Bookraft

Saturn is the fifth book in Ben Bova's Grand Tour series of science fiction novels about each one of the planets in the solar system. Now Ben Bova is one of the most laureled writers of science fiction with multiple Hugo, Nebula and Honors - so my expectations were pretty high. But the book got off to a weak start with the heroine and anti-heros respectively. The first, Holly Lane, a resurrected Med-zombie Holly Lane who comes on board the Goddard, a 40kilometer spinning cylinder World that is waiting outside the moon for a 4 year trip to Saturn. Space has already been settled out to Jupiter and the Asteroid Belt - and so the next step is to Saturn.

The anti-hero, is Malcolm Eberly from Austria whose defiance of authority has gotten him "permanently incarcerated" in a Vienna world jail by the Holy Disciple [a religous fundamentalist movement that dominates the World's governments]. Now Ben Bova is a master of deft characterization - depicting in a few paragraphs, conversations, and soliloquys, the nature of a character. However, this time the sketching was way too quick. For example, Holly lane has been "brought up" for a second time after being revived from a cyrogenic freeze and operated on for the cancer that was going to kill her 20 or so years before. This reborn phenomenon is obviously a science fiction novel in itself - particularly the psychological and social aspects. Unfortunately, none of these matter other than the restoration of an eidetic memory for Holly.

In a similar fashion, Malcolm Eberly, has suggestions of fellow Austrian Adolf Hitler's Will to Power and demagogic skills. But the preliminary sketching scenes of his choice to join the Goddard mission, the reasoning behind his choice by the Holy Disciples is tenuous at best,. So readers have to hold their sense of disbelief in check from the outset. This is unfortunate because there is a glaring science fact that Ben Bova does not resolve - Cosmic rays that penetrate almost any material present a serious cancer risk for long term space exploration.

So the story starts out with three big "unbelievables'. This incredulity is further stressed by the romantic entanglement of Holly and Malcolm Fortunately, Ben Bova has not lost his touch for creating a world of fascinating secondary characters [my favorites are Nanobiologist Kris Cardenas, dour Navigator Timoshenko, and Space Stuntman Manuel Gaeta]and fascinating science facts that help to carry the story. Fortunately, the reading in the audiobook is topnotch. But readers will have to be patient and wait until about half way through the story for the excitement , magical science revelations and breakneck plotting to come through and carry Saturn off.