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    Saturn Run
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    Saturn Run
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    Saturn Run
    Audiobook16 hours

    Saturn Run

    Written by John Sandford and Ctein

    Narrated by Eric Conger

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    "Fans of Lucas Davenport and Virgil Flowers will eat this up." --Stephen King

    For fans of THE MARTIAN, an extraordinary new thriller of the future from #1 New York Times-bestselling and Pulitzer Prize-winning author John Sandford and internationally known photo-artist and science fiction aficionado Ctein. 
     
    Over the course of thirty-seven books, John Sandford has proven time and again his unmatchable talents for electrifying plots, rich characters, sly wit, and razor-sharp dialogue. Now, in collaboration with Ctein, he proves it all once more, in a stunning new thriller, a story as audacious as it is deeply satisfying.
     
    The year is 2066. A Caltech intern inadvertently notices an anomaly from a space telescope-something is approaching Saturn, and decelerating. Space objects don't decelerate. Spaceships do.
     
    A flurry of top-level government meetings produces the inescapable conclusion: Whatever built that ship is at least one hundred years ahead in hard and soft technology, and whoever can get their hands on it exclusively and bring it back will have an advantage so large, no other nation can compete. A conclusion the Chinese definitely agree with when they find out.
     
    The race is on, and an remarkable adventure begins-an epic tale of courage, treachery, resourcefulness, secrets, surprises, and astonishing human and technological discovery, as the members of a hastily thrown-together crew find their strength and wits tested against adversaries both of this earth and beyond. What happens is nothing like you expect-and everything you could want from one of the world's greatest masters of suspense.


    From the Hardcover edition.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateOct 6, 2015
    ISBN9780698411906
    Unavailable
    Saturn Run
    Author

    John Sandford

    John Sandford is the pseudonym for the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist John Camp. He is the author of thirty-three Prey novels, two Letty Davenport novels, four Kidd novels, twelve Virgil Flowers novels, three YA novels co-authored with his wife, Michele Cook, and five stand-alone books.

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    Reviews for Saturn Run

    4/5

    251 ratings31 reviews

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    • 4/5
      An interesting science fiction story set in the near future where the Americans and the Chinese are on a race to Saturn. I would call this a science fiction thriller, similar to The Martian. The book is filled with technical information on space flight and many other topics, which made the book very interesting. I am unsure how accurate it was, but due to being set in the future some of the science aspects may be theorizing. The story is good and constantly changes from one focus to another. It is more like reading a series of books as when one focus is done it moves on to the next one, but always has a clear plot line it is following. The characters are great too. The end has some unexplained questions, which may be intended.
    • 4/5
      Enjoyable quick read. While I did have a few quibbles about the technical aspects (looking at you vending machine...), it didn't detract too much from the story.
    • 4/5
      I have rather mixed feelings about this book. The story got off to a rather slow start (at times, agonizingly so) and it lacks tension throughout. However, as I neared the last third I was in a "can't put it down" state, primarily because I was curious to see how the authors would wrap it up. The early part of this book can be seen as an homage to the classic approach to science fiction of the 1940s-1960s. The movement of the plot stalls repeatedly as the authors insert detailed, "Golly, gee whiz, this is how it works " explanations of some aspect of technology they have introduced. Some will find this interesting but unless done skillfully and briefly, it tends to bring the story to a screeching halt. That is largely true in this book. The authors take the unusual step of appending a brief 10-page "Author Note: The science behind the story" at the end of the book. I found this to be quite interesting and wished the authors had moved much of the Golly Gee Whiz material from the story and included it in the author note. Also slowing the pace of the story were the frequent conversations among the principles about possibilities and strategies. I suppose the purpose was to show the cleverness of the protagonists and their ability to make sophisticated deductions on the basis of limited evidence. That's not a bad strategy but the authors resorted to this device too often and further robbed the story of any zip.Further pruning would have helped. The incident involving the article by Johnson Morton, for example, was intended to be humorous. It did nothing to advance the story and it was not particularly humorous. Another plot element that could have been omitted to good effect is the "will they sleep together" lottery.Some loose ends were either left dangling or resolved in an unsatisfying manner. Why did the first test fail? The "spy" is identified in an after the fact manner in the last couple of pages. The fate of the cat is revealed in the epilogue. Lazy storytelling. I will have to defer to female reviewers to judge the authors' treatment of the (female) president but I found myself unconvinced. I have known a lot of female politicians so am not naive about their effectiveness nor their willingness to be cold-blooded and cutthroat. However, their language is distinctly not that of the ribald, locker-room variety attributed to this president (e.g., "You have a certain ... mmm ... grip on my balls. That's a good thing, from your side. From my side, I'm used to it. There are more hands in my pants than you can believe.") The authors do a good job, for the most part, of portraying women in positions of power and responsibility. However it seems to me that they portrayed the president as a man in all but name and gender.While I was curious as to how the authors would conclude the story, I have to say the ending was a great disappointment. It seems the authors just lost energy and couldn't think of a very interesting ending. Too bad.
    • 3/5
      Mildly interesting for most of the way, became more fascinating with the 1st contact section, more suspenseful with the USA vs China confrontation, then fizzled at the very end.
    • 4/5
      After scientists detect a spaceship entering Saturn's orbit, the Chinese and the Americans race to get their own manned crafts to Saturn to find out who the aliens are. The political maneuvering and ultimate question of what the scientific discovery means for the balance of power on earth are covered in the discussions among the characters in a very realistic (and humorous) way. I read this because it is by John Sandford, and I liked it way more than I thought I would. There is a great cast of characters which you would expect in a Sandford novel. I can't judge how accurate the scientific spacy kind of details were, but they fit as far as I could tell.
    • 5/5
      Great book. It does not matter where the story is set if the characters are great (they are) and there is enough tension (there is) even science fiction which I do not read is fantastic. I just wanted the book to go on and on. I want the characters to come back in another book. Maybe the kids!
    • 4/5
      John Sandford is probably my favorite detective fiction author. His Lucas Davenport series and his Virgil Flowers series are both consistently good. So I was amazed when I found he had co-authored a science fiction novel.It's a suspense novel set 50 years in the future in the context of a race between the US and China to reach the site amid the rings of Saturn where telescopes had detected the landing (and subsequent departure) of what could only be an alien spacecraft. And it's a good read. The characters are intriguing (the US President is a total bitch) and the action is gripping. What the competing teams of astronauts discover at the site is totally mind blowing.And the science underlying the technology that underlies the space travel appears to be sound. A lengthy appendix documents the propulsion technologies used by the two teams. Whoever co-author Ctein is he seems to know his stuff.A good read. But still not as good as a fresh Davenport or Flowers book would have been.
    • 4/5
      In 2066 a space telescope detects a spacecraft approaching Saturn. This starts a race between the United States and China to reach Saturn first and to take control of the advanced technology developed by a previously unknown group of aliens. (Like somehow it's their right to do that. But this book is not a philosophical treatise on first contact or space rights.) I want to avoid spoilers, but I must say that this book did not proceed the way I expected it to. I like science in my sci-fi, but there was a little too much of it here for me. There is even more at the end of the book where the authors explain the actual science behind the fiction. Nonetheless, there were some really fascinating images of molten metal being extruded from the ship in hundreds of ribbons forming giant wings as they disperse the heat generated by the reactors. The characters weren't all that interesting and one, a cultural anthropologist, really had no good reason to be on the ship and disappeared from a large chunk of the book. The book got off to a slow start and the spaceships didn't even begin their race until the second third of the book. For me, reading about space travel never really gets exciting until something goes wrong, and the inevitable happens at about the midpoint of the book and it was very exciting from then on. In spite of there being too much technobabble for me, I enjoyed this book and it held my interest throughout. I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.
    • 4/5
      Nicely paced with a moderate amount of believability in the science that may be present in 50 years. The 'build' time frame of the spaceships wasn't believable and unfortunately was in the first part of the book, so had me squinty-eye at everything following. A good cast of characters that were well developed.
    • 5/5
      Don't read this unless you really like hard scifi, because it includes extensive descriptions of the science involved in getting a spaceship to Saturn and back. This is nearly as hard scifi as it gets, not too far off of another recent book, "The Martian." For the most part the science is quite realistic and is only stretched a little when the alien angle is introduced. the character development is good, although at times the human side of the story is a little strained. Well worth putting up with, in my opinion, for the story.
    • 3/5
      Overall a good listen, entertaining. The end just wasn't the same caliber as the rest of it.However I did like the explanation in the epilogue of the technology used throughout the story.
    • 4/5
      In 2066, Sanders (Sandy to friends) Darlington, a handsome, soon to inherit wealth, Caltech intern is scanning the solar system when he discovers an object approaching Saturn and decelerating. Since heavenly objects don't decelerate, U.S. President Santeros wants to send a secret mission to Saturn under the guise of a joint venture with the Chinese to Mars. However, China soon discovers the United State's clandestine mission and the race is on. Who will be the first to arrive? Will there be conflict between the two global powers or will there be cooperation?The novel was written by two literary friends: John Sandford, famed thriller writer who asked science fiction author and physicist, Ctein, to collaborate and make the speculative science in the novel believable. If you liked the novel The Martian you will love Saturn Run. The two translates space travel theory, currently on the drawing board, and believably extrapolates it fifty years into the future.
    • 3/5
      Saturn Run is a book that one asks oneself from the beginning, why did the authors write this book? This question is answered at the very end with an even more mathematically technical description as to the true science behind the story in the Author's Note section. One feels like the two authors challenged themselves to write a technical story taking place 40 years from now in space. Tremendous research to keep the story as real as possible was made by the authors. However, it was just too many words, too technical, and as stated before, no real purpose to the story. Consequently a solid three stars were awarded for this review.
    • 4/5
      In a future space race, a ship is sent by the US to reach Saturn ahead of the Chinese. There has been evidence of an alien presence there, but when the ship arrives, only an all-knowing machine remains. The main characters and their relationships hold interest, even when the technology becomes excessive for a non-geek. There are surprises along the way, and episodes of piracy, romance, breakdown, and espionage make this a thriller with a fast pace.
    • 5/5
      What a fantastic book to read for a kid of the 1950's who dreamed of piloting a space ship and traveling to the rest of the solar system! A stoner, surfer dude makes a discovery that sets the superpowers on fire. Suddenly the race to Mars becomes a faster race to Saturn. The Chinese look like they will beat the Americans. Do they? Will there be actual aliens once they get there? It's a space opera with serious political thriller overtones. I was much impressed by the number of women in lead roles on board as well as on land. Not the cover-girl buxom types. Real women. The hard science fans will not be disappointed as the propulsion systems are explained in the epilogue, as well as a nod to the one faux science element. 6 stars (Saturn is the 6th from our Sun, yes?) My thanks to the authors and the Penguin First to Read program for a complimentary copy of the book.
    • 4/5
      Good story with interesting characters and quite feasible and potentially valid 50 yr projections. A very good crossover novel for this author of a long running and excellent crime series.
    • 5/5
      Great SciFi read. Not as good as say Rama series nor Hyperion series which are two of my favorites, but nevertheless very wll written and except for no physical alien characters in the story, I really liked it.Still searching for good SciFi read ( that I haven't read) which includes an alien race or two.
    • 4/5
      Part first-contact sci fi, part political thriller, and entirely fun to read. Sandford, the author of the popular Lucas Davenport suspense series, has found himself a whole new niche in which he will be successful, and the book is a natural for film, to boot.It's about 50 years in the future and the US and China are still at it. China is building a ship to colonize Mars when a US observer notices an interstellar ship approach the rings of Saturn and park next to a previously unnoticed alien artifact. The US alters the space station and China repurposes its ship, and the race for first contact is on. Political intrigue between the two countries (and ships) is intense and leads to dangerous espionage and a desperate race. What they find is enough to change humanity's view of itself in the universe (although, truthfully, that aspect of the story isn't really addressed). The science is interesting (I can't judge whether it's accurate), and the story moves right along through preparations, the journey, and the discoveries made. Characterization is largely ignored here, but in suspense that isn't necessarily a negative. It's the action that's important, and here there is plenty.
    • 4/5
      This fast-moving book is about a race between the US and China for alien technology left on Saturn that will give a huge advantage to the winner. The author certainly kept me gripped in his suspenseful story.The story begins in 2066 when what is believed to be an alien spaceship is spotted approaching Saturn. That begins the race. And it's an exciting one. Sometimes sci-fi books get too heavy on the science for me and I start to skim but this one gave a clear understanding of what was happening. Sandford used an on-board space reporter sending back reports to Earth to tone down and simplify the scientific end. And his collaborating with Ctein, a photo artist and physicist, makes the scientific end very believable and realistic. This is the first John Sandford book that I've read. He definitely knows how to keep a story moving and has a sharp wit that I enjoyed. While there were some references to space rights and laws, there wasn't much introspection as to the morals of mankind in their quest for technological advancement in outer space. It would have been nice to see the countries working together as a species (we really didn't appear in a very good light as the alien robots had a much better attitude towards other species that we did) but I wasn't really expecting that in a thriller. A fun book that delivered what I was looking for when I picked it up - pure escapism.This book was given to me by the publisher through First to Read in return for an honest review.
    • 3/5
      Saturn Run by John Sandford, and Ctein is a recommended political thriller in a sci-fi setting.

      It is 2066 and a spaceship is detected by Saturn. Obviously, there are many government meetings and President Amanda Santeros wants to send a mission there to investigate, and, hopefully, capture the technology. In a plan to keep the Chinese from knowing, only a few members of the mission are really told where they are going and why - in the ship named the Richard M. Nixon. The Chinese discover the real reason for the US launch and they plan their own, competing mission to Saturn.

      Despite an exciting premise and the fact that I enjoy science fiction, I really found it a challenge to get into this novel. There is plenty of technical science for those of us who like some science with our science fiction, but in this case it felt more like information dumps rather than science included in the fictional story. That combined with the abundance of international intrigue and espionage and characters I didn't really care for. I'm not disappointed that I read it, but it did seem to be bogged down in details with little plot advancement. The three stars are because it is well written, but it suffered in comparison to the next sci-fi book I read which had a much more satisfying plot and better characters.

      Disclosure: My Kindle edition was courtesy of Penguin for review purposes.
    • 5/5
      Saturn Run is a science fiction story set in the near future in 2066 and is every bit as compelling and entertaining as Sanford's many crime thrillers.This is realistic science fiction with well-developed, likable characters. It’s the type of story that could, just maybe, happen by 2066. Although there is some technical detail, the novel is well-researched and is more about the characters, politics, and the race to Saturn than ‘outer space’.Science fiction fans will enjoy Sanford’s departure into a different genre. Non-scifi fans, don’t worry about understanding the technical jargon, the story is just as good even if you don’t know, or care, how a nuclear reactor works. I loved it – I hope he brings back the characters for a sequel.
    • 4/5
      Human political competition carried to critical extremes.When an unknown object is observed entering Saturn’s rings on a trajectory that implies intelligent control a political space race is touched off between the United States and China causing the Chinese to scrap their Mar’s colonial expedition and the United States to re-purpose a space station and cobble together a makeshift space-craft capable of flying Saturn and, perhaps, even returning.In the capable hands of Captain Naomi Fang-Castro, and Chief Power Engineer, Rebecca Johanassen the spaceship Richard M. Nixon undertakes an unprecedented voyage carefully documented by Sandy Darlington and Cassandra Fiorella. Powered by a unique propulsion system, the Richard M. Nixon held certain advantages over the Chinese space craft, a re-purposed Mars colonial freighter; advantages that were not advantageous in all circumstances.The story focuses on first encounters with alien civilizations and their technology and the human nationalistic competition that renders mankind incapable of being entrusted with advance alien technology. Human politicians readily gamble human lives for political expediency without consideration for safety, technical and engineering expertise.Personally, I love science fiction but found Saturn Run to be bland. Late in the story, sufficient activity occurred to make it interesting and the ending is exciting, however, I felt the background buildup and the Sandy/Fiorella documentation story was distracting from the real story which was could humans be trusted with alien technology, what would they do with it if they had it, and is humanity ready to take its place among more advanced alien cultures. Having said that, I did find the concept of converting an existing orbital space station into an interplanetary spaceship intriguing if a bit far-fetched.Nevertheless, many science fiction fans will love it.
    • 2/5
      I managed to plow through this odd-ball book which was way too long and way too profane. The language was inexcusably bad! This is Sanford in an genre way out of his comfort zone. And co-authored with a photographer named Ctein? I gave it two stars because of the plot which was mildly interesting.
    • 1/5
      I never read a John Sandford book before (ditto for Ctein), but I like hard sci-fi and was searching for something new.

      This book was infuriating. It started weak (with cliche and stereotype characters all over the place, with completely unbelievable traits) than it went worse, and the ending, the last pages, come on...

      I actually almost haven't finished the last couple of pages.

      Then came the gloating at the end, how wonderfully accurate the science was, maybe, but the story was uninteresting, the plot seemed rushed, the scientific details were boring, and i think not very believable (I know they researched it, they even created a lot of spreadsheets, and looked up everything on Wikipedia, Oh my god!). And the characters... From a book that wants to be accurate, there is just no way in hell that such people would have been chosen for such an important journey to space. All of the characters in this book were the worst caricatures. (As for the plot, somebody took the worst cold war plotlines and mashed them together changed the russians for the chinese and voila...)

      Seriously, don't read this. I wish I hadn't.

      p.s.: this books is compared sometimes to The Martian, it is not even in the same league, also to Crichton, but that is also a joke. (In retrospect I should have just reread Rendezvous with Rama from Clarke again, same inital idea, much better execution)
    • 3/5
      An entertaining book, if a bit light and has a rather funny ending. 3.5 stars
    • 4/5
      No starlight twinkleI have been reading science fiction longer than most Amazon readers and I very much liked "Saturn Run" for its old fashioned style. That being said, I don't really think it was even close to being as good as it could have been. The authors ran out of creative energy in the final third of the book and they made two grievous plotting errors.As other reviewers who appreciate the science focus of the book note (and the rest of you should stop reading here and go on to another book choice), "Saturn Run" gets off to a great start as a tribute to the Grand Masters of space opera. Elements of the writing parallel and mimic narrative devices from writers who speculated a century ago on the who, how and why of human expansion into the universe. The TV interview with the senior engineer is brilliant, exactly what Heinlein or Asimov would have done to get the tech specs to us. This, however, does not mean that the book flies true and succeeds in its mission. The writing, from the day the Chinese rendezvous with the alien artifact, fails to convince or excite.Just for the joy of it I would have held off the Chinese arrival for another day to give the Americans more time to ask clever questions of the interface. Clover and Sandy do a good job and another day would have allowed the authors to insert more xenophillic elements and some clever thinking into the Q&A sessions.In any case, from the arrival of the Chinese to the conclusion of the book, everything seems hurried. There is no longer any interesting dialogue and while the problems and clever solutions are adequately discussed, there is no drama, let alone melodrama, even in the face of threats, counter threats and death. There are also two glaring omissions in the procedures that I simply can't accept. I am deeply annoyed that Mr. Snuffles drops out of the story altogether and his fate is left to the epilogue. Andre Norton would scold.I received a review copy of "Saturn Run" by John Stanford and Ctein (Random House – Putnam) through NetGalley.com.PS The authors reveal their age by saying "LGM" instead of the older "BEM" which is much more fun.
    • 3/5
      It was well written and well researched. Nice departure from the crime drama. Will look forward to seeing more like these
    • 1/5
      Nice try, but no cigar.
    • 3/5
      I enjoyed this book. I want to give it 3.5 stars, but definitely not 4. The science and the general thought experiment were fun. I've enjoyed mulling over the ramifications of it all. However, I found myself not really caring for any of the characters. Everyone was rather thin and I found myself not really caring for any of them.

      I'm glad I read it though.
    • 3/5
      Overall a good listen, entertaining. The end just wasn't the same caliber as the rest of it.However I did like the explanation in the epilogue of the technology used throughout the story.