Yesterday was Christmas, so I did nothing much at all. Well, I did a few things.
I have rediscovered the joy of a pair of good thick wool socks. Seriously, people! Warm wool on a cold day? You cannot go wrong.
We spent the evening in the big city of St Cloud, having a traditional Christmas dinner with our son at a Chinese restaurant.
And I spent most of the day reading a book. Not any of the science books piled up on my desk, but a thriller. I felt a bit guilty about it, but then decided that nah, I get to take a full day off and screw around. It’s good for the brain to take a break. Also, cozy warm feet take an amazing amount of tension out of your life.
If you’ve visited the Pharyngula store, you may have noticed that one of the items on my “What I’m reading now” is Saturn Run
But now Sandford is trying something different: science fiction, which actually turned out to be more of a near-future techno-thriller, with alien technology as the MacGuffin. Don’t go in expecting a first contact novel: it’s not. An interstellar spacecraft is spotted docking with a satellite in Saturn’s rings, and then zipping away, so the race is on: the Chinese and Americans all rush to get a spacecraft to the mysterious distant object first. I’ll give a minor plot point away — it’s an automated refueling station for aliens, but no aliens are there, although the artificial intelligence running it is friendly and obliging and will trade a limited quanitity of technological information to visitors. It’s actually an interesting proposition, that there’s a diverse collection of intelligences Out There, limited by the speed of light, and that they have a kind of barter system set up at these refueling stations, where they hand out some information to get primitive cultures up to a level where they are good trading partners, and otherwise it’s all a kind of barter system: leave something, you get to take something of equal worth.
So that’s the whole science-fictional premise laid out for you, and it’s not much — it’s the rug that really ties the room together, or the Maltese Falcon, or the Crystal Skull. The orbiting alien station is just the Lost Temple or the Hidden Fortress or the exotic kingdom in the mountains. It really doesn’t matter, the story is about how the heroes get there.
I rather suspect that Ctein provided the technological details. The Americans have to rapidly convert a space station into an ion-drive-propelled high-speed vehicle that can get to Saturn within two years. There’s a lot of gadgetry and speculative physics in this part of the story, with Things That Go Wrong and Disasters That Must Be Overcome. If you liked The Martian
What I think Sandford brought to the story was the conflict, plot twists, and characters. There’s the undercover supersoldier with the trauma in his past; the cunning spy mastermind who’s keeping the situation under control; the brilliant nuclear power engineer who makes it all possible (and she’s from Minnesota, of course); the strong and decisive spaceship captain. Most of the novel is taken up with in-flight drama. How will they make it work? How will the crew cope with the sexual tension of two years in space? Is there sabotage (of course there is sabotage!) Who is the Chinese spy? What will happen when the American and Chinese spaceships arrive at the alien artifact at roughly the same time?
It’s a pretty good read. And at 496 pages, it’s the extra large box of popcorn.
There is, unfortunately, one thing I cannot forgive the author. The name of the American spaceship. It’s called the Richard M. Nixon. Noooooo!
I just listened to the story on audiobook. It’s a good ride, compellingly written, with well-rounded characters. Definitely worth the time!
I’m afraid that I long ago found Sandford’s stock SuperPerfectGoodLookin’GotMoneyMagicalWhiteDude leads to be boring and annoying. I’ll skip.
Doesn’t the thought of Richard Niton being blasted into space and left in orbit around Saturn appeal? And you call yourself a liberal…
What’s wrong with naming a spaceship after America’s last liberal President?
loved it! happy new year!
Oh man, I cannot tolerate wool against my skin. I don’t know how sheep don’t go crazy. That affected my choice of career since men’s suits are just about all made of wool, and I absolutely cannot wear the pants. I’d commit suicide.
I like Mind Prey. So I tried another one and didn’t make it past page 20, for the reasons given in @2.
Knowing nothing about Sandford or Ctein, isn’t this an obvious reference to Nixon Goes To China?
Played correctly, there might be an interesting irony or pun or bit of foreshadowing in there. (Maybe more than one of those! Maybe more than one of each!)
I think I would reserve judgement to see how the name is used….
Thick woolly socks, yes, definitely a Good Thing. Not to wear mind you, but to clothe your frozen water bottle so you can go out on a bicycle in our ridiculously hot weather Down Under and survive.
Against my skin? Never in a month of Sundays, the stuff crawls.
I have to say that I find the author’s name distracting. There is another writer, John Sanford, who after a career of genuine science decided to retire and spend his golden years writing science fiction. And by “science fiction,” I mean lying-for-Jesus Young Earth Creationism. Such as Genetic Entropy & the Mystery of the Genome. The best part of the book is that it has a UFO on the cover.
I know this is in no way the fault of John Sandford, who may be a perfectly competent and honest writer of fiction, but it gets in my way. Sorry.
The plot of the novel reads like a rehash of Rendezvous with Rama by Clarke.
Here’s the Big Idea post Ctein did for the book at Scalzi’s blog.
@Stephen Timberlake, #12:
The researchers who unearthed C. proponentsists?
Any excuse is a good excuse to call up a member of that noble profession.
@2Caine
Sometimes it’s fun to read about a SuperPerfectGoodLookin’GotMoneyMagicalWhiteDude who doesn’t always take himself seriously so I don’t always take him or the books he’s in so seriously, just as good, fast reads like PZ says. Sandford’s strengths are the interplay between the characters, snappy dialog and (usually) interesting criminals. I like science fiction, I liked The Maritian, so I have a feeling I’ll like Saturn Run as well.
The US vs. China in a race to alien technology while the rest of the world twiddles our thumbs. Doesn’t sound like something I’d want to read.
Here’s a funny fact: The only two blogs I regularly read are Pharyngula and The Online Photographer. Ctein writes fascinating technical articles for the latter (which is more often concerned with the artistic aspects of photography).
Oh, and given the political leanings of both Ctein and John Camp (John Sanford) I can pretty much guarantee you that the naming of the ship “Nichard Nixon” is a joke.
I haven’t seen Ctein in years. Nice to know he’s still alive and kicking.
Nothing like warm feet and a good read!
I, too, rather dislike having wool directly against my skin (itchy!), but I find wool socks quite nice as a second-layer-of-socks.
Up next in my reading list is A Vision of Fire by Gillian Anderson. Yes, that Gillian Anderson.
Here’s hoping everyone had a pleasant holiday!
PZ, you BLASPHEMER! Yesterday was our Saviour Sir Isaac Newton’s Birthday!
Redwood @ 14:
I’m aware of Sandford’s strengths, I’ve read a number of his books, and while they were enjoyable, I think, when you are a woman, there’s an equal amount of eyerolls to his strengths. I simply decided to spend my money elsewhere after a while. The SuperPerfectGoodLookin’GotMoneyMagicalWhiteDude is the fucking default in just about every book on the planet. It gets tiring.
My current reading pile:
Binti, by Nnedi Okorafor (short, 55 pages)
Envy of Angels, by Matt Wallace (novella, 135 pages)
Planetfall, by Emma Newman
The Fifth Season, by N.K. Jemisin
A little late, but I wanted to get this in. Sandford lives in NM, and the President in Saturn Run I am guessing bears a resemblance to Susanna Martinez…and not in a good way.
Also a little late. Also enjoyed the book, and most of Sanford’s books. Sanford was a Pulitzer winning reporter before the novels-so he knows how to write. He often does a great job of creating a sense of place; making the locale almost a character. If you want to know what a life threatening north woods winter is like read Winter Prey.
Ctein is a friend, I asked him about the Nixon naming of the ship. Here is his response.
“Well, as we said at the end of the book, we named it the Nixon because
>we thought it was funny. Look at the bright side; John’s first
>inclination was to name it the George W. Bush. He chickened out. So, I
>came back with Nixon.
>
>But once we ran with the name, there were good reasons for it.
>Nixon, after all, is the one who established relationships with modern
>China. Invoking his name as a way of convincing the Chinese in the
>story of the sincerity (hah!) of the US effort is just the kind of
>thing the government would do. There’s an in joke on the
>joke– Nixon went to China not to improve international relations but
>because he thought he could manipulate the Chinese into helping him out
>with his Vietnam problem. Talk about hubris! It didn’t work, of course.
>But it did go to the guy’s character. So here is the US, invoking
>Nixon’s name, to put something over on the Chinese, entirely in the
>spirit of that lying little weasel.
>
>Also, there’s a bit of an historical point (John’s degrees in history),
>which is that 50 years from now China could very well be what Nixon is
>mostly remembered for by most of the world. Watergate?
>Small potatoes. Avoiding another Cold War? Big potatoes.
>
> Think of it this way, how much did you learn about Andrew Johnson in
>school? I mean, really, compared to the very complex post-Civil War
>world of politics. Well, 50 years from now is as far away from Nixon
>as our schooling was from Andrew Johnson. So, you know, things might
>get glossed over just a little bit.
>
>Now you know more than you ever wanted to know about how one author’s
>mind works. [Grin] “