Customer Reviews

Titan

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(28)
3 star:		(13)
2 star:		(19)
1 star:		(15)

 

 

I'm a big fan of alternate histories and hard sci-fi set in the not too far future, where the science is based on facts and the story rings true, and on that Titan delivers!

Many reviewers pointed out that Titan is a depressing book, where things only go from bad to worse. I didn't see things that way at all. I saw it more as a faithful reflection of what things may have been like should a manned spaced mission to Titan have really existed. Yes, bad things happen in this story, but isn't it what makes it more realistic and believable? If you like stories where the hero always wins and you *know* that nothing really bad can ever happen to any of the main characters - a book with few surprises - then you indeed won't enjoy Titan.

Very typical of Baxter's "what if" scenarios, the idea of the book is based on the real life Cassini-Huygens space mission to Saturn and Titan launched in 1997. Only in Baxter's story, the spacecraft - a remodeled space shuttle - carries humans.

The beginning of the book, while introducing the astronauts that will be part of the mission, explains the different technical and political aspects and issues attached to it. Sprinkled with human error and emotions in those confined quarters, the actual 7-year voyage to Titan is very believable, and appropriately builds up the anticipation as years go by.

Will they successfully land on Titan? What will they find there? Does Earth still care? What will happen to them? These questions, and many more, will keep you turning the pages.

The ending will surprise you.

Titan is a fantastic read that will keep you thinking for a while!

Possibly, like others interested in science, there were two key disappointing moments in my life that came from knowledge derived from science. One was that it is unlikely to go backwards in time by any known method. The other is that it is unlikely that there's life on Mars or elsewhere in our solar system outside of earth, let alone intelligent life. So that when learning more details about this and reading that the largest moon of Saturn, Titan, has an atmosphere, and well, maybe organic molecules that are the precursor to life, it was as an exciting moment as possible for the possibility of life in our solar system outside of earth. Since then, I had always hoped to write a story about Titan. Well Stephen Baxter has written that book, and as far as I'm concerned no other book strictly about Titan need ever be written. This book is so accurate to what's presently known about Titan, that whenever I read any news about Titan I think back and refer to this book. The thing against this book is that it's written somewhat dryly. However, I've read quite a bit of other sources about Titan, newspaper articles, journals, websites, etc, and if you want to feel what it's like to be on Titan, this is the item to read. Now, this book was written in 1997, but it uncannily predicts some of events that have occurred. Baxter predicts the destruction of one of the space shuttles in a fashion similar to what occurred with Columbia. He writes about the politics of NASA, which I read up on and it's somewhat accurate, and he predicts on what NASA would have to do to go to Titan, such as borrowing parts from the soon to be discontinued Space Shuttle program to be used for the forthcoming Crew Expeditionary Vehicle (CEV), and so is in some ways similar to the present USA Return to the Moon and Mission to Mars programs that's now occurring within NASA instituted by president Bush. And he is right up to date on the methods now in the works to look for earth sized planets in other solar systems that I had personal first hand knowledge about. You want to go to Titan? reading this book is the next best thing that exists to being there. To me, 3 stars is average, 4 stars is great, and 5 stars is superb. I'd give Baxter's Titan 3-1/2 stars for good, but will tilt it upward to 4.

I was going to submit the above, but then read some of the other reviews that touched on topics I thought about as well but didn't mention. Yes, the book can be considered to have somewhat of a Liberal bent; that instead of a US president that goes to church on Sunday, it's a religious fundamentalist. But this is not uncommon in the written world and is much, much less than in many other books. The part about the US Air Force firing upon a United States spacecraft I thought was sad as well. I did find out that when NASA was formed in 1958 in response to Russia's Sputnik satellite launch, the Air Force did want to have this newly formed space agency under their control. But US president Eisenhower made it a civilian agency. However, I cannot imagine an officer of the United States Air Force, who spent his career in defense of the United States, would ever treasonously consider setting up the destruction of an impressive multi-billion dollar United States spacecraft designed to travel to a site beyond the earth's moon. I certainly hope Baxter doesn't think that, even being British, and instead exaggerated for dramatic effect. There is unfortunately an anti-intellectual, anti-evolutionary (despite that the immense amount of evidence in support of evolution) in the United States. However anti-science is everywhere in the US, even amongst so called intellectuals, and there could be documented photos of alien life crawling on Titan and there would still be a lot of people from everywhere screaming bloody hell if the idea came up to launch to Titan. The politics and culture of the near-future-world set up by Baxter are more of a backstory and really can be ignored. So to me, I don't necessarily find the book depressing, on the contrary, for Baxter to consider any possibility whatsoever with realism to launch a spacecraft to Titan I consider to be incredibly positive!

Titan is a frustrating book because it is obvious that Baxter could've spun a believable and moving tale. The science, as far as I can tell, is accurate, and the mission to Titan, cleverly orchestrated. Why is it so frustrating? Because the message is unrelentlessly negative and pessimistic, and there isn't a single likable character in his very very long tale. One wonders what motivates Stephen Baxter, because if this book is any indication, it appears that everything is dismal and worthless to him. In his world, no one has a sense of wonder, humor, or hope. He complains through one character after another, that the current generation no longer cares about science and space exploration. All they truly care about are themselves, and oh yeah, the internet. He's relentlessly negative about that, too. Even the heroes and heroines of the mission to Titan, spend page after page complaining and whining to one another, with no encouraging words, love, or friendship shared among them. They are on a mission to another world for heaven's sake, you'd think they'd be a little ~excited~ about it. Once they finally get to Titan (a ~7 year trip through space), it's described as a hostile and bitterly cold hell of little to no scientific value. They begin to ask themselves why they bothered to go at all. After reading this novel, an unencouraging, dreary, pessimistic, and humorless adventure, you'll ask yourself why you bothered to tag along.

As a side note, take a trip to SETI@home and check out the downloads (>700 000 at last count), or the keen interest in NASAs Pathfinder Project to Mars, and then tell me people don't care about the universe around them.

I, like millions of others around the world, sat horrified watching the events of the real life tragedy of the space shuttle Columbia crashing to Earth in Feb 2003. One of the first things that came to my mind was that I read a similar scenario back in 1997 in Stephen Baxters 'Titan'. I quickly grabbed the book and started browsing through the first couple of chapters to discover, to my horror, that the space shuttle portrayed in Titan was Columbia. I remembered back to when I read the book and thought it was one of the best introductions to a SF book I had read in ages. It was my first 'Baxter" novel and I was amazed at the detail of the description of the events of Columbia going down. There was a survivor in the book which helped develop the plot, but the timing early 21st century and naming the shuttle is just a bit to eerie for me. I hope the rest of the events in the book do not lead to fruition as it is quite depressing for mankind. The current events in the world make it hard to be optimistic.
Getting back to the book I found the majority of it a great read, it did have parts that seemed to drag on but Baxters knowledge of Titan is first rate. I have just read Ralph Lorenzs non fiction book 'Lifting Titans Veil' and many of Baxters Titan sequences are acknowledged by Lorenz. I found the last chapter a bit too far fetched and probably would have benefited to being left out all together.
I hope the rest of Titan remains in the fiction category and that man pushes forward into space and one day can visit a wonderous place like Titan.

In a similar vein to the excellent Moonseed, Titan starts off rather slowly. I personally didn't find the political background particularly enthralling and fear that the early lack of pace could dissuade some readers from completing the book. Once the mission starts however, Baxter's research really pays off and I was totally hooked. The physical dangers, smells, claustrophobia and sheer cruddy squalor of space travel has never before been so vividly portrayed. I now have some understanding of the heroic feat of those guys on Mir! Someone criticised the book because they disliked the characters. I would argue that this is because the characters seem so real, with their hang-ups and warts and all - just like the rest of us! This is far more satisfying than the one-dimentional caricatures you tend to find in a Bova novel for example. OK, so Mr NASA expert could pick a few holes in the technology, but to the average punter, this is the next best thing to being there (not that I'd particularly want to!). Great stuff and a suitably visionary ending.

There's something very rewarding about Titan. It's more measured in pace than most books I've read, but it's written with a careful attention to detail, a broad (and sometimes frightening) view of the future, and real originality. This is one to take your time with and enjoy.

Titan features an ensemble cast of characters - all of which have flaws. It doesn't dwell on them individually for too long (which some reviewers here fault it for). But for the story it's trying to tell, breadth should trump depth. I enjoyed the range of individuals present; their combined observations give the story a lot more detail and make it more complete.

Some readers dislike the course that the world takes in this near-future book. Frankly, I'm chilled by Baxter's apparent prescience. Of course the incident with the Columbia at the beginning of the book is pretty unsettling - I'm sure Baxter wishes he'd written the scene with a different shuttle. But the course America takes over the novel is also chilling, and not too far from our current trajectory. We may not have an administration that has eschewed space exploration, but the Maclachlan character has a few other similarities with the present president that should give us pause.

The details of the mission to Titan are fascinating, even if occasionally disgusting. Baxter really did his homework on the effects of prolonged space travel on human physiology - the book is really remarkable in that regard.

The drama in this book takes a little while to build, but I was hooked by its portrayal of a space program in deep malaise, and by the desperate struggle of the astronauts, once sent into space. Titan builds to a tremendous conclusion - one worth waiting for. Be patient with this book - you will not regret it.

Titan portrays an incredibly bleak and depressing view of the future. Except for one scene on Titan, the entire novel is bereft of the hope or wonder possible in SF. Unrelenting gloom-and-doom. Aldous Huxley was more uplifting. The characters are unworthy of compassion, and are without depth or humanity. The Earth politics are overwrought and highly implausible.

The ending feels entirely out of place and incredibly improbable. For such a seemingly well researched, scientifically possible SF novel, the hand waving here incredible. And the sex scene here defies all reason. Baxter should have stopped before the epilogue.

The novel is also uneven in terms of detail. Baxter chooses to highly detail some scenes, then gloss over other portions. I could have lived without the in-depth bodily function reports on Titan, for example, yet the double Venus flybys were never described at all.

The NASA / USAF / military industrial complex portion seems a pathetically transparent plot device. Baxter should leave the conspiracy theories to Oliver Stone.

Why did I finish this book? Because I was on a 6-hour flight from Boston to Seattle and I couldn't toss it out the window.

"Titan's" initial concept is simple: Humans travel to Titan, seeking what they think may be some form of life.

The book itself is much less coherent than that. Involving a poorly-conceived global crisis, based upon faulty understandings of American, Chinese, and global politics, the Christian movement in the United States government, and the book suffers horribly for it.

Flat characters, a plot that develops much, much too slowly, and an over-large cast drag the book down throughout. Of particular annoyance to me was that Baxter includes an entire story-arc that adds absolutely nothing.

The arcs are as follows:

i. The mission to Titan

ii. An arc involving the Chinese astronaut Jiang Ling

iii. An arc involving several supporting characters that bears little coherence, and adds absolutely nothing to the novel.

"Titan", weighing in at just short of 700 pages, could have easily been pared down to 500, to give a better-tuned tale.

Please don't mistake me: I have no problem with long novels; I'm a big fan of Stephen Donaldson, and he is notorious for length, but this novel didn't need it.

"Titan", as a novel, may be a train-wreck, but as a piece of hard science fiction, it is spectacular unto the end. Of particular note, I found the "think-big" ending very interesting, philosophically and scientifically.

I've read Mr. Baxter before, and enjoyed him. Particularly, "Manifold Origin" and "Ring", but I find myself reluctant to recommend this book to even the hard science fiction fans.

Unfortunately, Ben Bova wrote this book, better. It's called "Titan (The Grand Tour)."

Stephen Baxter's "Titan" is all about good ol' NASA space exploration and politics.

Everything starts in the year 2004, when NASA's Cassini probe detects indications of life on Titan (that moon of Saturn). However, due to the anti-science atmosphere of USA's concervative and closed-minded politics, it is up to a couple of NASA's most brilliant minds to launch a low-cost mission to Titan for further investigation. In lead of those science enthusiasts is Paula Benacerraf, a middle aged NASA technician and astronaut and a grandmother of two boys.

After a long political struggle, a chiep space vessel build from age old Apollo modules descends from the surface of the Earth with a crew of five, with Paula Benacerraf as the mission supervisor. After that the novel is divided into two levels, as it describes the mission to Titan while also concentrating on the deteriorating political situation on Earth.

The book is filled with minor characters that don't often contribute enough (or at all...) to the story. Only Benacerraf, who's a minor main character, gets properly developed as the character building aspects are left at minimal, hence rendering all the other chracters flat and two dimencional.

Stephen Baxter's writing is barren and uninspired, at most times devoid of color and nuances. It's also overly descriptive and babbling, giving the novel a strong sence of it being overwritten.

There are also big problems with the construction and the pacing of the surprisingly plotless story. The novel is filled with long, uneventfull scenes and it relies on improbable events that arise out of nowhere, wich renders the credibility of the story under question. And on top of that, the book is filled with pointless subplots that don't contribute to the story as a whole. Even more irritatingly a lot of questions are left unanswered as the sublots are left unfinished, as if due to incompetent editing.

And it doesn't help one bit that the ending of the book is simply not baliavable and it diminishes the credibility of the novel to a point where it seems to be only a waste of time.

Nevertheless, at times the book conveyed a true sence of childlike wonder and scienticic and intellectual intrigue, but it could have used more beliavability and substance. A lot more.

I have slowly become a fan of Baxter's books, but must warn the unfamiliar that he can be downright depressing! This book is a good example of that. Never have I felt so in touch with the isolation and blackness of long-term space voyages. I have now concluded that chemical propulsion techniques for exploring the planets are simply no good. We need something like VASIMR or possibly nuclear engines for this to happen responsibly. But read this - it will bring the solar system alive for you!