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Saturn

(The Grand Tour #13)

Ben Bova

3.65 · Rating details · 1,305 ratings · 98 reviews

Second in size only to Jupiter, bigger than a thousand Earths but light enough to float in water, home of crushing gravity and delicate, seemingly impossible rings, it dazzles and attracts us:

SATURN

Earth groans under the thumb of fundamentalist political regimes. Crisis after crisis has given authoritarians the upper hand. Freedom and opportunity exist in space, for those ...more

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Paperback, 480 pages

Published September 1st 2004 by Tor Science Fiction (first published 2003)

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· 1,305 ratings · 98 reviews

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Jun 28, 2013 Rebecca rated it it was ok

Shelves: science-fiction

This is the story ostensibly about a mission that's ostensibly about studying Saturn, but is actually about anthropology. Both the book and the mission. Unfortunately, it kinda sucks at it, on both levels.

They reach Saturn only very near the climax, and make a fantastic discovery that's kind of treated as an afterthought. Most of the book is actually about the people and politics on the mission itself, as the oppressive religious government that's taken over most of the world tries to suborn a c ...more

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Sep 19, 2019 David rated it did not like it

Shelves: speculative-fiction, terrible

This is by far the nadir of Bova’s writing. Utter crap.

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Jun 15, 2018 AndrewP rated it liked it

Shelves: science-fiction, read-in-2018, 2018-bookshelf-clearance

Chronologically book 12 of the Grand Tour series. This one all takes place on an experimental colony ship on a two year mission to Saturn. What almost nobody realizes is they are all part of a vast social experiment instigated and funded by the New Morality. If you have ever watched any reality TV, it's that kind of social interaction, but on a vastly larger scale. Of course, nobody is voted 'out' but the dynamics that evolve are somewhat similar.

Only one character has any significant connection ...more

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Nov 06, 2016 Royce Sears rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction

Saturn: A Novel of the Ringed Planet was a good read, but I had to keep putting it down and coming back to it because it was a bit drawn out without much going on at some points. While I love Bova's work, and consider him to be one of the great Science Fiction Authors, I considered the book to be a little lackluster considering the possibilities of the plot.

The novel presents a great social experiment, a human colony of 10,000 people who will be living in a massive ship in orbit of Saturn. The ...more

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Mar 25, 2017 Daniel Kukwa rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: other-sf-fantasy

It's one of those sci-fi novels that screams "make me into a film". A thrilling story, with a cast of dozens that is nevertheless easy to follow,. A thriller full of mysteries & conspiracies, with some shocking yet pointed moments of violence, all leading to a satisfying climax. ...more

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Feb 24, 2011 Jason rated it did not like it

Shelves: sci-fi

Ben Bova is an uneven writer. He can churn out masterpieces of hard sci-fi, such as his Mars trilogy and Asteroid Wars quartet, then waste his talents and readers' time on giant novels of cardboard characters, embarrassing dialogue, and repetitive scenes of uninspired plot, such as Saturn & Jupiter.
'Saturn' begins promisingly with the premise that the New Morality-dominated Earth has gathered 'revolutionaries' and other anti-New Morality politically-minded pariahs of the world and placed them on ...more

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Dec 28, 2014 Nefeli rated it liked it

Shelves: science-fiction, 2015, reviewed, space-opera

First of all I want to say that "Saturn" was the first (hard) science fiction book that I read. Not much of a welcome to the genre but it did its job.

If I were to judge Bova as a writer based solely on his novel "Saturn", I would say that he is more of a science writer than anything literature. Having said that, I think that his ideas as scientific concepts were very good, and overlooking the awful worldbuilding, Saturn is engaging enough to read.

As for the rest, I had three main problems:
a) the ...more

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May 02, 2013 Kruunch rated it it was ok

While Ben Bova is a prolific science fiction author, he tends to use the genre as a backdrop for whatever particular soap opera he's propagating. Such is the case with the novel Saturn.

Saturn is set on a huge Dyson Sphere like ship that has set out to explore Saturn in the not so distant future. This is pretty much where the science fiction ends.

The rest of the story details the personal dramas of those on board the ship (ala the Love Boat in space) ranging from the tedious to the truly silly. A ...more

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Mar 02, 2013 Ralph McEwen rated it liked it · review of another edition

A interesting story with interesting characters, a well done setting and an intriguing plot.
The version I got of the audio book had a pair of narrators one female and one male (Amanda Karr and Stephan Rudnickithat). They alternated in reading the chapters. I think that distracted from the story. They also gave the characters different regional accents. If they had split the characters with a narrator speaking just for the characters they chose it would have been better. Notice I did not say she ...more

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Sep 27, 2009 Mike rated it liked it

This book was ok but not great. Lots of different shifts in terms of the power struggles that go on in the book. There are also lots of changes of perspective so you're never really sure what the whole purpose is -- until the end. ...more

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Sep 08, 2018 David rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction

Contemplated giving it two stars, but only because I got the e-book for $1.99. Should have bought a coffee instead.

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Aug 01, 2019 JP rated it liked it

Shelves: listened-to, listen-in-2019

Saturn was something of a bummer, especially coming off Jupiter and the Asteroid Wars, The Aftermath in particular. It might as well have been called 'adventures of a colony ship', since it's only in the last fraction of the book that we actually make it to Saturn. The rest of the book is spent by power hungry religious zealots trying to take over a ship ostensibly populated by ten thousand people trying to escape exactly that sort of behavior.

On top of that, I don't really care about any of th ...more

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Aug 29, 2012 Tim Martin rated it really liked it

Shelves: reviewed, science-fiction

_Saturn_ is one of the latest in Ben Bova's "Grand Tour" series, an excellent series of novels set in the future in our solar system. Interstellar travel does not exist yet but the solar system is being explored and is on the verge of colonization. Previous works in this series have explored Mars, Jupiter, Venus, the asteroids, and the Moon. The subject of this novel, as one might imagine from the title, is Saturn.

Or I should say one might think that it was Saturn. Though most of the other works _Saturn_ is one of the latest in Ben Bova's "Grand Tour" series, an excellent series of novels set in the future in our solar system. Interstellar travel does not exist yet but the solar system is being explored and is on the verge of colonization. Previous works in this series have explored Mars, Jupiter, Venus, the asteroids, and the Moon. The subject of this novel, as one might imagine from the title, is Saturn.

Or I should say one might think that it was Saturn. Though most of the other works in the series spent a great deal of time on the titular place of that particular book, we don't actually get to Saturn until around the last quarter of the book or so. Though Saturn - or I should say its rings - does get pretty good treatment towards the end (where there is a real surprise within the ring system), the book does not really embrace the planet the same way _Jupiter_ dealt with Jupiter or _Venus_ really immersed the reader in that particular planet. Saturn's moon Titan is discussed fairly often in the book but the action never moves at all to that fascinating satellite.

Instead, the focus of _Saturn_ is the space habitat _Goddard_, a massive tubular construction that was designed to provide a home for 10,000 people for 5 years in orbit around Saturn (taking around 2 years to arrive). Inside _Goddard_ are villages, streams, forests, fields, and farms, all built along the inside of the rotating space habitat. Essentially except for the endcaps the entire interior surface of the cylindrical space station is covered in buildings and vegetation, designed to provide an Earth-like home to its inhabitants as well as food, oxygen, and all the other necessities. Of the ten thousand people a significant portion are scientists and technicians though there are also farmers, administrative personnel, factory workers, security guards, medical personnel, and food service workers.

More to the point the focus of _Saturn_ are the people and politics of the space habitat. The majority of the ten thousand on the habitat are people who for one reason or another are unhappy with the religious and generally authoritarian regimes on Earth, either seeking to flee it or having been asked to leave by their government (in a matter not unlike the Pilgrims leaving England in the 17th century perhaps, or maybe the convicts sent to Australia). Earth, at least in Europe, North America, and the Middle East, is ruled by religious fundamentalist regimes, having come to power after the chaos and environmental disruptions caused by global warming.

Though the religious governments - notably the Holy Disciples in Europe - want these intellectual malcontents out of their hair, they don't want them to have a "godless" government on the habitat either. One of the main characters of the novel is Malcolm Eberly, someone the Disciples recruit from a prison in Vienna. An adept schemer and manipulator, they instruct him to gain control of the government of _Goddard_ as it reaches Saturn and steer is population towards a politically correct path. Once on the habitat though Eberly seeks power himself, not through rough coercion but through adept politics, subterfuge, and manipulations of individuals and of the people of _Goddard_ as a whole.

Much of the book focuses on Eberly's struggle for power and those who aid or oppose him. One such persion is Ruth Morgenthau, a Holy Disciples spy sent to control and "guide" Eberly in his political machinations and when he eventually gains control of the habitat. Colonel Kanaga, a Rwandan security officer, along with the treacherous, power hungry Dr. Sammi Vyborg in the Communications Department form a coterie with Morgenthau and Eberly in their attempts to control the habitat, an effort that eventually devolves into murder. James Wilmot is the official head of the habitat, ostensibly opposed to them, an anthropologist by trade who has a somewhat odd, detached view of politics and society on _Goddard_, viewing the entire operation as a grand experiment, the reasons for this being revealed at the end. A more active opponent is the station's chief scientist, Dr. Urbain, an arrogant though honest and politically naïve man opposed to Eberly.

The protagonists of the book - though I would like to add it wasn't always clear whether or not Eberly was a good guy or a bad guy, particularly at the end - include Holly Lane, a "reborn" person (someone who endured cryogenic sleep after dying from a deadly illness, being reawakened in the future once a cure existed but like all cryogenic patients having no memory at all, having to relearn even to walk and speak) who is on the habitat to get a new life for herself, away from her sister on the lunar city-state of Selene. My favorite character was the womanizing stuntman Manuel Gaeta, journeying to Saturn on _Goddard_ to film his descent to the surface of Titan, hoping to be the first man to ever do so (an effort bitterly opposed by the habitat's scientists, chiefly Dr. Urbain). Gaeta is also being employed by Holly's sister to watch over her, fearful over her future on _Goddard_. Another protagonist is Dr. Kris Cardenas, the solar system's brilliant expert on nanotechnology, a technology greatly feared and banned on Earth, who joins the expedition en route.

Having said that the book does not focus much on Saturn per se I still enjoyed. I liked several of the characters and found them fairly engaging. I was riveted by the power struggles on the habitat - though fair disclosure, I read the book while traveling in a car for ten hours this past weekend - and was quite interested to see how it turned out. With the few surprises thrown in at the end I enjoyed _Saturn_. Not the best of his "Grand Tour" series, I still liked it. If you have read others in this series I think you will enjoy it too. ...more

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Mar 22, 2021 Eric Leeson rated it liked it

The idea of sending an isolated community far out of reach with many well known extremists, criminals, murderers and religious fanatics seems like a terrible idea. And turns out it was. The cast of characters are a varied bunch, a zealot pulling strings from the shadows, a con artist vying for ultimate control, his supporters are psychopaths, killing whoever is in their way, and expecting a blind eye to be turned away concerning their excesses. The heroine is an extremely naive child stuck in a ...more

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Dec 02, 2020 Mike O'brecht rated it liked it

Despite the 3 star rating, I actually quite enjoyed this book. Bova has a way of taking your for a ride on what the human race would do colonizing and populating worlds in our solar system.

I found the story just good enough to be something I didn’t want to stop reading, but not good enough to be one I couldn’t put down. It has a bit of crime, mystery, exploration, and discovery all in one, which makes for a good story.

What I didn’t like about it, is that the last 100 pages seemed to have editin ...more

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Mar 26, 2019 Durval Menezes rated it really liked it

Another good Space Opera from Bova: fast-paced, fun and even informative (I learned a couple of actual science facts about Saturn I wasn't aware before, in the course of searching Wikipedia and similar after being prompted by some points in the story. And also a couple of Spanish "palabrotas" from the story's colorful Spanish-speaking character). Also, great twister at the very end of the book!

The story itself is very good, not as great as others from Bova like Mars and Jupiter, but good enough ...more

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Nov 02, 2020 Jon rated it did not like it

Shelves: couldn-t-finish

For a good many years, when I was in my teens, twenties and thirties, Ben Bova was at the forefront of the science fiction field, publishing many great novels which I eagerly read and collected. A couple of years ago, after a long hiatus, I began to read some of his recent books which I had missed, and enjoyed a couple of the earlier ones, but at some point Bova, quite frankly, just started "mailing it in". His books are no longer very creative, his plotting and characterization are weak and fil ...more

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May 28, 2019 Andrew van Laar rated it it was ok

Shelves: science-fiction

While the concept was interesting (in particular the truth about the rings) I felt like this book laboriously meandered towards the ending and the end was rather uneventful and left me wanting more. I think the "secret purpose" of the mission could have been left obviously. Once it was explicitly stated I was like "Duh".

The saving grace that prevents me from giving this book a one is the very interesting story surrounding the truth about Saturn's rings. That kept me on the edge of my seat once ...more

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Jan 24, 2020 Tony Gomez rated it it was ok

This book was so sloooooow. SPOILER ALERT: They don't even arrive to Saturn to the very end. The characters are one dimensional and stereotypical. I was so frustrated with this book that I skipped to the end and I called the ending. The story is too busy with politics and corruption than space exploration. ...more

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May 24, 2020 Bryan Duran rated it it was ok

Flat and undeveloped characters. Could have been an interesting platform for studying the sociological problem of a large closed community but ended up about as thought provoking as a ~1979 episode of Buck Rogers. I now have 5 data points on Ben Bova, and every book can be summarized as “people go into space and have sexy soap opera entanglements.” No more Ben Bova for me.

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Nov 16, 2018 Jason rated it really liked it

I liked this book. It was a nice sci-fi that wasn't too over the top. I didn't think it was amazing but the setting was fun. Not a big fan of the major payoff being political but I'd read more by Bova. Might be the best of the year. Just liked the setting. ...more

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Jun 26, 2018 Lewis B Green rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Very exciting ending.

Some parts are a little slow, but the ending is very exciting! I love all of his books. Thank you.

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Nov 15, 2018 Kate rated it liked it

Meh. This book was written too recently to justify the ridiculous gender stereotypes. It reads like it was written in the 1960s. Still, pretty entertaining.

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Oct 20, 2019 Elsie rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Listened to this while traveling to my daughter's and then to Oklahoma. Reminded me that I used to love to read SciFi. Interesting premise, great characters, and good timing. ...more

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Jan 05, 2020 Tim rated it liked it

It was a bit above and "ok" but simply because this is science fiction. The actual information about Saturn was fascinating, but represents only about 10% of the story. ...more

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Jan 20, 2021 Tom Rowe rated it liked it

Shelves: fiction, science-fiction, 2021, audiobook

These books are fun, if a little dated.

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Mar 12, 2017 Amoxy Mox rated it liked it

Decent plot but never cared for any of the characters.

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Dec 27, 2011 Phil Giunta rated it liked it

The space habitat Goddard, filled with political exiles, social misfits, scientists, and engineers, is on its way to orbit around Saturn. There, the habitat will become mankind's first offworld colony.

If it can survive the turmoil and drama inherent in the human condition.

Malcolm Eberly had a choice, either spend the rest of his life in a Viennese prison or become the New Morality's watchdog aboard Goddard. Hired on as the manager of human resources, Eberly entertains his own agenda, ignoring th The space habitat Goddard, filled with political exiles, social misfits, scientists, and engineers, is on its way to orbit around Saturn. There, the habitat will become mankind's first offworld colony.

If it can survive the turmoil and drama inherent in the human condition.

Malcolm Eberly had a choice, either spend the rest of his life in a Viennese prison or become the New Morality's watchdog aboard Goddard. Hired on as the manager of human resources, Eberly entertains his own agenda, ignoring the edict of the insidious religious zealots who also happen to be funding the expedition.

Eberly wants control of the habitat and everyone in it. Joining forces with other unsavory types, he suddenly finds himself embroiled in conspiracy, murder, and lies. Eberly has all living quarters and offices bugged, he uses the habitat's chief of security to threaten and coerce, and manipulates everyone and anyone on his way to the top.

Holly Lane is blind too all of this--at first. Joining the habitat project mostly due to her naieve crush on Eberly, Holly soon finds herself the target of Eberly's treachery after she discovers a murder committed by someone in his clique.

Suspicious of Eberly, Holly's older sister Pancho requests the aid of interplanetary stuntman Manuel Gaeta to watch over her. After becoming a media sensation for his stunts on Mars and elsewhere, Gaeta's next objective is to be the first human on Titan. However, the habitat's science director will not have the surface of Saturn's largest moon contaminated.

Enter nanotech expert, Dr. Kris Cardenas. Her very presence on the station rankles the religious types, especially since nanotech is banned on Earth. Dr. Cardenas proposes the use of nanobugs to decontaminate Gaeta's customized space suit before it leaves the airlock. Of course, it isn't long before she's sleeping with the hunky stuntman.

Meanwhile, habitat administrator James Wilmot observes all of this with clinical detachment and reports back to the New Morality HQ in Atlanta. No one but he and his superiors know the true purpose of the habitat.

Unlike the other novels in Ben Bova's Grand Tour series, Saturn is less about science fiction than human relations and political intrigue. About the only SF aspect of the story comes near the end when Gaeta has a change of plans and ends up traversing the rings of Saturn, thereby discovering something completely unexpected about the particles that comprise the rings. We are never treated to an exploration of Titan.

I was not as satisfied with this story as I'd ben with Jupiter, Mercury, and the multiple Mars books which dealt more with exploration of the planets than with the dark side of humanity. I found the characters' ambitions to be too obvious, too cliche'. Eberly and his cohorts may as well have been mustache twirling villains.

Dr. Bova's books always contain a measure of background political intrigue as the New Morality has infiltrated even the top ranks of the Federal Government. Though when an entire SF novel is dedicated to this, it feels like a cheat. It's almost as if Dr. Bova could not devise a better storyline that actually deals with science and exploration. Nevertheless, I will continue on with the Grand Tour series, hoping for better efforts.

...more

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Feb 26, 2016 Michael rated it did not like it

You know, mistakes do happen. Sometimes you pick up a book with a promising premise and it makes you want to die, and this was one of those books. I probably should have expected it though, because I bought it at a dollar store… I paid a dollar for this book, and after reading it, I’d say that’s a fair price point.

Saturn is a part of a huge anthology of books spanning Bova’s Grand Tour series. The books in the series are stand alone, but there are overlapping settlings, themes and characters thr You know, mistakes do happen. Sometimes you pick up a book with a promising premise and it makes you want to die, and this was one of those books. I probably should have expected it though, because I bought it at a dollar store… I paid a dollar for this book, and after reading it, I’d say that’s a fair price point.

Saturn is a part of a huge anthology of books spanning Bova’s Grand Tour series. The books in the series are stand alone, but there are overlapping settlings, themes and characters throughout the series. Apparently Bova is a well known and respected sic-fi author, but I did not get that impression from this book. The characterization was incredibly poor and stereotypical and the plot hardly held it together. The only thing that intrigued be about this story was the ship they travelled in… that was it. And all it was, was a giant cylinder that was made to look like rolling hills, farmland and greek villages.

Bova is an atheist and proud to be one and has been outspoken about religion throughout his entire career. I was raised in a traditional Baptist house, and I do consider myself a spiritual Christian, even though I wouldn’t necessarily say I agree with traditional Baptist interpretations, but I’ve never had a problem with understanding and accepting different beliefs. But Bova displays that he doesn’t understand religion at all. In this book and the whole series he’s moulded religious bodies into the antagonist – which I don’t have a problem with, there’s corruption in every form of government and religion. The problem I had with it, was that any character who had any sort of faith beside an atheistic world view, was a selfish, corrupt villain with really no moral merit that would tie them to their beliefs. And apparently this is recurrent throughout his entire series and his works. But to me, it really showed that he knows so little about what he’s writing about. I’ve written religious characters who are fanatics, sure, but I’ve also written religious characters who are accepting and loving…

But I mean, that was just ONE of the many problems I had with it. The premise didn’t make any sense… these religious bodies were sending all the radicals from earth to Saturn to study it, but then wanted to make sure a religious government was formed… then why would you send all your radicals and atheists out together? The main protagonist talked like a valley girl, with slang that included words like “cosmic” and “ftl” (faster than light), but no one else spoke like that… and I don’t understand why she did… the politics of the whole thing was shaky at best, another main character who was supposed to be this charming individual who was exceptional at speeches and capturing the attention of the people had literally the worst speeches ever written. I mean, all these radical thinkers from earth must be complete idiots. Like, he was all about making a government for the people and laws for the people so they could be free, but he installed a dress code early on in the book… that’d not what freedom looks like.

Basically, Bova wrote a garbage book, and I regret not leaving it in the dollar store.

---

FOR MORE BOOK REVIEWS, PHOTOS, AND MY OWN NOVEL SERIES, CHECK OUT MY BLOG:
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Apr 29, 2021 CKHaught rated it did not like it

Shelves: read-and-not-kept

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. This book was incredibly frustrating, and I'm gonna rant a bit.

I'm getting goddamned sick of the New Morality, the most prominent of several of the Earth-controlling religio-political entities that dominate the bulk of society and persistently shoehorn themselves into almost every Grand Tour story as irritating, mustache-twirling antagonists out to suck all the life and sci fi potential out of any narrative they can sink their claws into.

In this instance, a band of four NM-planted co-conspirator This book was incredibly frustrating, and I'm gonna rant a bit.

I'm getting goddamned sick of the New Morality, the most prominent of several of the Earth-controlling religio-political entities that dominate the bulk of society and persistently shoehorn themselves into almost every Grand Tour story as irritating, mustache-twirling antagonists out to suck all the life and sci fi potential out of any narrative they can sink their claws into.

In this instance, a band of four NM-planted co-conspirators go about attempting to build a government to set themselves up as gleefully malicious theocratic despots of a society of ten thousand station-dwellers, most of whom who were driven from Earth for their liberalism. These four villains are blatant, bumbling, and bloodthirsty (at one point they happily decide to model their utopia off of the Soviet Union) but fortunately for them they possess incredible power right off the bat and are able to accrue more on a whim, so they have no need to be compelling villains to achieve their dreams.

On the protagonistic end you have Holly, the teen-like administrative assistant with a photographic memory, who is clearly intelligent, but painfully naive as she swallows every lie fed to her by the nefarious cabal and completely fails to notice their flaming horns and pitchforks. Yadda yadda, she's framed for a murder, goes on the run, is falsely accused of being mentally unstable, and is then ignored by her actual friends (half of whom were actively sent along on the mission specifically to watch out for her) for *weeks* after she slips them a phonecall about what's happened. Fortunately, while Holly's being brutally tortured during a mock trial / execution, one of said friends arrives in the airlock she's about to be tossed out of, and decides to take a break from filming his viral video to rescue her, and all the conspirators get a very stern talking to from the station's mission leader (who has his own stuff going on) before being sent on their various ways.

Oh, in the meantime, after two years and 300 pages the station (slash ship) arrives at Saturn, and Holly's deus ex rescuer makes an incredible discovery in the rings of Saturn while filming the stunt that leads up to him saving the day and stopping a coup years in the making. But don't worry, we're not gonna look into that discovery in any detail. I'm sure it will be enough to refer back to it in a sentence or two in a later book.

I just don't know what to think about the Grand Tour. Saturn's been the worst so far, but overall while Bova has some great ideas and the occasional character who's reasonably tolerable or even good, he seems to be hellbent on dragging down every story by focusing completely on frustrating and clumsy social-political conflicts that steal nearly all attention from the scientific exporation and discovery he more skillfully sets up and hints at. It probably doesn't help that I'm reading these this decade, when the New Morality so closely resembles the flagrant and giggling evil of right-wing radicalism that's overpowered so many countries around the world, so that can be a bit wearying. ...more

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About Ben Bova

Ben Bova

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Ben Bova was born on November 8, 1932 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In 1953, while attending Temple University, he married Rosa Cucinotta, they had a son and a daughter. He would later divorce Rosa in 1974. In that same year he married Barbara Berson Rose.

Bova was an avid fencer and organized Avco Everett's fencing club. He was an environmentalist, but rejected Luddism.

Bova was a technical writer ...more