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Saturn

A Novel of the Ringed Planet

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About this listen

Following the bestselling, widely-praised Venus and Jupiter, Ben Bova offers a new adventure of solar system discovery like nothing previously imagined

In the bestselling novels Venus and Jupiter, Ben Bova dramatized the latest discoveries about our own solar system in an epic tale of near-future exploration and development. Now Bova turns his attention to one of our system's greatest mysteries—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 with the nerve and skill to take it. Now the governments of Earth are encouraging many of their most incorrigible dissidents to join a great ark, a one-way expedition to
Saturn, the ringed planet that baffled Galileo and has fascinated astronomers ever since.
But humans will be human, so amidst the idealism permeating Space Habitat Goddard are many individuals with long-term schemes, each awaiting their moment. And hidden from them is the greatest secret of all—the real purpose of this expedition—known to only a few...

©2003 Ben Bova; (P)2003 Audio Renaissance, a division of Holtzbrinck Publishers, LLC Fantasy Hard Science Fiction Science Fiction Space Exploration

Critic reviews

<p>“Veteran sci-fi scribe Bova nails our current society on the head with this futuristic fable. Wisely cast with a skilled group of readers....Explore a world in which nanotechnology, cryogenics, virtually invisible surveillance techniques and fearless scientific investigation coexist with characters firmly committed to either freedom or tyranny. Well acted, grippingly and wittily written. <i>Saturn</i> runs rings around most sci-fi.” —<i>AudioFile</i><br><br>“With Isaac Asimov and Robert Heinlein gone, Bova, author of more than 70 books, is one of the last deans of traditional science fiction. And he hasn't lost his touch.” —<i>Kansas City Star on Venus</i><br><br>“Bova proves himself equal to the task of showing how adversity can temper character in unforeseen ways.” —<i>The New York Times on Venus</i><br><br>“The story progresses rather well and the narrators, who are good at their jobs, take us along with them.” —<i>SFCrowsnest.com</i></p>
All stars
Most relevant
Great story ... has the greater gripped from beginning to end. What a great ending, totally unexpected.

Great story ...

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The story starts slowly and it took me a while to get into it. It's a strange story in that the set up for the adventure seems unlikely to me.
It's about a large group of people who are thrown together for the first human journey out to Saturn. Their backgrounds seem odd to me for such a 'ground breaking' scientific expedition. However, it's difficult to judge how society would respond after the Greenhouse Cliff and with the New Morality involved. Parts of the story were driven by the luck the characters had, especially towards the end. I like Ben Bova's stories and this one is OK, but to me it's not one of his best.

If you like Science Fiction this book is fine and I'd certainly recommend you read / listen to the book, but it's not the greatest.

The New World

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I tried hard but after four hours and half i just gave up,worst than a soap opera with no ideas,i cannot believe it is a Ben Bova book.Readers are great as always.

What a waste of time!

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If this book wasn’t for you, who do you think might enjoy it more?

Nobody.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Saturn?

Most of it.

Any additional comments?

This story is a bit poor. Most of it has nothing to do with Saturn, unlike the other books in this series, and the character plots are unnecessary.

Meh.

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In a word the worst rendition of a story ever. I tried to ignore the droll, dull mind-numbingly annoying rendition and finally binned the whole of the book. My advice is do not bother. The exceptionally poor performance makes this unlistenable. I have deleted the lot.

The worst performance I have yet encountered

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