Saturn Game/Iceborn

by Poul Anderson, Gregory Benford, Paul A. Carter

Tor Double No. 14, 1989. First Edition of the Benford novel. Fine condition. "Iceborn" cover art by Mark Maxwell.

Genres: Science Fiction, Short Stories

181 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published July 1, 1989

About the author

Pseudonym A. A. Craig, Michael Karageorge, Winston P. Sanders, P. A. Kingsley.

Poul William Anderson was an American science fiction author who began his career during one of the Golden Ages of the genre and continued to write and remain popular into the 21st century. Anderson also authored several works of fantasy, historical novels, and a prodigious number of short stories. He received numerous awards for his writing, including seven Hugo Awards and three Nebula Awards.

Anderson received a degree in physics from the University of Minnesota in 1948. He married Karen Kruse in 1953. They had one daughter, Astrid, who is married to science fiction author Greg Bear. Anderson was the sixth President of Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, taking office in 1972. He was a member of the Swordsmen and Sorcerers' Guild of America, a loose-knit group of Heroic Fantasy authors founded in the 1960s, some of whose works were anthologized in Lin Carter's Flashing Swords! anthologies. He was a founding member of the Society for Creative Anachronism. Robert A. Heinlein dedicated his 1985 novel The Cat Who Walks Through Walls to Anderson and eight of the other members of the Citizens' Advisory Council on National Space Policy.[2][3]

Poul Anderson died of cancer on July 31, 2001, after a month in the hospital. Several of his novels were published posthumously.


Series:
* Time Patrol
* Psychotechnic League
* Trygve Yamamura
* Harvest of Stars
* King of Ys
* Last Viking
* Hoka
* Future history of the Polesotechnic League
* Flandry

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was the fourteenth in the Tor Double series, in which two novellas were printed back-to-back and in opposite orientation to one another with separate covers, in the tradition of the Ace books double format they started in the 1950's. The Saturn Game has a lovely NASA photograph of Saturn as its cover. The story first appeared in the February, 1981 issue of Analog magazine and it won both the Nebula Award and the Hugo Award for best novella of the year. (I didn't vote for it; my favorite that year was True Names by Vernor Vinge.) I never much cared for The Saturn Game; it concerns a group of scientists who get involved with a fantasy role-playing game while on their way to Saturn and the growing effect it has on them as time passes. Though this was long before RPGs and cosplay was a big thing, Anderson drew heavily on his own experiences as an early bigwig in The Society of Creative Anachronism as Bela of Eastmarch (who's named in the story, in fact) in writing The Saturn Game. I didn't think the story presented a fair picture of the concept, and thought it contradicted itself frequently. Was it good or bad, did it do harm or good, should they have banned the game or embraced it? It just didn't work for me as it was written, but obviously most other readers liked it a lot. The other novella, Iceborn by Gregory Benford and Paul A. Carter, was quite good. It's a little dated now from a political standpoint, but I enjoyed it very much. It covers a whole lot of ground; the exploration of Pluto, contact with two sentient and very alien races, the philosophy of space flight, the nature of religion, the spirit of exploration... I kept turning pages and wanted more. It's an excellent and thought-provoking story in the grand hard science tradition.

[Tomislav · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is Tor Double #14, of a series of 36 double books published from 1988 to 1991 by Tor Books. It contains two novellas, bound together tête-bêche in mass market paperback – back-to-back, inverted, with two front covers and both titles on the spine. The novellas are listed here alphabetically by author; neither should be considered “primary.” Both stories here involve exploration within the solar system and mental issues that could be encountered in long isolation.

The Saturn Game, by Poul Anderson (1981) ***
This was originally published in the February 1981 issue of Analog, and won the 1982 Nebula and Hugo Awards in their novella categories.

On long space voyages, role-playing games may save your sanity ... or lose your life! Prolonged use of virtual gaming leads to the demise of a space mission to the moons of Saturn.

Iceborn, by Gregory Benford and Paul A. Carter (1989) **
This is the original publication of a collaboration between veteran SF writers Gregory Benford and Paul A. Carter. The story was later expanded in Benford's 2005 novel The Sunborn.

Pluto was the last place anyone expected to find life. That's why it's the last place they looked. A hard-sf story of the space mission that encounters alien lifeforms in the Pluto/Charon dwarf planet system. The lone surviving astronaut struggles to maintain her mental stability.

[Charles · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book contains 2 novellas, The Saturn Game by Poul Anderson, and Iceborn by Gregory Benford and Paul A. Carter. Even together these make for a short book and a quick read. The Saturn Game by Poul Anderson won both the Hugo and the Nebula for novella's in 1982. Despite that, it's not--in my opinion--nearly as strong a story as many by Anderson. The idea is that a group of astronauts on a long space mission develop a fantasy game to pass the time and end up having some trouble differentiating between reality and fantasy as they reach Saturn's moon Iapetus and begin exploring it. Perhaps the issue is that it just seems rather dated for modern audiences, at least this audience. I'm giving it 2 stars.

On the other hand, Iceborn is grand SF and a really fun story. It gets four stars. The story was apparently developed by Carter who then came to Benford for help with some of the science. I'm not sure who did what exactly as far as the writing goes, but I really enjoyed this tale of a lone surviving astronaut discovering complex life on Pluto and then tracking down its origins. This one could definitely have been expanded since there is plenty of intrigue back home to provide a backdrop to the story. It also ends with many unanswered questions and could have been made into a novel to answer those questions. I don't believe a sequel was ever written but I'd love to see one if it were. A strong tale.

[Hollis · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Saturn Game: 3 stars
Iceborn: 3.5 stars

Both stories felt a bit short and unfinished but I did really enjoy the premises, especially Iceborn’s. I liked Shanna (Iceborn) as a character and wish there was more of her story.

[Stephen Burridge · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fairly high end 3 stars. I enjoyed both stories and I’m glad I read them.

[David Caldwell · Rating 1 out of 5]

2 novellas. Iceborn is a decent take on finding life on Pluto. While the authors did a good job of coming up with a possible,if unlikely, case for the existence of life on the now not-a-planet Pluto, they left the story feeling undone. It felt more like the background for a novel than a story by itself. Saturn Game is yet another fantasy/role playing game is bad warning. The players of the game are put in direct risk because of the game and only manage to survive by giving up the game. To add insult , the author makes the game an overly melodramatic high fantasy dreck version of any type of role playing game. Obviously, according to him, if you play such a game you will not be able to differeniate between reality and game and will come to a bad end.If you still feel like picking this book up stick with Iceborn.

[Phaedrav]

Read The Saturn Game. Save the other side for an emergency.

[Lee Pfahler · Rating 3 out of 5]

I only read Iceborn by Benford which he later expands on in Sunborn. I tried reading Saturn Game by Anderson but I could not get through it.

[Dan Henne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ice born is definitely the reason I gave this 4 stars.