Saturn

May 19, 2003
Too many characters with too many agendas vie for prestige and power en route to Saturn aboard the Space Habitat Goddard
in Hugo winner Bova's middling follow-up to Jupiter
(2001) and Venus
(2002). Ten thousand intellectuals and scientists, mostly people who don't agree with the authoritarian regimes controlled by the religious fundamentalists who've taken over Earth's governments, have volunteered, been asked or been forced to leave on the long one-way journey. Among them are Malcolm Eberly, recruited by the Holy Disciples from a prison in Vienna with strict instructions to ensure the population chooses the path of righteousness. Eberly agrees to his covert task, confident he can impose his own rule, but he finds that gaining control is harder than he thought. Holy Disciple spies continually get in his way, while one of his subordinates murders for a promotion. Blackmail, subterfuge and another planned murder pile on top of Eberly's machinations to rig an election. Though Bova thoroughly explores human motivation and desires, readers will have a hard time figuring out who to root for—is Eberly a good guy or a bad guy?—and an even harder time caring about characters insufficiently fleshed out. Most memorable is the setting, the Goddard, with its echoes of the sailing ships that transported convicts to Botany Bay. (June 9)FYI:Bova is a past president of the National Space Society and the Science Fiction Writers of America.

May 15, 2003
When Earth's leadership decides to "encourage" its dissidents to leave the planet aboard an interstellar habitat destined for Saturn, Susan Lane joins the expedition, eager to begin a new life. Attracted to Malcolm Eberly, the charismatic director of the habitat, Susan (now calling herself Holly) dedicates herself to the task of helping Malcolm organize life aboard the habitat, remaining blissfully unaware of the sinister politics going on among the habitat's leaders and blinding herself to Malcolm's real agenda. Continuing his planetary novels (Venus; Jupiter), Bova expands his vision of a future where conservative followers of the New Morality struggle against scientists and freethinkers for control of the hearts and minds of the human race. Bova's message is sometimes strident, but his storytelling skills and scientific expertise make this sf adventure a good choice for most collections.

Copyright 2003 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 1, 2003
Bova continues his epic of solar system exploration by taking refugees from Earth's formidable fundamentalist theocracies on the long voyage to Saturn. The theocracies, by the way, continue as monoliths of villainy but are more in the background here than in " Jupiter" (2001). Bova's voyagers continue to be well-done archetypes for the most part, hardly as cliche-ridden as the characters in early space-advocacy fiction. The pacing is brisk, and lumps in the exposition are kept under control despite the temptations of yammering on about the technology necessary for the voyage and the wonders of Saturn's system. Regarding the latter, though--now that Arthur C. Clarke has retired and Charles Sheffield has departed, Bova is definitely the man to do justice to the astronomical marvels of the Saturnian system with its enormous potential as a second home for humanity, especially in the complex environments of its moons. Loud, prolonged applause, then, for the strengths of this book.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2003, American Library Association.)