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The Space Race Is on in John Sandford’s Saturn Run
John Sandford fans can probably judge the passing of seasons by the bi-annuals releases of his Lucas Davenport and Virgil Flowers thriller novels. But after a quarter century of writing crime fiction, Sandford has left his serial killer-plagued Minnesota and taken off for the outskirts…of our solar system.
Saturn Run, co-written with photo-artist and legendary SF fan Ctein, is set in 2066. The sighting of an alien spaceship near the titular ringed planet kicks off a space race between the U.S. and China to constructs ships capable of reaching it first—not only for reasons of national pride, but to secure any military advantage alien technology might provide. Paranoia and suspicion between the superpowers travel with the crews of the two spacecrafts rocketing toward the unknown. One wrong move by either crew could start a war on Earth.
Sandford has a knack for writing about technology—his Kidd novels star a computer hacker, and his young adult series, co-written with Michelle Cook, feature sci-fi elements. With Ctein’s help, he commits fully to the genre. The future setting and otherworldly premise explore the plausible science of propulsion methods and orbital mechanics along with a realistic appraisal of a first contact situation. In an author’s note, the co-writer explain how Sandford came up with the idea, and then brought in Ctein to help build a plausible scenario. Their research included using software to map out the paths their fictional ships would take through the solar system.
The crews’ problems are a far cry from Sandford’s usual killers and criminals; Virgil Flowers never had to worry about the proper way to vent engine heat into space. There’s still plenty of action that allows Sandford to show off his skill at building tension and narrative momentum: a hunt for a potential saboteur aboard the American ship adds a comfortable dollop of whodunit to the proceedings, and the moves and countermoves between the Americans and the Chinese have the same flavor as the deadly chess matches Davenport gets into when tracking a killer.
A large cast of colorful characters keeps the fantastical story relatable. Sandy Darlington is an ex-soldier and the first to find the evidence of the alien ship. Seeking a purpose in life, he manages to get a seat on the American ship thanks to his skill with a camera, his rich father, and the government’s desire for him to keep his mouth shut. Crow is a the resident security expert; Captain Naomi Fang-Castro is tapped as the mission commander; engineer Dr. Rebecca Johansson has to push technology to its limits to build the ship’s critical cooling system; John Clover is a brainy anthropologist and alien culture theorist who will only agree to go if he can bring along his aging cat Mr. Snuffles. There’s an endearing camaraderie between the American crew, and the section detailing their journey to Saturn provides an opportunity for character development before the action kicks in.
Sandford’s first foray into space-based adventure deftly combines the style he has honed as a writer of high tension page turners with the carefully considered technical details that make for good hard sci-fi.