Date: 01 February, 2002 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: The Rock Rats (Asteroid Wars (Paperback)) by Ben Bova ISBN: 0812579887 Publisher: Tor Books Pub. Date: 01 June, 2003 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: Venus by Ben Bova ISBN: 0812579402 Publisher: Tor Books Pub. Date: 01 May, 2001 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: The Precipice (Asteroid Wars (Paperback)) by Ben Bova ISBN: 0812579895 Publisher: Tor Books Pub. Date: 01 December, 2002 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: The Silent War: Book Three of the Asteroid Wars (BOVA, BEN) by Ben Bova ISBN: 0312848781 Publisher: Tor Books Pub. Date: 01 April, 2004 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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