It's funny, I never would have picked up this book if it weren't for my husband. He picked it out at the bookstore, he brought it home, and he started enthusiastically reading it. Exactly 162 pages later, he put it down in disgust, saying - I kid you not - "This book is awful! Nothing happens! It's all about the people!" Hmmm, I thought. That sounds like something I might like! So I picked it up to see for myself.
The Grand Tour Titan is part of Ben Bova's Grand Tour, a series I've long been aware of thanks to working in a bookstore popular with sci-fi fans. The Grand Tour series is currently made up of 17 books (including a book of short stories) that take place in the same universe and have some overlap in terms of time line and characters, but are nevertheless self contained and can be read in any order. I realized halfway through reading Titan that I actually read the first of Ben Bova's grand tour books, Mars, way back when it first came out and I was in college, about 17 years ago.
Titan Is all about the people who live on The Goddard, a huge "sewer pipe" shaped habitat that orbits Titan, one of Saturn's moons. The purpose of The Goddard is ostensibly scientific study, but most of the people who live there are not scientists. Instead they are exiles. Nearly 10,000 people who can never return to earth, outcasts of the New Morality that now governs their home planet.
When we enter the story of Titan, it feels like we've just started watching a soap opera that's been in progress awhile and we somehow have to keep up. A lot is in progress, and many characters are already in turmoil. But, we arrive with the character Pancho, a millionairess who has come aboard The Goddard "only temporarily" - or so she keeps saying - to visit her little sister Holly, who is now the head of human resources and a very important person on the habitat.
Meanwhile, one of the scientists thinks she's stumbled upon a life form in Saturn's rings, which will prevent the mining of Saturn's rings for water ice, the most valuable commodity in the solar system. This doesn't sit well with the Chief Administrator, who is worried about running for reelection and wants to sell himself as the candidate who will make the citizens of The Goddard rich through mining the rings. A retired daredevil stuntman is facing pressure to risk his life again, this time for the sake of science. Another scientist is in despair because his baby, the exploration probe Titan Alpha, has landed on the surface of Titan and is now malfunctioning.
There's a lot of drama going on on The Goddard.
The Good Character Driven Obviously some sci-fi readers are all about the action. If that's you, then this book is not for you. Personally, I don't care much about that. Action's great, but the important thing in this book is the characters, and this book is entirely driven by them. And Ben Bova is fantastic at creating characters who feel real. Even the bad guys are multi-dimensional and interesting.
Mystery You think you know what's going on with this book. After 162 pages, my husband thought he knew what was wrong with the Titan Alpha. I thought I knew what the "life forms" in Saturn's rings were all about. In the end, and indeed all along the way, there are plenty of surprises. The mysteries are revealed increment by fascinating increment. It kept me reading.
The Not So Good? Well, if I have a complaint to make about this book it's that it's a bit too much like a soap opera. There are a lot of characters, and they all seem important, and they actually are a bit tough to keep track of as you're reading. So many names, so many relationships, it was actually kind of a challenge for me to remember who was dating who, etc. I can totally see why my husband didn't like this book. I was even bugged by that, but just a little bit.
Final Thoughts If you're all about the action and couldn't care less about characters and their relationships, then this book is definitely not for you. If you're all about the characters - as I am - but enjoy a sci-fi setting, then you'll like this one.
Master storyteller Ben Bova continues his multi-volume Grand Tour saga chronicling humanity s exploration of near space with TITAN, a fast-paced thril...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
The gigantic colony ship Goddard has at last made orbit around the ringed planet Saturn, carrying a volatile population of more than 10,000 dissidents...More at Audible.com
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