When I first saw this book, I was interested. It is a first contact story. Other similar stories that I have enjoyed include the following:
Rendezvous with Rama, by Arthur C. Clarke
2001: A Space Odyssey, by Arthur C. Clarke
Childhoods End, by Arthur C. Clarke
The Mote in God's Eye, by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle
The Engines of God, by Jack McDevitt
Infinity Beach, by Jack McDevitt
The Heechee Saga, by Frederik Pohl
Many books of this type, particularly ones that take place in relatively modern times (that is, the 21st century or earlier), focus mostly on the trip there, and the dangers of the trip, finishing up with contact only near the very end of the story, perhaps in the last 50 pages or so.
I was initially concerned about this book for several reasons.
First, it was by an author I was unfamiliar with, and in addition it was an author who mostly writes detective thrillers, not science fiction (although, the detective thrillers are bestsellers, which was a good sign).
Second, I was concerned that the book would mostly be uninteresting details about the trip, and would end in the last few pages with the alien contact.
Third, there were several reviews stating that the book was terrible and boring and some of these reviews spoke highly of Mr. Sandford's Prey books (which I have not read, so I can't offer a comparison, but given his writing style I would have to assume that they are very good if you are into detective stories). While this could be construed as a a dislike of science fiction - well, I would not classify this story as hardcore science fiction, it is more like NASA 50 years from now. The real story here is about people.
The main encouraging news was a rave review by Stephen King (who mentioned that Michael Crichton, one of my favorite authors, would have loved this book, but could never have written it). So I decided to take a chance on it, and I'm glad I did.
From the opening chapter, the story is very enjoyable. The characters are interesting, the dialogue is wonderful, and the ideas concerning the spaceship are really interesting (being a software engineer, I can relate to solving complex problems under pressure). The makeup of the crew even reminded me somewhat of Michael Crichton's Sphere, which had a crew of specialists created specifically for a first contact scenario - although to a lesser extent in Saturn Run.
The backstory of Saturn Run is somewhat similar to that of 2001: A Space Odyssey (rivalry/tension between super powers - in this case, the United States and China), and situations arise which lead to mistrust and violence, and as in 2010: Odyssey Two, there is plenty of political intrigue and danger, and I felt that the human factor was well explored in the scenarios played out during the story. As far as the journey is concerned, let's just say it isn't boring - there is plenty going on to keep the reader interested.
While reading this book, each of my concerns was dispelled, and I was happily surprised that contact occurs much sooner than the last 50 pages, although it was not necessarily the type of contact I was expecting. I'll say it is sort of like the next step between Carl Sagan's Contact and Arthur C. Clarke's Childhood's End and leave it at that. I'll also say that I enjoyed this as much as, maybe even more than, several of the books I mention above, which is fairly high praise.
All in all, I felt that this was a tremendous read, and an unexpected story from an author who specializes in something completely different, and I do hope that Mr. Sandford and Ctein revisit this literary territory again in the future.
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