Customer Reviews

The Throne of Saturn

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Novel about a Post-Apollo manned flight to the moon in preparation for the manned flights to mars in the 1980s that would have used Saturn Vs. As much political as it is science fiction. Interesting to read in light of the current plan to fly to Mars via Moon.

"Throne of Saturn", a political novel about the first manned mission to Mars, was also my introduction to the world of Pulitzer Prize-winner Alan Drury. If you've read any of the books in the "Advise and Consent" series, then nothing will surprise you here - least of all the fact that the book, which bills itself "a novel of space and politics", has next-to nothing to do with the exploration of space, but is really about the politics and dirty tricks of Drury's perennial enemies - the media and America's left.

Set in the near future, when man has already landed on the moon, NASA plans an even greater leap to Mars. The stage is set for a spectacular showcase of technology and man surviving at its leading edge. Instead, Drury serves up a bland morality play in which intellectuals, liberal politicians, organized labor and the media (the triumvirate of the radical left) tries to co-opt the mission to serve their own liberal agenda. Whether its the racial makeup of the crew or cooperation with the Russians (who never cooperate despite the left's insistence to the contrary), nothing NASA does is right for the book's liberal villains. Drury's heroes are meant to be astronauts but they spend less time in space than on the ground where they are victimized by the left for their patriotism and their staunch opposition to the left. Drury has a reputation for hitting hard at liberals, but "Throne" illustrates less of an attack on liberal principles than dependency on the anti-leftist antipathy of his readers. Drury doesn't so much hit on liberals as remind his readers that he simply doesn't like them. As in other books, Drury has his media fixtures embodied by the chiefs of various newspapers, but they are named only according to their publications; among other villains are a few real-life lefties are described without names, but in ways that leave no doubt as to their identity (Dr. Spock puts in an appearance as the casualty of a botched sabotage-riot on the day of the Mars launch). Stuck to create a real villain, Drury gives us two wayward souls: a columnist dubbed "Percy have Mercy" who finds himself with the power to direct the national will for or against the mission; and the mission's sole African American - a black astronaut who nurses a monster chip on his shoulder, and is convinced above all of his victim hood.

"Throne", written during the Vietnam war, mirrors the national chaos of the 1960's, but manages not to explain why the liberals were so fired up. (In contrast, though not entirely approving, Apollo era-Leftists were somewhat muted despite the fact that Vietnam made it fashionable to distrust any splashy government program). Drury's liberals aren't so much unprincipled as they are simply scheming, cowardly and dishonest. No liberal aims or principles exist in Drury's universe. As in "Come Nineveh", the left exists merely to emasculate America and tear it down, rather than compliment the right and balance its flaws. Though Drury may be convinced that he pounds mercilessly on his liberals, he misses liberalism entirely in "Throne". Percy, who is introduced early on, doesn't seem liberal at all - coming off as a somewhat effete Walter Winchell type. There was also a quirk in the way he speaks in which he repeated his dialog ("I do", he said "Indeed I do") though it's clear that everybody in the book speaks like him. Everybody but the Russians, who don't so much as say dialog as much as sneer it.

The biggest insult is how close to Earth "Throne" remains. Though Drury posits his conservatives as principled humans who only want to further human exploration, Drury himself is eager to escape the confines of Earth and its complicated disputes as his liberals are. It's no surprise that Mars remains out of reach of Drury's Earthbound prose. With no liberal-elite-dominated media to mess things up on that distant planet, just what would these astronauts do when they got to Mars? Indeed, what would they do?

. . .by the late Allen Drury, this "novel of space and politics" is also a social commentary on the decay of society during the 1960's. In addition, Drury's understanding of communism (and communism's defenders in the media and union leadership) was ahead of his time.

Granted, the book is dated now, but at the time of its printing, it bordered on prophetic.

As an aside, I strongly suspect that Mr. Drury was deeply saddened at what didn't happen with the US Space program. His "moon landing" was only a few years ahead of reality; ditto with his "space station".

An enjoyable read.

I liked the story outline on the dust jacket but once I got into it I was turned off. The story was good and the space exploration facts were interesting. It was the social commentary that I was not waning to get bogged down with. I was looking for science fiction / action, not a George Will book. Overall the writing is good and the author spends a good deal of time on the characters, some times too much time. Overall this book just did not excite me and took too long to read.

"Throne of Saturn", a political novel about the first manned mission to Mars, was also my introduction to the world of Pulitzer Prize-winner Alan Drury. If you've read any of the books in the "Advise and Consent" series, then nothing will surprise you here - least of all the fact that the book, which bills itself "a novel of space and politics", has next-to nothing to do with the exploration of space, but is really about the politics and dirty tricks of Drury's perennial enemies - the media and America's left.

Set in the near future, when man has already landed on the moon, NASA plans an even greater leap to Mars. The stage is set for a spectacular showcase of technology and man surviving at its leading edge. Instead, Drury serves up a bland morality play in which intellectuals, liberal politicians, organized labor and the media (the triumvirate of the radical left) tries to co-opt the mission to serve their own liberal agenda, or thwart it entirely. Whether it's the crew's racial makeup or cooperation with the Russians (who never cooperate despite the left's insistence to the contrary), nothing NASA does is right for the book's liberal villains. Drury's heroes are meant to be astronauts but they spend less time in space than on the ground being victimized by the left for their patriotism.

Drury has a reputation for hitting hard at liberals, but "Throne" illustrates less of an attack on liberal principles than craven dependency on readers who share Drury's views. As in other books, Drury has his media fixtures embodied by the chiefs of various newspapers, but they are named only according to their publications; among other villains are a few real-life lefties left nameless but otherwise impossible to misidentify (Dr. Spock puts in an appearance as the casualty of a botched sabotage-riot on the day of the Mars launch). Setting up "Saturn" as a morality play, Drury fails to create a true villain - somebody the reader could fear, embodying dark designs, wicked intent. Instead, we just have unlikeable and pitiful louts. Stuck to create a real villain, Drury gives us two wayward souls: a columnist dubbed "Percy have Mercy" who finds himself with the power to direct the national will for or against the mission; and the mission's sole African American - a black astronaut who nurses a monster chip on his shoulder and is convinced above all of his victim hood.

"Throne", written during the Vietnam war, mirrors the national chaos of the 1960's, but manages not to explain why the liberals were so fired up. (In contrast, though not entirely approving, Apollo era-Leftists were comparatively muted on the space program despite the fact that Vietnam made it fashionable to distrust any splashy government program). Drury's liberals aren't so much unprincipled as they are simply scheming, cowardly and dishonest. No liberal aims or principles exist in Drury's universe. As in "Come Nineveh", the left exists merely to emasculate America and tear it down, rather than compliment the right and balance its flaws. Though Drury may be convinced that he pounds mercilessly on his liberals, he misses liberalism entirely in "Throne". Percy Mercy, introduced early on, doesn't seem liberal at all - coming off as a somewhat effete Walter Winchell type. There was also a quirk in the way he speaks in which he repeated his dialog ("I do", he said "Indeed I do"; remember Torgo from "Manos: The Hands of Fate"?) though it's clear that everybody in the book speaks like him. ("I am Torgo, I watch the Liberals when the Master is in Space.") The exception is Drury's Soviets, who don't so speak dialog as much as sneer it.

The biggest insult is how close to Earth "Throne" remains. Though Drury posits his conservatives as principled humans who only want to further human exploration, Drury himself is eager to escape the confines of Earth and its complicated disputes as his liberals are. It's no surprise that Mars remains out of reach of Drury's Earthbound prose. With no liberal-elite-dominated media to mess things up on that distant planet, just what would these astronauts do when they got to Mars? Indeed, what would they do?

Everything I was going to say, reviewer Rottenberg said better and more completely.

Drury distorts the events of the 1960s in a right-wing political tract that paints lefties as the cause of all that is wrong with the United States.

Drury was no literary stylist. His clumsy narrative and cliché-ridden dialog are obstacles one would have had to overlook in order to enjoy what might have at least been an interesting story.

It wasn't. Instead of a potentially involving drama about the problems of preparing for a trip to Mars, we're force-fed the all-too-familiar personal problems of a cast of predictable movie stereotypes.

This book reaffirms the irrelevance of a book's "best-seller" status to its merit.