As it were…

I’ve been in a sci-fi book club now for 5 years, and I don’t think I’ve ever reviewed a single book we’ve read.  I’ll try to rectify that, but we’ll see.  Here’s the start.

Saturn Run is sort of a first contact story. It’s set in 2066 and the years after, and someone notices an interstellar ship dock near Saturn and then leave. The US and China begin a space race to see who can get people out there first.

The book is heavy on hard science.  There’s even an essay at the end about the science, and which parts were totally bogus (only one part really). I liked that, it put me in mind of The Martian.

The majority of the book is about the travel from Earth to Saturn, and mostly from the US ship’s viewpoint. Near the end we get some good character development on the Chinese side, and some good interaction with what they find orbiting Saturn, which I am NOT going to tell you about.

The only thing I really didn’t like was that there were a few loose ends that weren’t REALLY tied up. The tying was sort of an offhanded thing and left as many questions as answers.  On the other hand, there was one loose end I never expected to be tied up that WAS, and I thought it was very classy.

On the whole I highly recommend this book, especially if you like hard science sci-fi.