“Trust no one, everything breaks, nothing works as advertised, and if anything can go wrong, it will.” (Saturn Run by John Sandford and Ctein)
WARNING: SPOILER
I’ve never written a review that includes a spoiler before, but here, there’s no way around it. The whole book succeeds or fails because Sandford kills off the only likable main character early on: the smart-mouthed, mid-western engineer, Becca Johansson. Part of me admires this decision as an incredibly brave choice. It’s brave because it’s realistic: even important people die on dangerous adventures in space. It’s brave because Sandford doesn’t use the death to turn the whole book into a graphic, GOT-like, character-killing fest. It’s brave because he cuts off the only love story in the book before it gets a chance to gain traction.
Yet, while brave and admirable and utterly unpredictable, the reason why most authors don’t kill off their main-and-only-likable characters is that books falter without them. They’re the keystone to readability. After Becca dies, the plot line moves forward mechanically, without the twist of humor that defines the first three quarters. Sandford and Ctein give the book a realism that most genre fiction lacks, but they sacrifice much of what makes the book compelling in the process. Is realism worth that much?
Recommended Action: Buy – Borrow Now – Borrow Sometime – Avoid Length: 496 Ending: Not satisfying; too much about the greed of politics instead of science or philosophy Incidental Learning: anthropology, space, engineering Further Reading: This is part of the realistic science fiction movement that was popularized by The Martian. Advertisements Share this:
