“Saturn Run” by John Sandford and Ctein – Trials of the Cosmos

Outer space is something that forever has and most likely will continue to hold our attention and fuel our imagination. After all, it is a grandiose world of unimaginable proportions and unthinkable processes that gives way to just about every scenario the human mind can come up with, and more.

There is nothing like going past the frontier and being the one to push space exploration to new horizons, to find another piece of the universal puzzle.

Though our technology still has ways to go until we can actually make the trip, very few things can contain the power of the mind: John Sandford and Ctein take us into deep space in Saturn Run.

The year is 2066, and an anomaly has been discovered: an object decelerating near Saturn. The brightest minds come to the conclusion that it must be a ship of some kind, and whoever built is a century ahead in technological advancements in relation to the human race. Both the United States and the Chinese, forever locked in competition (even in works of fiction it seems), hear about it and scramble for the great space race.

The story follows the small American team that is tasked with venturing out into the deep reaches of space and reclaiming that ship in the name of their country. Needless to say, it marks the beginning of a perilous journey, one that will set new limits for humanity.

Even though Saturn Run is co-authored by Ctein, it isn't a case of a more famous author simply branding their name over a lesser-known author's text to give them more exposure.

Sandford's voice is as clear and recognizable as it ever was, with his dry sense of humour and realistic, well-constructed dialogues. Rather, it seems that Ctein was brought in on-board to give this novel something it probably couldn't survive without: scientific credibility.

Yes, this is a realistic science-fiction novel that contains a lot of technical details about whatever technology they are using. Naturally, all the jargon has been condensed into layman's terms and even though some of the less technically-proficient of us can get lost, it doesn't happen often at all.

If this is your kind of thing, you'll find that learning about the ship itself and the new technologies people have come up with in the past fifty years to be a real treat. Naturally, there are a few instances where the author simply asks you to take his word for how something works, which is forgivable considering it seldom happens.

To focus on the plot itself, much of it is centred on character development as well as hypotheses, suppositions, musings and philosophical remarks about the cosmos, especially in relation to the human race.

Needless to say, there are quite a few twists and turns that will keep you interested, with many of the characters having deep (and of course, mysterious) backgrounds that just beg to be explored.

All things taken into consideration, Saturn Run is well-presented and constructed  novel that manages to incorporate and engrossing story along with technical realism, making it a very interesting choice in the realistic science-fiction genre.

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John Sandford Personal site John Sandford is an American novelist and Journalist who has a Bachelor’s degree in American History as well as a Master’s in Journalism from the University of Iowa. He is best-known for writing novel series, with his most acclaimed ones being the Prey and Kidd series.