Customer Reviews

Titan

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

_Titan_ by Ben Bova is the sequel to his earlier novel _Saturn_, part of his Grand Tour series of novels set in the solar system of the late 21st century. It picks up about a year or so after the events of _Saturn_ and it would be helpful if not essential for a reader to have read the earlier novel first.

Much like with _Saturn_, much time is spent on the politics, intrigue, and personal lives of people on the station _Goddard_ though unlike with the novel _Saturn_ the intrigue this time is more closely tied in with the science of the mission. Some might be frustrated by the book's concentration on story elements not directly related to science but they do tie in well with the science and the pace of the book is very brisk.

Essentially, there are four main story elements though other characters do have arcs of their own. Malcolm Eberly, the power-hungry, suave, and manipulative chief administrator, is trying to sow up the next election and is working hard to buy off or counter any potential rivals. Holly Lane, the station's chief of human resources (in addition to contending with romantic issues and a visit by her sister from the colony of Selene, Pancho Lane) is trying to come to grip with issues of the station's future - specifically, whether or not people on the station can start having children. Dr. Edouoard Urbain is obsessed with trying to get his malfunctioning robotic rover on the surface of Titan, named _Titan Alpha_, up and running again after some mysterious complete and total break in communications with the probe occurred after it landed. Finally, Nadia Wunderly, the scientist who made the amazing discovery in _Saturn_ of the apparent existence of life in Saturn's rings, is desperate to try to follow up on her experiments and stop proposals to mine the rings for water.

If you liked _Saturn_, you will like _Titan_, as the pace is similar and nearly all of the characters from the first novel return in the second. As I mentioned, the pace is brisk, the book is quite readable, and this time there is a good bit more science in the novel. It wasn't the best of his Grand Tour series however (_Venus_ and _Jupiter_ were I think the best installments). Some of his characters, even by their own admission, were single-mined to the point of being almost one-dimensional characters (chiefly Dr. Urbain and Eberly), I think some of the writer's views on the differences about men and women when it comes to children was a bit antiquated feeling (but then who really knows what people will think on such matters a hundred years from now), and Holly Lane's slang ("I click," "'Kay," "prob'ly," "nossir", etc) while not constant, was frequent enough to be irritating, particularly since some of the contractions didn't make much sense to me and none of the other characters spoke like that (well, sometimes Pancho did). Bova might have been trying for local color with Holly, maybe going for a youthful sounding individual, I don't know, but it really bothered me sometimes. I am trying to remember if she sounded that way in _Saturn_ or not. In the end though a pretty minor complaint, I don't mention it to drive away potential readers of the book, just something I had to get off of my chest.

Overall I did enjoy the book though and it did have an interesting twist at the end.

In Earth's past, Australia was effectively a prison colony, a place for transportation of convicted felons to get them out of sight and out of mind, a place where misfits, recluses and hard-nosed independents could live or die on the strength of their own efforts, a place to which people with intractable problems could run away and start over. In Earth's future, Ben Bova has imagined a distant space habitat orbiting above the surface of Saturn's icy moon, Titan, which has much the same demographic - a ragtag motley crew of misfits and dissidents, sick and tired of a ham-fisted dictatorial theocratic government on earth, willing to pull up stakes and courageously start over in a bleak environment where the future is a blank slate waiting to be written.

Long-time fans of Bova's "Grand Tour of the Universe" series may remember the weakness in "Mercury", a rock-em, sock-em screenplay that was little more than a soap opera force fit into the environment of Mercury that gave scant attention to the science part of science fiction. "Titan" is the polar opposite, thankfully returning the theme of a tour of the solar system to center stage.

The complex, almost insurmountable engineering difficulties of managing a space-faring habitat such as the Goddard - shielding, food, insulation, waste and communication - are all examined in detail. The extreme hazards of navigation through Saturn's rings and landing on the surface of Titan are described with breathtaking foresight. Both the hardware and the software involved in a robotic surface rover, the Titan Alpha, are described with painstaking attention to the minutiae of problems that such a vehicle would be likely to encounter in its scientific explorations and data gathering mission.

But Bova hasn't neglected to examine the softer philosophical people issues of such an environment either. Just as with any revolutionary group that breaks away from their beginnings, the inhabitants of space habitat Goddard deal with issues of governance, democracy and the creation of a new constitution that is appropriate to their needs and their unique circumstances. Of course, they must perforce continue to deal as best they can with a continuing relationship with their progenitors, the governments that remain behind on the earth and the moon. On a more micro-level, "Titan" deals realistically with the day to day squabbles that would inevitably arise between differing groups in the habitat - men vs women, scientists vs engineers, governments vs citizens, the doers vs the grunts that are along for the ride, and so on.

One of the most interesting soft people issues that Bova injected into the story was the controversy surround a policy of "zero population growth". Clearly, Goddard's ability to handle a population has a distinct maximum determined by limited resources such as space, food, oxygen, waste turnover and so on. The conflict between the necessity for a ZPG policy and the natural drives of humans to procreate makes for some interesting philosophical discussion and debate.

Last but not least, there is that positively brilliant ending (Is it possible to smile and be slack-jawed with amazement at the same time?) Anyone who reads and enjoys both science and science fiction knows that the reality of the universe is far more complex and bizarre than any mere science fiction writer could possibly create. But Bova has done his best to hypothesize a future for mankind beyond imagining when a discovery is made in Saturn's rings that dwarfs the speculations of the best scientists that Goddard has to offer.

Truly, "Titan" is modern science fiction written the way the science fiction should be - hard, soft, exciting, cutting edge and thought provoking. Well done, Ben Bova.

Paul Weiss

I found Titan to be a very enjoyable read. Entertaining to the last page. Just enough science to make you think, but not so much to cause disinterest in the book. The story moved along quickly, and kept me coming back for more. This was my first Ben Bova novel; now I'm going to have to read several others from the "Grand Tour" series, especially since it appears many of the same characters have persisted through several novels. If your looking for pure science, go buy a textbook.

Overall, I found the story itself rather boring and unintersting. The underlying politics and personal interactions that should drive the story are woefully unimpressive. Bova displays a very simplistic and naive approach that results in characters adopting almost comical imitations of what an outsider would expect to happen. Oubain's psychotic and neurotic reactions to his "beast's" behavior was laughable. The fact that none of the so-called scientists on Goddard was able to figure out what happened is not realistic. The administrative politics was on the level of high school antics. Finally, the whole notion that an academic body on Earth would "ban" mining the rings of Saturn for water is not only proposterous (who would actually listen to them), but flies in the face of logic. Let's see, Earth's oceans have life, maybe humans should stay out of and off of them as well. All in all a quite disappointing read. It's also sad when you've covered 2/3 of a book and little has happened.

This book carries on where Saturn ends. The 11 mile long by 4 mile wide space habitat Goddard has reached Saturn and is in orbit around it's moon Titan.

Science, politics, technology and human foibles all get put in a bender, shaken; not stirred, and what comes out is highly entertaining.

The main story revolves around Titan Alpha which is a semi autonomous rover type vehicle sent to the surface of Titan to explore the surface. The problem is once it lands it decides that collecting data about Titan is good but sending it back to the Scientists on Goddard is not.

The leader of the Scientists Dr Eduoard Urbain is stunned and embarrassed by this problem and harasses his staff to find a solution. In the mean time Titan Alpha decides on it's own to do a "walkabout" on the surface and see what other data can be collected.

This is all happening at Christmas time and Pancho Lane a retired CEO has come to the Goddard habitat not only to see the launch of Titan Alpha but also to visit her sister Susan, who has changed her name to Holly after being thawed from Cryogenic sleep she was put in when she was diagnosed with a terminal disease.

Malcolm Eberly is the Chief Administrator of Goddard , a position he got by defeating Dr Urbain in an election held on Goddard. Malcolm is a politician at the highest level whose main concern is maintaining power and making sure people know how powerfull he is. In particular Dr Urbain

There is money to made by mining the rings around Saturn that are made up of ice. However one scientist on board Goddard, Nadia Wunderley, believes the rings have life in them . She tries to get a stuntman on board to repeat his joutrney through the rings to get a sample however he has retired and so it ends up being Pancho Lane who volunteers to go through the rings and collect a sample.

Is their life in the rings ? How does ZPG (Zero Population Growth) enter into the election for Chief Administrator of Goddard ? What is Titan Alpha actually doing on the surface of Titan ? Who is really going to go through the rings and collect samples ? Who wins the Chief Administration election ?

You'll have to read the book to get the answers to these questions. You will enjoy every minute of finding out.

Now that I'm in my 60's I don't read Sci-Fi very much. I read Bova's book about the first exploration of Mars. I believe it is titled Mars, back in the 90's. I thought it was very good. This book is of the same sub genre, which I believe Mr. Bova calls The Grand Tour of the Solar System.
It fills the bill for me. Like classic Azimov, Heinlein, Anderson, Zelazney, etc., the story is pretty simple. Not like the newer Sci-Fi which is usually impossible for me to comprehend. This is a story with a plot. Characters who one can empathize with and others who are pretty rotten. Sort of like real life where everyday is the Ides of March in work places, schools, government, etc.
The characters are central in this story not the gadgets and the science.
Good read. What more can you ask for out of science fiction?
The trend since the 70's or so in the Sci-Fi magazines has been for some type of post-modernist, obtruse, literature. Thank the mighty gods of Sci-Fi for writers like Ben Bova who tell a tale for entertainment and not literary experimentation.

I first started reading the works of Ben Bova about 10 years ago, starting with "Return to Mars", and have since read every book in his "Grand Tour" series. Over the past few years I fell out of reading simply for lack of time, but recently had the chance to once again partake in this favorite pastime of mine, and I went straight for all things Bova. I just finished reading "Titan" the other night, and was thoroughly captivated. Bova does not disappoint one bit in this multi-layered novel, filled with drama, suspense, and discoveries that simply blow your mind. This one has a fantastic ending too, which I obviously won't say anything about because it's up to you, the reader, to enjoy it for yourself. I will tell you this though: if you want to think of "Titan" as the sequel to "Saturn" (which, essentially it is), then I can't wait for this to become a trilogy and to read the third installment!

I highly recommend this book, as well as any other book from Bova's "Grand Tour", "Asteroid Wars", and "Moonbase" series. Together these books are an amazing fictional history of space exploration from the near future straight into the 22nd century, and will introduce you to characters you'll come to feel you know personally, like Dan Randolph, Douglas Stavenger, Kris Cardenas, Jamie Waterman, and Pancho Lane, as well as antagonists you'll love to root against, like Martin Humphries, Malcolm Eberly, and the closed-minded legions of The New Morality.

"Titan," winner of the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Sci-Fi Novel in 2007, is classic science fiction. Set in an artificial habitat orbiting Saturn, the book's themes explore future technologies such as cryonics and nanotech; speculates on the long-term impacts of current "fundamentalist" movements here on Earth; considers the ramifications resulting from the discovery of life (and more) on distant worlds; and re-visits the ethos of the robot. But what really makes "Titan" a work of classic science fiction isn't all the gee-whiz technology and theory, but the more basic exploration of how these developments affect Human nature and culture, with a strong suggestion that, although times and places march on, people remain pretty much the same. Even in a place like the "Goddard Habitat" we will still have our scheming politicians, ruthless scientists, cunning women, romantic entanglements, babbling newsmen, dedicated engineers, intrepid heroes, and plenty of others to keep things interesting. The book does start slow, and you'll have to will yourself to get through the first hundred or so pages. (I think that's what critics call "plodding.") But it begins rolling downhill from there, until an avalanche ending makes you glad you stuck with it. (Had the pace been a bit more brisk at the outset, I'd have given this book 5 stars.) This was the first of Bova's "Grand Tour" novels I've read, and it did make me want to read more of that series, and more Bova in general. Hope you enjoy it.

Ben Bova rocks! I have been reading Ben Bova for about the past 10 or 12 years. His stories are spell-binding, and I think it gives a realistic view of what it will be like in about 100 years, living and working in space. Some science fiction writers predict a 'singularity' in the next 50 years where artificial intelligence will surpass ours and Ben takes a more moderate view with incremental increases in scientific knowledge and technical development. I have seen criticism for his character developments, and I suppose I am a bit of a nerd so I do not see his characters as cartoonish. One has to keep in mind that his novels are entertainment mixed with future speculation, so in any case we can't expect people to think as we do today. I have no doubt that the coming developments in technology will impact culture and the way people interact etc. Titan is one of Ben's best works. What I particularly liked about it is how he describes the surface of Titan, and the chapters that involves the rover and how it 'thinks' its way through challenges. Another novel that I really want to recommend for similar reasons, is 'Jupiter'.

I just could not finish this book. The writing in "Titan" is bland, boring, and at times grating. Yes, the plot moves along, but I found myself not caring what came next because there was no life to the writing.
It also had a dated feel to it - I did not believe I was reading about a story taking place in the year 2095. It felt like 1955. Characters use words like 'kiddo' and 'betcha' all the time.
Lots of time spent on the politics of the Goddard Habitat, and you are bombarded with a bewildering array of minor characters very quickly. What little science there is in the first 100 pages is... well, non-descript and commonplace. It's more exciting reading a NASA press release.