Saturn Rukh [Paperback]

Robert L. Forward (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1996

A ship becomes stranded on a huge flying creature that lives in the Saturnian skies, where five intrepid humans are attempting to find a way to convert the planet Saturn's atmospheric chemicals into cheap fuel for interplanetary travel.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Five carefully selected people, each with the chance to earn $1 billion. The catch? They have to descend into Saturn's upper atmosphere and establish a factory that will produce meta, the fuel that powers interplanetary flight. With only enough meta to get them to Saturn, failure will cost them their lives. And all too soon the crew becomes marooned on the back of what they dub a Rukh, a 4-kilometer-long creature that swims in Saturn's upper atmosphere and has two brains, male and female. This engaging book by physicist Robert L. Forward evokes the sense of wonder of old-time science fiction. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Three male and two female human specialists are paid $1 billion each to voyage to Saturn to convert helium in the upper atmosphere into metahelium fuel. When part of their apparatus is swallowed by one of the giant, flying, birdlike creatures they call rukhs, the crew finds a way to communicate and cooperate with the rukhs so both survive. The hard science, while technical, lends credence to Forward's (Camelot 30K, Tor, 1993) suspenseful story. Highly recommended for sf collections.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Tor Books (March 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312856172
• ISBN-13: 978-0312856175
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,944,198 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Another good book by Forward, September 10, 2001

By 

R. Bagula "Roger L. Bagula" (Lakeside, Ca United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Saturn Rukh (Mass Market Paperback)

Can life exist in a gas giant's atmosphere? Intelligent life is
a hard thing to find anywhere in the universe and this book gives us a whale of a story about a sea so far away. A mission of modern science has been to find other intelligent life and communicate with it. Very few unique kinds of intelligent life have been invented by hard science fiction writers. Robert Forward is one of the best at it.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Old-Fashioned SF, September 24, 2003

By 

J. COMER (Hesperia CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Saturn Rukh (Mass Market Paperback)

Spoilers!!

This is typical Forward: wooden characters whose interactions with each other are totally unbelievable, endless detail of beautiful, real near-future science, silly excuse-for-a-plot, and gorgeous, staggering vistas of real otherworlds and their realistic, amazingly creative inhabitants. The ruus, huge gasbags flying in the atmosphere of Saturn, are far more interesting than the humans who contact them, but Forward always does this. The scenes are giant, brilliantly colored, animated Chesley Bonestell movies: the ruus diving to hunt; the humans "climbing down Saturn's Rings" with the aid of the (real) Hoytether, a kind of super rope which Forward marketed; the funeral of an aged rukh whose flockmates sing as she falls endlessly to the lethal gas layers below; the final battle with an alien monster myth-made-real. If you value character and plot, take your business elswhere. For science and the sheer pleasure of the view, read this!

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Don't Read This Book. . ., December 21, 2000

By 

David Zampino "21st Century Hobbit" (Delavan, Wisconsin) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Saturn Rukh (Mass Market Paperback)

. . .for depth of character development! Like many of Forward's novels, there is a definite weakness in that department. HOWEVER, if you like "hard" science fiction -- sci fi which grasps the best that current scientific understanding has to offer, you will thoroughly enjoy this engaging book.

Forward writes of a mission to Saturn's atmosphere in order to build a fuel factory from the (almost) limitless supply of helium contained there. In the process, the crew discovers life -- life supremely suited to its environment.

4.5 for the science, 3 for the plot, 1.5 for the shallow characters. Overall, a 3 -- and a good read.