Books For Dinner: Saturn Run by John Sandford & Ctein

Saturn Run
by John Sanford and Ctein
Hardcover, 486 pages
G.P. Putnam's Sons, October 6, 2015
3 stars

The year is 2066, and what is clearly a sign of intelligent alien life is spotted near Saturn. The Chinese are ready to colonize Mars. The President of the US is a woman with an ego that won't be beat. There are several people who are needed to create a ship to get to Saturn and get back home with the information the Aliens are willing to share. And, we must beat the Chinese. And, it must be done from scratch. Begin! This is the premise that starts the book and pushes the reader into the second 3/4 of story. The start has a lot of promise for an exciting Saturn Run.

As a Sandford fan, I have a certain expectation for character development, a plot that plows forward supported by the narrative and sharp dialogue based on solid fact and an informed reader. Sandford is a great author for assuming his reader has at least a moderate understanding of science and current events. This book didn't deliver the character development that I expect from a John Sandford novel, and as it's about twice the length of his usual books, I found this harder to accept.

I enjoy sci-fi books. I have a fairly informed scientific mind, and I thought that the premise of the book was quite well founded. The pages and pages of detail to back up this science did not add to the book for me. I asked people who have more science based background than I have for their input and thoughts, but as an average reader, it was just too much science and not enough fiction.

The story, the plot, the movement are good - but not great. It's more of a 3.5 in my mind - I need more from my characters when I'm spending 491 pages of reading time, I want more story and I want to feel invested in the characters.

The visual of this book is amazing - the dust cover and the beautiful book binding and cover art beneath are stunning. I loved how much effort went into the aesthetics of the hardcover of this book. I'm happy to own it and have it on my shelves, but I know I won't re-read it several times.