John Sandford is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and the author of many, many books. He started out writing for the Miami Herald and then transitioned into the writing of novels. He's best known for his Prey series of detective novels, two of which were adapted into TV movies. Ctein, his cowriter on Saturn Run, is a more colorful figure. His main business seems to be photography, but he "has degrees in English and Physics" and he's "researched" various scientific topics. Like many such people he lives in San Francisco.
In Saturn Run humanity learns of an alien outpost hidden in Saturn's rings. After learning of this outpost the United States and China launch semi-covert missions to this outpost, each striving to arrive there first. The Americans, piloting a slower but surer course, and the Chinese, piloting a faster but more uncertain course, both regard the acquisition of alien technology as essential to their nations' continued survival. With the political tensions between the two countries forming a potent backdrop, both sides race to Saturn in the face of numerous obstacles.
Fans of hard science fiction and space exploration will be all over this book. It was very well researched -- to the point where the spaceships' respective journeys were modeled on a computer -- and there's even a postscript at the end describing the science behind the story. This scientific basis doesn't always make for the easiest reading, but it does add a great deal of realism to the narrative. This narrative, by the way, is full of interesting and convincing characters, and their reasons for doing what they do always seem to make sense within the context of the story. I assume most of the science part was the work of Ctein, while the heavy lifting with regard to the actual writing was done by John Sandford.
If I have complaints about this book it's that a) it veers a little too closely to Arthur C. Clarke's 2010: Odyssey Two, and b) some of the Chinese crew members act a little too "American" in the first half of the book. The "Mandarin" they sometimes use is also a bit silly, with some of their phrases being obvious translations of English phrases that wouldn't be used in Chinese, (i.e. "What the hell?").
But these complaints are small ones. Overall Saturn Run is an excellent book, and perhaps the best co-written book I've ever read. The two authors of this novel complement each other well, and I hope they collaborate again in the future.
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