Mystery/Thriller Reading Friends discussion

This is the first segment for commenting on Saturn Run Chapters 1-22.
The first to post may please provide a short summary to guide the discussion. Is the book starting out the way you expected for a John Sandford novel? (albeit one set in the future)

Chapters 1-3. This is quite different but the humor brings to mind other John Sandford books. Fairly technical and intriguing. We meet two characters that I expect will be important as the story is revealed. Joe Martinez, a space handyman who specializes in adhesives; and Sanders "Sandy" Heacock Darlington, a surfer, grad student, vet who discovers something quite unusual in space- is it an alien spaceship?

Chapters 4-8 A man named Crow is recruiting for a mission to discover what the alien ship is all about - the object Sandy spotted in orbit near Saturn that appears to have rendezvoused with another object near Saturn using incredible technology.
Naomi Fang-Castro (Captain on the Space Station) is pegged as mission Captain; Sandy is recruited as military muscle; Rebecca Johansson as a Nuclear Physicist and John Clover (Ninth Ward) is asked to join as the Anthropologist. The Chinese are fed a story about a Mars mission.

I listened for a couple of hours yesterday and was pleasantly surprised. I enjoyed the look at each team member and how they were recruited. I especially liked John Clover, the eccentric anthropologist, and found his worries about his cat perfectly reasonable.

The bits of technology have served to remind me that the setting is sometime in the future but, beyond the very first chapter and the explanation of Rebecca Johansson' work, have not been too detailed to make my attention wander.

While still listening, I also downloaded the Kindle version so I could help out with some of the chapter summaries:

Chapters 9-12
The team gets to go up to the space station for the first time and netcast reporter Cassandra Fiorella joins them. The ride up is improved by some very good pills. Becca can't enjoy the ride though since she is stewing over heat flow integrals but an idea dawns on her. Sandy proves he has some skills and bonds with Martinez. Becca's idea is not universally lauded but no one can come up with anything better and the cat loves space.

Chapters 13-16
The netcast is a hit. The mystery ship leaves and the secret is out. The Chinese decide to go to Saturn. The President demands that the US get there first. Lots of techie jargon but an idea is hatched. Unfortunately the testing goes wrong and there is an explosion. Becca stands up to the President and tells her off.

Chapters 17-20
Fang-Castro and Clover ruminate on what dangers they might encounter and the work on the ship continues. Sandy, Fiorella, and Clover plan to make some easy cash. The President blows a gasket over a government study about the Nixon. The launch date is fast approaching. A vending machine accident triggers a flashback for Sandy. The Nixon launches.

Chapters 21-22
Becca is interviewed by NPR to explain the differences in the Chinese ship vs. the Nixon. The crew adapts to space travel and concentrates on keeping their bodies fit in the low grav.

These chapters were much more science than fiction and there were quite a few info-dumps but I did think it was handled pretty well and the tech did not become too overwhelming. Lots of humorous incidents were woven in too and more tidbits about the main characters.

Still enjoying the story and assume that now that the USSS Nixon has launched there will be more action.

Thanks for the great summaries Sandi! I loved the science in this segment, and that the cat loves the zero (or 10% artificial) gravity of space. The visual images of space that are described are fascinating, from Sandy and Joe's playful maneuvers around the space station in the eggs, to Captain Naomi Fang-Castro's window view. I like the assemblage of characters, hope Sandy's post combat trauma isn't an issue and wonder if the story is the journey, or if the alien space ship/ station or technology wil be an integral part.
With The Martian we didn't know how or if they would beat the odds; here, the potential story arc directions seem limitless so far.

Interesting story so far. Like Te space race element giving the suspense and interest. Some really great characters. I agree with sandi that clover is great and i love his insights. He adds a nice bit of humour to the story as well. How adorable is his attachment to his cat. His comments and lack of conviction at the end of this section was ominous though.

All these firey women are great but gee I wouldnt want to deal with them.
The sandy and forielli relationship betting will be fun to see how they play with it.

I agree Ann the science is impressive and consistent with current technology rather than unbelievable made up stuff like warp drive engines and weird energy reactors. I wondered if the detail included is necessary but concluded it will be relevant as the book goes on.

Jack: I thought the balance of technology details and character development was well done. Rebecca's Science Friday segment and Fiorelli's video segments were good devices to impart details in interesting ways. Sandy's involvement was intriguing and the strong female characters are a plus. I am a Science Friday podcast follower, so that really connected with me.
The story and t he science, while obviously futuristic, seems attainable. My Kindle library loan expired, wasn't it a 'Virgin Air shuttle' taking them upto the station? - something we hear about private enterprise pursuing.

Ann wrote: "My Kindle library loan expired, wasn't it a 'Virgin Air shuttle' taking them up to the station? - something we hear about private enterprise pursuing. "

Yes, it was Virgin-Space-X that flew them to the station.

As for Ann’s initial question, is the start of the book what you would expect for a Sanford novel – in a word, no. I tend to agree with Barry’s comment on the initial, no-spoiler section, “I did not see much of Sanford in this book, other than his name on the cover.” It does not at all seem like Sanford to me, but of course, it doesn’t have to sound like him to be good. Whether it is good…we’ll see.

A few reactions so far. First, I tend to like the scientific and technical realism. I have zero background in rocket engine tech, but it had an authoritative feel. And a bit of digging shows that the concepts for the technology is right out of recent NASA contracts and research. I personally like the intellectual curiosity that the science arouses to go with the…hopefully…fiction-based suspense and tension.

As for the tension based on the fiction, it seems a bit slow in coming. A lot of this first part seems to be building grist for the latter story (perhaps) in the collection of personalities brought onboard. For my tastes, the government team transitioned from the threat to humanity that the alien ship posed to the threat to technological dominance getting to Saturn after the Chinese posed. Would we really dash off to an alien space base without considering self-defense more fully? Are we really that sure they’re going to want to hand it over and that they aren’t up there getting ready to accelerate a moon into the Earth? I’d want to know a lot more about them and their capabilities before I went on what might become essentially an interplanetary burglary mission.

Maybe it’s a male perspective, but wasn’t the emotional issue of Fang-Castro keeping the secret of her mission from her fiancé a bit overblown? With all the jobs that require confidentiality – the health field, new technology in nearly any field, industrial products in almost every industry, financial data, personally identifying data, not to mention national security and law enforcement – isn’t discretion expected in a lot of jobs? I know being gone for years is a bit different than not talking about your company’s latest widget, but still, your partner keeping quiet seems to come with lots of different types of work…but maybe that’s just me.

Bruce: excellent points, and I agree - the government focus shift from considering if the alien ship was a threat to humanity that morphed into a full blown race to get into space and gather technology seemed like a fast shift and somewhat one dimensional
They could have been using the Star Trek mission as a guide, "To boldly go where no one has gone before", but safety seemed to quickly become focused on having technology other Earth countries did not possess instead of defending the planet.

Bruce wrote: ".Maybe it’s a male perspective, but wasn’t the emotional issue of Fang-Castro keeping the secret of her mission from her fiancé a bit overblown? With all the jobs that require confidentiality – the health field, new technology in nearly any field, industrial products in almost every industry, financial data, personally identifying data, not to mention national security and law enforcement – isn’t discretion expected in a lot of jobs?.."

No not just a male perspective, I had the exact same reaction to the whole Fang-Castro/fiancé situation and therefore was initially very dubious about Fang-Castro as the leader of the mission. At that point of the book I even looked up whether Ctein was male or female because that whole characterization just did not ring true and since he was male decided the two male authors had thrown that in that thinking that was how women might react.

On the other hand, I guess I did feel like there was some Sandford in the book. Maybe I was influenced by the audio narration by Eric Conger, who also performs the Virgil Flowers books, but I felt Sandy was cut from the same cloth as Virgil and felt the camaraderie of the crew working on the Nixon was similar to the team in the Lucas Davenport books.

Nice points bruce, felt the same about fang catro and her wife. Thought it was over the top too. The goverments did throw caution to the wind to get first access to the tech but i think it was reasonably explained away.
I thought the science was realistic as well and made for interesting reading.

Sandi: Identifying areas where Sandford's influence on the writing is apparent was in the back of my mind as I listened/read and I agree the comraderie of the team, and both the Sandy and Crow characters gave a sense of his Davenport or Flowers series style.
Sandi wrote: "I guess I did feel like there was some Sandford in the book. Maybe I was influenced by the audio narration by Eric Conger, who also performs the Virgil Flowers books, but I felt Sandy was cut from the same cloth as Virgil and felt the camaraderie of the crew working on the Nixon was similar to the team in the Lucas Davenport books. ."

I still have a hard time seeing Sandford in this book, but I've only read a portion of his works. I've read only one of the Flowers series, but lots of the Prey books. And the thing I'm missing from them is the tension. Some of those were real 'stay up all night books' because I wasn't going to get any sleep anyway. And Davenport, though rich and in law enforcement (which is a bit out of the norm) is not a Sandy to me. Sandy strikes me more like the prototypical thriller hero - extreme on two or more traits which are generally not related in the real world. In his case, the rich/playboy who is also the extreme patriot who requires combat-level risk to feel alive. Davenport felt like people I have met; Sandy, not so much. The comradery...yeah, I can see that.

Bruce: I've only read the first Virgi Flowers book myself. I do have Heat Lighting lined up to rectify that and will be watching on the reverse for parallel notes. As for Sandy being like Davenport, no, not much except they are both rich. I agree Sandy is quite different and more of an enigma.

Sandi wrote: "On the other hand, I guess I did feel like there was some Sandford in the book. Maybe I was influenced by the audio narration by Eric Conger, who also performs the Virgil Flowers books, but I felt Sandy was cut from the same cloth as Virgil and felt the camaraderie of the crew working on the Nixon was similar to the team in the Lucas Davenport books...."

Chiming in very late in the game to say "me too" on Sandi's point about seeing Sandford in the book.

I forgot there was a group read on this -- I should have posted along as I finished each section, even though I just finished it a month or so ago. However, looks like there is great discussion here so far, so I'll pipe in as stuff strikes me.

The whole ship pool on when Sandy and Fiorella would get together just cracked me up, and I loved the comment that because these were scientists they turned it from a pool to a financial marketplace -- very funny! In a way it's a play on what I as a reader was doing -- wondering if and when these two would get together, an obvious potential plot development.

Carol: how fun that you chimed in on Saturns Run today. I loved the discussions of this book and enjoyed revisiting the conversations again. I agree, the pool on when Sandy and Fiorella would get together was similar to the way many readers probably viewed their interaction; and it was something that would occur in a Sandford novel along with a bit of humor and for me, a question of could they pull it off and keep the others in the dark to drive up the pool (and would they) and how it might affect their actual desire to get together.
Having since read a couple more Virgil Flowers series books I can agree that I see some traits of Virgil in Sandy.

Carol good to see you add your two cents.

This was one of my favorite discussions in 2016 and really enhanced my enjoyment of the book so look forward to your thoughts.