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Saturn's Race
The future is a strange and dangerous place. Chaz Kato can testify to that. He is a citizen of Xanudu, a city-sized artificial island populated by some of the wealthiest men and women on future Earth. A place filled with hidden wonders and dark secrets of technology gone awry. Lenore Myles is a student when she travels to Xanadu and becomes involved with Chaz Kato. She is shocked when she uses Kato's access codes to uncover the grizzly truth behind Xandu's glittering facade.Not knowing who to trust, Lenore finds herself on the run. Saturn, a mysterious entity, moves aggressively to break the security breach. With interests of the world's wealthiest people at stake, and powerful technology at it's fingertips, Saturn, puts Lenore racing for her life, against a truly formidable foe.At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
387 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 30, 2000
45 people are currently reading
427 people want to read
About the author
Larry Niven
690 books3,322 followersLaurence van Cott Niven's best known work is Ringworld (Ringworld, #1) (1970), which received the Hugo, Locus, Ditmar, and Nebula awards. His work is primarily hard science fiction, using big science concepts and theoretical physics. The creation of thoroughly worked-out alien species, which are very different from humans both physically and mentally, is recognized as one of Niven's main strengths.
Niven also often includes elements of detective fiction and adventure stories. His fantasy includes The Magic Goes Away series, which utilizes an exhaustible resource, called Mana, to make the magic a non-renewable resource.
Niven created an alien species, the Kzin, which were featured in a series of twelve collection books, the Man-Kzin Wars. He co-authored a number of novels with Jerry Pournelle. In fact, much of his writing since the 1970s has been in collaboration, particularly with Pournelle, Steven Barnes, Brenda Cooper, or Edward M. Lerner.
He briefly attended the California Institute of Technology and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in mathematics (with a minor in psychology) from Washburn University, Topeka, Kansas, in 1962. He did a year of graduate work in mathematics at the University of California at Los Angeles. He has since lived in Los Angeles suburbs, including Chatsworth and Tarzana, as a full-time writer. He married Marilyn Joyce "Fuzzy Pink" Wisowaty, herself a well-known science fiction and Regency literature fan, on September 6, 1969.
Niven won the Hugo Award for Best Short Story for Neutron Star in 1967. In 1972, for Inconstant Moon, and in 1975 for The Hole Man. In 1976, he won the Hugo Award for Best Novelette for The Borderland of Sol.
Niven has written scripts for various science fiction television shows, including the original Land of the Lost series and Star Trek: The Animated Series, for which he adapted his early Kzin story The Soft Weapon. He adapted his story Inconstant Moon for an episode of the television series The Outer Limits in 1996.
He has also written for the DC Comics character Green Lantern including in his stories hard science fiction concepts such as universal entropy and the redshift effect, which are unusual in comic books.
http://us.macmillan.com/author/larryn...
Niven also often includes elements of detective fiction and adventure stories. His fantasy includes The Magic Goes Away series, which utilizes an exhaustible resource, called Mana, to make the magic a non-renewable resource.
Niven created an alien species, the Kzin, which were featured in a series of twelve collection books, the Man-Kzin Wars. He co-authored a number of novels with Jerry Pournelle. In fact, much of his writing since the 1970s has been in collaboration, particularly with Pournelle, Steven Barnes, Brenda Cooper, or Edward M. Lerner.
He briefly attended the California Institute of Technology and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in mathematics (with a minor in psychology) from Washburn University, Topeka, Kansas, in 1962. He did a year of graduate work in mathematics at the University of California at Los Angeles. He has since lived in Los Angeles suburbs, including Chatsworth and Tarzana, as a full-time writer. He married Marilyn Joyce "Fuzzy Pink" Wisowaty, herself a well-known science fiction and Regency literature fan, on September 6, 1969.
Niven won the Hugo Award for Best Short Story for Neutron Star in 1967. In 1972, for Inconstant Moon, and in 1975 for The Hole Man. In 1976, he won the Hugo Award for Best Novelette for The Borderland of Sol.
Niven has written scripts for various science fiction television shows, including the original Land of the Lost series and Star Trek: The Animated Series, for which he adapted his early Kzin story The Soft Weapon. He adapted his story Inconstant Moon for an episode of the television series The Outer Limits in 1996.
He has also written for the DC Comics character Green Lantern including in his stories hard science fiction concepts such as universal entropy and the redshift effect, which are unusual in comic books.
http://us.macmillan.com/author/larryn...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 53 reviews
October 5, 2009
This one was kind of interesting...but the character development was so shallow that I never really got into it. I didn't think the writing was fabulous. The plot was interesting though, and I thought there were two rather fascinating ideas at the heart of the book:
1) Human beings will create the first alien species by using using computer-brain interfaces to "upgrade" animal brains.
2) The rapid population growth of the third world is a huge threat to the wealthier, slower-growing parts of the world. In the inevitable competition for resources, will the wealthy, advanced cultures allow themselves to be displaced by something as simple as birth rate? Or will they take offensive action? I found this book's scenario of mass sterilization in the guise of a "vaccine" given to 3rd world populations to be chillingly plausible.
1) Human beings will create the first alien species by using using computer-brain interfaces to "upgrade" animal brains.
2) The rapid population growth of the third world is a huge threat to the wealthier, slower-growing parts of the world. In the inevitable competition for resources, will the wealthy, advanced cultures allow themselves to be displaced by something as simple as birth rate? Or will they take offensive action? I found this book's scenario of mass sterilization in the guise of a "vaccine" given to 3rd world populations to be chillingly plausible.
May 14, 2021
The cover is wonderful. Sharks with arms? Incredible. Buy a copy, frame it, display it with pride.
Don't read the book. It's terrible.
Lemme field some FAQs:
Q: Does this science fiction story named Saturn's Race take place on Saturn?
A: Don't be absurd. It takes place on Earth.
Q: Is the planet Saturn mentioned at all?
A: No.
Q: Where are the arm sharks?
A: Arm sharks ("Squarks") can be found beneath the floating city of Xanadu. They can also be found on pages 109-116, 156-163, 277, 280-281, 284-285, 289-291, 300-301, 314, 319-320, 352-354, 359, 361-363, 366-369, & 373-375. Though in a lot of those, they're only mentioned in a single sentence.
Q: Are they intelligent?
A: Yes.
Q: Are they important to the plot?
A: Only tangentially.
Q: Do they trade fish for pylons?
A: Yes.
Don't read the book. It's terrible.
Lemme field some FAQs:
Q: Does this science fiction story named Saturn's Race take place on Saturn?
A: Don't be absurd. It takes place on Earth.
Q: Is the planet Saturn mentioned at all?
A: No.
Q: Where are the arm sharks?
A: Arm sharks ("Squarks") can be found beneath the floating city of Xanadu. They can also be found on pages 109-116, 156-163, 277, 280-281, 284-285, 289-291, 300-301, 314, 319-320, 352-354, 359, 361-363, 366-369, & 373-375. Though in a lot of those, they're only mentioned in a single sentence.
Q: Are they intelligent?
A: Yes.
Q: Are they important to the plot?
A: Only tangentially.
Q: Do they trade fish for pylons?
A: Yes.
May 12, 2008
the writing is uneven, and the plot is plodding. some nice ideas get it up to 2 stars.
March 29, 2013
Saturn’s Race, Larry Niven and Steven Barnes (3.5)
While this book is set in the future (2020) and has advanced scientific concepts, I would not characterize it as traditional Sci-Fi. It is a nice blend of adventure and mystery with cultural and psychological questions surrounding the scientific advancements of the time. Society in this future is run by a handful of rarely seen councilors, who are powerful, rich and mysterious. Much of the story revolves around a man-made island in the South Pacific named Xanadu. It is an idyllic self-contained paradise sponsored by the councilors where advanced computer-biological studies are being done. What is being done and why both drive the adventure, which involves an evil-possibly AI-presence. My only complaint with this book was a jarring change with regards to the love story. I won’t give it away, but it didn’t feel true to the characters. I am not a fan of the easy love story, but I think something could have been done earlier in the story to make the final outcome more believable.
While this book is set in the future (2020) and has advanced scientific concepts, I would not characterize it as traditional Sci-Fi. It is a nice blend of adventure and mystery with cultural and psychological questions surrounding the scientific advancements of the time. Society in this future is run by a handful of rarely seen councilors, who are powerful, rich and mysterious. Much of the story revolves around a man-made island in the South Pacific named Xanadu. It is an idyllic self-contained paradise sponsored by the councilors where advanced computer-biological studies are being done. What is being done and why both drive the adventure, which involves an evil-possibly AI-presence. My only complaint with this book was a jarring change with regards to the love story. I won’t give it away, but it didn’t feel true to the characters. I am not a fan of the easy love story, but I think something could have been done earlier in the story to make the final outcome more believable.
February 23, 2025
This book is a bizarre mix of really good, thought-provoking sci-fi and really corny, really bad romance. The first chapter reads exactly like something out of a Silhouette novel. If you can get past that the authors have some really nifty ideas about genetic engineering and future habitations. And they have some great, very thought-provoking commentary on race, race relations, patriotism, and in particular cultural purity. If you can get past the super sacchariny mush interspersed throughout the book, it's a good read.
March 10, 2018
Though not one of my favorite Niven (or collaborative Niven) titles, Saturn's Race is still as interesting look at relatively near-future moral and ethical questions surrounding technological advances and their influence on different layers of society. The character development isn't as well spun as one might want, as the actions taken seem to be made to illustrate the viewpoint of the authors rather than natural story progression... but it's a thought-provoking read, perhaps more so in light of the changes of the decades that have passed since it initially appeared.
July 22, 2011
I like the futurist vision of high-tech artificial islands.
The romantic relationships bored me, but overall the characters are cool.
The technique of computer hacking using "metaphors" is pretty stupid.
Augmentation of marine animals seems silly at first, but...
The true nature of Saturn is a pretty cool surprise.
Oh, and there's NINJAS! He he.
The romantic relationships bored me, but overall the characters are cool.
The technique of computer hacking using "metaphors" is pretty stupid.
Augmentation of marine animals seems silly at first, but...
The true nature of Saturn is a pretty cool surprise.
Oh, and there's NINJAS! He he.
June 26, 2022
The world has changed. A few nations still exist, and the corporations have taken over much of the earth. The UN , 16 years earlier, administered an AIDS drug that caused sterility. A force calling himself “Saturn “ is causing a group caused the council to be blamed. Only a few remain to stop him. First, who is Saturn and how to stop him. The story is okay but it just misses something.
June 14, 2025
An oddball Niven collaboration, it's a reasonably decent read, if you can ignore the one big factual error (that makes it not SF), where the main actor and others make a dive along the ocean floor.
Sorry, not physically possible, because at high pressure, Oxygen stops being a gas, & your body can't use it. There are some other physical aspects, but that's the biggie.
And the action for a thriller is slow, having several flashback episodes that are not only barely relevant, but far too long... One flashback essentially covers the ENTIRE life of the protagonist from the time he's EIGHT to the present !
The remainder is a drama that, while plausible, one would hope the human race would have outgrown, but sadly hasn't .
Sorry, not physically possible, because at high pressure, Oxygen stops being a gas, & your body can't use it. There are some other physical aspects, but that's the biggie.
And the action for a thriller is slow, having several flashback episodes that are not only barely relevant, but far too long... One flashback essentially covers the ENTIRE life of the protagonist from the time he's EIGHT to the present !
The remainder is a drama that, while plausible, one would hope the human race would have outgrown, but sadly hasn't .
July 4, 2022
I tried very hard to finish and indeed try to like this book but I just couldn’t pull it off. Larry Niven always astounds me at with ideas and concepts but his writing isn’t always that easy to follow. On the other hand when he is pared with another author that usually clears up the problem. In this case the writing was clear but oh so dated. Any book that was written in the recent past but set around our current time risks coming off as glaringly dated, and this one is no exception. If it was written 100 years ago, it could be forgiven for it’s dated terms and praised for its prognostication of the future, but as it was only written 20 years ago it makes the reader feel socially uncomfortable and not that impressed with the science. Out of respect for Mr. Niven, I gave it two stars but even that was a stretch.
December 30, 2018
Perfectly fine "Beach Read" sci-fi. Nothing that hasn't been covered before (how will technology be integrated into our lifecycle, or change our life span? how will a planet with limited resources deal with population? how will the role of nation-states change as corporations increase in power, capital, and geographic influence?). Not at all a criticism, this is a turn-your-brain-off bit of literature that was enjoyable and well-written enough that covering existing topics (albeit in a slightly different way, as always) didn't seem stale.
Would recommend to fans of Larry Niven or Steven Barnes.
Would recommend to fans of Larry Niven or Steven Barnes.
June 30, 2025
Very good. Not quite a classic, but good.
Somehow it doesn't really feel like a Niven book though. When I think of Niven, I think Ringworld, hard science, spaceships. I think of intelligent aliens with fundamentally different natural instincts and the interesting conflicts of interest that come when we encounter them. This book is well written, well told, and highly entertaining, but at its heart it's about some vague biotech that's never explained, political intrigue that we always come into years after it's happened, and a new and unique, but still fundamentally derivative, version of cyberpunk.
The cyberpunk elements are actually the most satisfying part. So didn't think I'm knocking that. But that was never Niven's thing so, like I said - it just doesn't feel like Niven.
Overall though. A very good book. Definitely recommendable.
Somehow it doesn't really feel like a Niven book though. When I think of Niven, I think Ringworld, hard science, spaceships. I think of intelligent aliens with fundamentally different natural instincts and the interesting conflicts of interest that come when we encounter them. This book is well written, well told, and highly entertaining, but at its heart it's about some vague biotech that's never explained, political intrigue that we always come into years after it's happened, and a new and unique, but still fundamentally derivative, version of cyberpunk.
The cyberpunk elements are actually the most satisfying part. So didn't think I'm knocking that. But that was never Niven's thing so, like I said - it just doesn't feel like Niven.
Overall though. A very good book. Definitely recommendable.
May 28, 2024
Disappointing output from one of my favorite Sci-fi author teams. Maybe it just didn't hold up over time--the technology in particular. History caught up with fiction here. The geopolitical world was relevant, I guess, but really not a good book in terms of plot, character, theme.... I still don't know what this was supposed to be about. Whose story pov this was supposed to be ebbed and flowed, and I it's unclear to me what message Niven and Barnes were trying to send (if any).
November 15, 2022
A workmanlike novel with some clever ideas from Niven and Barnes, but overall nothing super-special. There's a good section toward the end of the novel on a remote island, and an interesting chase across the ocean floor. But the book does not spark joy. The end is a set-up for a sequel, but I doubt I'll seek it out. This is a decent way to fill in some reading time, but little more than that.
January 14, 2024
3.5 stars. This book was published in 2000 but takes place in late 2021. I read it in 2023 so it was interesting to compare the author's visions of a future generation with the reality of what transpired in the intervening decades. I grabbed it to read on a plane trip across the country and it served that purpose well enough.
May 31, 2020
Coauthoring books is fine, but I find it jarring/annoying when I can tell exactly which author wrote which parts. The two styles here were too different for me; I really liked the Niven parts, but the Barnes parts were not my cup of tea.
September 24, 2021
Really more of a 2.5. The characterizations were a bit shaky, with characters just having these feelings and thoughts and then changing their minds an instant or so later. A full star is definitely dedicated to the sharks in this books, give me genetically-engineered animals with intelligence any day.
Read
July 1, 2023Billionaires using vaccines to depopulate the plebs? That would never happen. Using analogies to visualize the hacking scenes was interesting, similar to what the original Ghost in the Shell books did.
September 12, 2017
Interesting piece about science gone wild!
January 10, 2018
This was certainly a strange but interesting book. It was deeper than you'd think a book about sharks with arms would be. But overall, it just wasn't amazing.
March 2, 2017
Intense
August 27, 2008
(((Spoiler Alert))) I listened to this on Audio and was more than just disappointed.
This is one of those times when a pretty good premise goes bad. We're in the near future (2020), on a floating island hiding a secret. What is that secret? Its an ominipresent entity that gains conciseness from the internet... (OK... a little cliche... but...) So our heroin visits our idealic island as part of a trip planned to recruit the best and the brightest recent graduates from America's top universities. We're getting the story from her point of view (at least for a while).
She meets a big muckity muck from the island's elite class, finds out he's been watching her for a decade or so (and paying for her education), falls in love with him, sleeps with him, and then finds a desperate plot to kill off the poor of the planet to keep them from taking control of Earth's future. (Somewhere during this period, we learn our muckity muck is really more than 70 years old, a cyborg, and has had a fling with the island's security chief).
After all of that enter Saturn. Saturn is really behind the plot, and now races to kill our heroin. As she is taking a nap in a little futuristic cubicle at an airport (because, of course, she leaves the island right away to tell everybody of the deadly plot she pieced together from an overheard conversation and a few news articles)Saturn hires somebody to kill her by overdosing her on sleep....
But wait, our lover boy from the island steps in to save her, by intentionally deleting the part of her memory related to the islands little secret (and all knowledge of her love for him)...without being fully aware of the secret himself.
By this time I hated the book. POV shifts in the middle of scenes, totally useless postulations on the future of cybernetic connections to the internet, below average dialoge, and absolutely no mystery with a life span of more than 5 pages, killed this for me.
Normally I can slog through crap if I'm listening to it on audio. I couldn't make myself do it, I just couldn't, so I gave it back to the library unfinished.
If you're into passive narrative, poor plot development, useless information, and total lack of originality, well then this is your book.
With all of that said, if this book had opened with our heroin waking up in the airport with no memories of what had happened over the past two days and followed her on a desperate adventure to recover her memory while her mind slowly fractured into complete disassociation; I would have liked it. The authors could have made this story gripping, no more... compelling. This could have been a masterpiece (no matter what Saturn really turns out to be).
Instead, its a silly piece of garbage not worth your time.
I was kind of holding back... did my point get across? I strongly recommend you avoid this book.
This is one of those times when a pretty good premise goes bad. We're in the near future (2020), on a floating island hiding a secret. What is that secret? Its an ominipresent entity that gains conciseness from the internet... (OK... a little cliche... but...) So our heroin visits our idealic island as part of a trip planned to recruit the best and the brightest recent graduates from America's top universities. We're getting the story from her point of view (at least for a while).
She meets a big muckity muck from the island's elite class, finds out he's been watching her for a decade or so (and paying for her education), falls in love with him, sleeps with him, and then finds a desperate plot to kill off the poor of the planet to keep them from taking control of Earth's future. (Somewhere during this period, we learn our muckity muck is really more than 70 years old, a cyborg, and has had a fling with the island's security chief).
After all of that enter Saturn. Saturn is really behind the plot, and now races to kill our heroin. As she is taking a nap in a little futuristic cubicle at an airport (because, of course, she leaves the island right away to tell everybody of the deadly plot she pieced together from an overheard conversation and a few news articles)Saturn hires somebody to kill her by overdosing her on sleep....
But wait, our lover boy from the island steps in to save her, by intentionally deleting the part of her memory related to the islands little secret (and all knowledge of her love for him)...without being fully aware of the secret himself.
By this time I hated the book. POV shifts in the middle of scenes, totally useless postulations on the future of cybernetic connections to the internet, below average dialoge, and absolutely no mystery with a life span of more than 5 pages, killed this for me.
Normally I can slog through crap if I'm listening to it on audio. I couldn't make myself do it, I just couldn't, so I gave it back to the library unfinished.
If you're into passive narrative, poor plot development, useless information, and total lack of originality, well then this is your book.
With all of that said, if this book had opened with our heroin waking up in the airport with no memories of what had happened over the past two days and followed her on a desperate adventure to recover her memory while her mind slowly fractured into complete disassociation; I would have liked it. The authors could have made this story gripping, no more... compelling. This could have been a masterpiece (no matter what Saturn really turns out to be).
Instead, its a silly piece of garbage not worth your time.
I was kind of holding back... did my point get across? I strongly recommend you avoid this book.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 4, 2015
Finally read this after 15 years of it sitting on my shelf.
I can certainly see how this is a Niven book, unlike some of the other people involved. It has hints of the campiness of Destiny's Road and Fallen Angels (and even going back to some of the Beowulf Shaeffer stories,) it has the serviceable but flat characterizations of many of his other works as well.
I thought it had laid the foundations for the reveal of the main villain quite well, to the point where I had an idea of who it would be long before the end.
The villain's identity essentially coalesced around the two seemingly opposed ideas I had formed throughout the book. One, that it was an artificial intelligence, and two, that it was a fish obsessed councilman's alternate personality. I didn't really predict that it would be both, nor the form that the artificial intelligence would take though, but it makes sense looking back at the rest of the book.
I'm a bit disappointed that they didn't expand on Chaz's ideas that Saturn lacked imagination, and that's why he couldn't see the ways that they could still expand the population while maintaining quality of life. Because of that, it hews a bit more towards Malthusian ideals than I would like without sufficient challenging in the text of the book. The fate of those who try those ideas in the book though should at least give some people pause.
Still, I really enjoy Niven's work for what it is, and also Steven Barnes work as well in the few stories I read from him in the Man-Kzin wars series. I really should seek out some of his other work as well. This is a solid, but not perfect book. A little rushed in places, but still one to make you think.
I can certainly see how this is a Niven book, unlike some of the other people involved. It has hints of the campiness of Destiny's Road and Fallen Angels (and even going back to some of the Beowulf Shaeffer stories,) it has the serviceable but flat characterizations of many of his other works as well.
I thought it had laid the foundations for the reveal of the main villain quite well, to the point where I had an idea of who it would be long before the end.
The villain's identity essentially coalesced around the two seemingly opposed ideas I had formed throughout the book. One, that it was an artificial intelligence, and two, that it was a fish obsessed councilman's alternate personality. I didn't really predict that it would be both, nor the form that the artificial intelligence would take though, but it makes sense looking back at the rest of the book.
I'm a bit disappointed that they didn't expand on Chaz's ideas that Saturn lacked imagination, and that's why he couldn't see the ways that they could still expand the population while maintaining quality of life. Because of that, it hews a bit more towards Malthusian ideals than I would like without sufficient challenging in the text of the book. The fate of those who try those ideas in the book though should at least give some people pause.
Still, I really enjoy Niven's work for what it is, and also Steven Barnes work as well in the few stories I read from him in the Man-Kzin wars series. I really should seek out some of his other work as well. This is a solid, but not perfect book. A little rushed in places, but still one to make you think.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 3, 2017
This is pure, classic science fiction at its best. Some of the fictional science/technology stretches credulity a bit: . Other parts are all too plausible, frighteningly so. The characters are well-drawn and believable, and I was totally caught up in trying to figure out how they would deal with the unanticipated consequences of the nearly magical world they had created.
August 16, 2016
The mix of Niven and Barnes is usually pretty good, so I picked it up.
The idea is that there is an artificial island on Earth run by a council. They are powerful and very tech savvy and they share much of their technology with the people of all nations. But their secret tech is even more amazing. Augmentation of humans and non-humans happens and the result is a god-like character being born. An alien is among us, but it's not from space.
Good idea for a story. It felt like present day, and the main characters were pretty believable. There were some parts in the middle that were slow, but I liked the ending.
The idea is that there is an artificial island on Earth run by a council. They are powerful and very tech savvy and they share much of their technology with the people of all nations. But their secret tech is even more amazing. Augmentation of humans and non-humans happens and the result is a god-like character being born. An alien is among us, but it's not from space.
Good idea for a story. It felt like present day, and the main characters were pretty believable. There were some parts in the middle that were slow, but I liked the ending.
June 21, 2011
As a book, not that great. I guess I mostly took issue with the writing style and graphic level of this book. That said, this offers one of the most facinating views of a near future I have seen in a while. The main element of the book is the the idea of sterilizing third world countries in a subtle way that will not be felt or seen for thirteen years. A facinating idea and the morality of such a decision was quite intriguing.
September 7, 2011
As in so many of Niven’s later works, there is a great backstory, but the novel falls short of the mark. A large offshore colony is dabbling in genetic engineering. There is a great feeling of hope that mankind will have a bright future. Needless to say, this doesn’t happen. Not very good, but it has some cool ideas and settings.
http://www.books.rosboch.net/?p=1104
http://www.books.rosboch.net/?p=1104
November 22, 2011
A mildly entertaining book... This had a few cool ideas for conspiracy theories and near-future politics. Personally I think the future that Niven and Barnes envisioned should have been a bit more distant (the story takes place in 2020 and was written in 2000 - I would have believed a 2050 timeframe). The end was somewhat predictable, yet also a bit mish-mashed together.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 53 reviews