Customer Reviews

Saturn's Race

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

This was an excellently paced read containing some nice tidbits of not-so-far-out tech. The story pulls you in somewhat gradually, then about half-way through, in the space of a page, you remember: "This is Larry Niven" - the thing grabs you and locks you down.

Just so I don't slight Steven, this *team* has done it again - Larry alone, and Steven alone could not create this wonderful and engaging piece. It has the same blend of hard sci-fi, mystery and sensitivity to human interaction that earmarks a Larry Niven/Steven Barnes novel. In the gadget bag there's nanotech, augmented awareness, and computer conciousness. All excitingly attainable.

If you are a Niven fan, or just out for a good read, you will not be dissapointed - even considering you will have to buy this book and the other new release "The Buring City".

The book is very well written and poses the marching morons thesis along with the population explosion/limits to growth problem. It also provides a solution that the bad guy(s) execute.

But, in the midst of defeating the bad guy, who is such an obviously grotesque comic-book villian, the book forgets to actually make any argumenta at all against either the thesis or the solution provided. Nor does it suggest any alternatives.

If it had, it would have been 5 stars. But it doesn't, which leaves this reader thinking - Why not do it that way? Better than thermonuclear war, don't you think? Better than mass casualties from sophisticated biological war, no? Or do the authors prefer those two options with corpses rotting in the streets? Better than drowning our cities from global warming, eh? We are facing massive casualties whichever way you cut it, may as well be as nice as possible. So what IS wrong with the Kali Option?

Fact is, fellow earth-dwellers, we really are faced with exactly such a crisis. We are watching the world hit the wall right now, and we will see a massive denouement that will make the plot of "Saturn's Race" look sweet. So how can the authors argue against such a merciful course without bloodshed, in order to blunder on into a future where far worse horrors beyond imagining loom? What sort of peacock drivel-tripe philosophy is that?

This insipid generation taking control of the world just now should have started to grasp how incredibly quickly the world can spiral into war. All it takes is a few thousand people killed in the right provocation, and kaboom - it's on. This is especially true when the generations have no experience of what real war is like, only blap from TV announced by the likes of Geraldo.

The world is a tinder-box sitting next to a powderkeg, just waiting for the right spark to really blow sky-high. The primary drivers are want, overpopulation, greed, religion and insipid naivete. We will have this crash, and well over a billion are almost certain to die of it. A billion these days scarcely scratches the surface. A billion people, as described in the book, just creates about 20 years of elbow room is all. Hardly worth sneezing for in planetary terms. Big deal. All replaced in a few years.

A book like this that begs the question of what is wrong with the "Kali Option" turns itself into one more insipid little entertainment while flirting with asking real, hard questions.

But the questions remain, and the solutions are all ugly as sin. That's the reality of the world we live in when you put down this book.

What began as an exciting mixture of cybernetics and AI soon became a romance/chase seen that never really challanged the reader. Stereotypes abound and I never found myself attached to any of the "human" characters. "The Integral Trees" by Niven was far more interesting. Nothing new in "Saturn's Race."

The comment about being a profound disapoointment, rang true for me too. There is no inspiration here; just alot of formulaic pc ideas that have no life, no depth, no breadth to them; they are never fleshed out, just a string of descriptives: Capuccino, PC, the Kaypro, The Osborne, MAC lives! O comeon, there's more to sci-fi than reading PC Week.
Alot of reading this book is like going to Fry's Electronics in Sunnyvale & not FINDING the diy computer kits; just the brand name pre-assembled off-the-shelf pcs & wondering why everyone is talking about this place; as a Niven (and Fry Electronics :-) fan I felt as though I had been rooked; it was incredibly boring and drawn out to get ....where?
I honestly could not recommend this book that takes 10 chapters to get to some kind of plot & then jumps someplace before you totally understand what's happening.
Buy it used if you must; read it at your own peril.

Don't waste any time reading this one. It started out OK and then fell apart in the middle. It is not worth my time to write more than this.

So, the cover art shows two sharks with hands swimming past an underwater installation. You'd think it was some sort of b-movie style moster story. You'd be wrong. Instead we've been given one of the best books with Larry's name on it in recents months. This isn't a gimmick story like Rainbow Mars or Burning City. This is a nicely plotted story with lots of interesting concepts. The story centers around biological-computer interfaces, tied in to philosophical discusion centering around third-world birth rates and life expectancy. And we've got some great character development, including some pretty good love scenes (which fade to black before getting too graphic). Definitely a recommended read.

If your a true fan of the SF genre, this book is a must read. Niven and Barnes in collaboration produce stories and characters that exceed their individual talents. The story is a mystery where the lead characters must discover the identity of a genocidal monster to save their lives, while running from the effects of the villeins plan. It is set in the near future. The authors paint a highly believable picture of the course of current technology and its effects on world order. This book compares very well with "Dreampark", another Niven, Barnes collaboration.