Saturn's Race [Hardcover]

Larry Niven (Author), Steven Barnes (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 2000

ISBN: 0312867263 TITLE: Saturn`s Race AUTHOR: Niven, Larry; Barnes, Steven EXCERPT: 1June The sun had fled the sky hours ago, and with it, Xanadu`s winged children. Before it dipped beneath Bombay`s horizon, a thousand kilometers to the east, Lenore Myles had taken one last dive from the central tower. She trusted her reflexes and balance less than the central computer that kept her and a dozen others dancing on the thermals.One long, perfect arc followed another, swooping out to the breakwaters, a kilometer distant from Xanadu`s core. Sensors at the edge of her hang-glider`s batwing read winds and temperatures, coordinated their data with weather satellites sensitive enough to detect a gust of warm breath. Slowly she began the return journey, high above the ring of orchards and gardens, the beaches and ponds, the flowered parks of the floating island called Xanadu.The roofed, tiered hexagons extending from the central tower were each about two hundred meters in diameter. Eight concentric rings, rising toward the center, afforded four million square meters of potential landing room. She had sufficient lift to make it to a little park, four rings out from the central tower.A pair of late picnickers applauded delightedly.Even encumbered by artificial wings, Lenore managed to bow. The couple, an Asian woman and a man with a British sergeant-major`s mustache, were all smiles. ``UC Berkeley?`` the woman asked.``Los Angeles,`` Lenore replied. She shrugged out of the wings and gazed out over the rooftops, down toward the parklands below. Her fellow students were beginning to cluster down there. With the setting of the sun, festivities would begin. She glanced at her watch: just time to take a shower, change, and get down there for the party.She triggered her rented hang-glider`s pickup beacon and waved good-bye to the couple, who had returned to their cheese and wine. Probably waiting for moonrise, she mused. Tropical breezes, perfect weather....A night for romance, and adventure. She felt loose and tingly all over. Adventure`s promise had been kept, and the aftertaste was delicious.Stars and a crescent moon silvered a restless ocean. At the rim of Xanadu`s southwest lagoon, eight hundred of the UCLA science department`s most recent graduates sipped champagne or sparkling fruit juice. Just beyond the breakwater, impossible human shapes walked upon black and silver waves and offered the Council`s greeting.``Welcome to Xanadu,`` a titanic blond woman roared. ``Your minds and hearts are the hope of the world. Today your path of intellectual achievement has reached a crossroads.`` Her words echoed among Xanadu`s towers. ``Albert Einstein said, `We should take care not to make the intellect our god; it has, of course, powerful muscles, but no personality.` Contrast this with the words of French philosopher Michel Foucault: `The work of an intellectual is not to mold the political will of others....` ``Lenore debarked from one of the little robot carts and found a waiter with a tray of champagne glasses. The reception was jumping by now, covering one of the promenades between the outer breakwater and the containment ponds, vast arcs of water extending beyond the central ring of floating hexagons. Here parks and playgrounds swarmed with parents and children. A little farther out, fruit trees provided a lilt of citrus on the night breeze.She searched the crowd as she sipped, looking for a particular friendly face. She barely noticed the special effects show, although many of the other graduates gawked. Through some optical trick, the titanic blonde seemed to make intimate eye contact with each individual. ``Who shall lead us to the future, if not the pride of our universities? And what tool will blaze your way, if not intellect? We salute you: your hearts, which brim with courage and commitment, your bodies, so strong and filled with the promise of youth, and most especially your minds, which this day have fulfilled your academic poten

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Girl meets boy. Girl falls in love with boy. Boy turns out to be an old man impersonating his own grandson. Girl discovers diabolical plot to sterilize the Third World. Boy erases girl's memory. Intrigue upon intrigue unfolds, involving an army of ninjas, talking sharks with arms, the peculiarities of telegraphy, and a virtual Rex Stout detective who lives in an old Macintosh.

And that's just the setup for this well-developed, whip-smart mystery-thriller-love story from duo Larry Niven and Steven Barnes. But it's hard to imagine going wrong when you team up Niven's technology-loving optimism and legendary chops with Barnes's eclectic résumé (the guy's been everything from a karate columnist for Black Belt magazine to a scriptwriter for The Twilight Zone). Probably their best collaboration yet, Saturn's Race matches the pacing and unpredictability of Ken MacLeod's The Stone Canal while evoking the anything's-possible, shiny sleaziness of a Snow Crash near future.

Our protagonist--the boy-cum-grandfather--works on Xanadu, an OTEC-powered island-city floating just off Sri Lanka, part of a supranational corporate superelite. He's teamed up in a love triangle balanced by the girl who's mind he wiped and his ex-wife, a feisty security officer straight out of Stone Age Java. The population-control plot succeeds ("We can fight their grandchildren for air and water in thirty years, or we can reduce their numbers now"), but who knows what the puppet master behind Xanadu's all-powerful Council is really up to? --Paul Hughes

From Publishers Weekly

The bestselling team of Niven and Barnes (The Legacy of Heorot; Lucifer's Hammer) have produced another compulsively readable, immensely enjoyable near-future yarn. The year is 2020 and the world is run by corporate conglomerates. Beautiful, brilliant Lenore Myles has just completed her master's degree and is poised for an exciting career in biological research. She is celebrating her graduation on the wondrous floating island Xanadu. Wealthy, attractive Chaz Kato, whose foundation was instrumental in paying for Lenore's expensive education, offers her the chance to do cutting-edge research on the island and be his lover. To entice Lenore to break her current contract, Chaz gives her his security clearance, allowing her carte blanche to the island's many technological secrets. During her exploration, Lenore stumbles upon a plot to sterilize the lower classes. Horrified, unsure of who is in on the conspiracy, she flees the island without telling Chaz of her findings. Saturn, an immeasurably powerful virtual creation run by persons unknown, plants false information about Lenore's whereabouts. This data is dutifully reported to Chaz by his ex-wife, Clarice MaibangDformerly an artist from a primitive culture, now a highly placed member of the island's security team. To save Lenore from the murderous Saturn, Chaz must plug into a program designed to create "squaliens"Dsea creatures who have been augmented for greater intelligenceDand, eventually, risk everything to uncover Saturn's identity and the secret that Lenore has now forgotten. Brilliantly weaving high-tech internets, augmentation technologies and social issues into a fast-paced cloak-and-dagger action adventure, this novel effortlessly moves from the depths of the ocean to the heights of VR to create a dazzling, seamless whole. (July)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 317 pages
• Publisher: Tor Books; 1st edition (July 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312867263
• ISBN-13: 978-0312867263
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,001,071 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Profoundly Disappointing, June 16, 2001

By 

Ben Klausner (Redmond, WA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Saturn's Race (Mass Market Paperback)

As a hard core fan of Larry Niven, I found Saturn's Race to be a huge disappointment. There is little evidence of Niven's hand anywhere in this piece, and none of his meticulous attention to detail, thought out consequences, or neatly tied conclusions. A few Niven-esque technologies are referenced (electric sleep and food yeast), but that's about it.

The plot revolves around a hidden master villan. But the discovery of his existence is lame, the steps to cover the discovery implausible (in that the destruction used is so nicely limited), and the eventual identity of the enemy is unsupported by a decent evidence trail.

The story lurches along with direction and venue changes that seem completely arbitrary. For example, the year plus interlude with the natives in Java adds nothing but pages. There are lots of concepts in the book that could be interesting if exploited, but none are really followed through.

Niven's last several efforts haven't really been up to his prime work, but this may be the most disappointing.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Great start that gets bogged down., April 11, 2003

By 

Shaun Mcclintock "MBA student" (Houston, TX USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Saturn's Race (Mass Market Paperback)

You start with a great protagonist, and follow her through adventure and discovery and then she gets 'lobotimized' and the main character switches to her 'mentor'. Her great story ends and characterization in the novel suffers for the switch in characters. The mentor's story is about as interesting as an auditor trying to find out who's embezzeling money by digging through documents. It's boring and never picks back up from there. I enjoyed many of his other works, but this one is just lacking something for me.

One thing this novel does well is present near future technology and the sometimes quirky results of scientific lines of inquiry in the present age.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Not Niven as I know him, October 1, 2006

By 

Timothy Masters (Brackney, PA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Saturn's Race (Hardcover)

Okay, I'll admit up front that perhaps I should not write a review of this book, because I never finished it. I got as far as Page 73 and simply could not stand it any more. Stopping in the middle of any book is rare for me, but the boredome was unbearable. In fact, I only got that far because I am a great fan of Niven, which gave me hope. His "Mote in God's Eye" with Pournelle may be my all-time favorite novel. Maybe it's just because he has a different writing partner in this book, or maybe it was just an off time for him. But the spark is not there. The plot and character development were slow, tedious, and completely unrewarding. A painful read, at least the first 73 pages.