Saturn Returns

Saturn Returns
Sean Williams
Orbit Books

Before I picked up this book, I'd never really taken much notice of the name Sean Williams, though I had heard lots of good things about his fantasy series, Books of the Cataclysm, which was getting excellent reviews and many awards. I knew he had a hard sci-fi book, Saturn Returns, out there somewhere, and I remembered it getting a good review from Graeme, so I finally decided to check it out...

In the space of the far-future, the large galactic empire empire of the Forts -- group of joined, human minds -- rule. Many see their rule as dictatorship. One such man is Imre Bergamasc, leader of the Corps (a mercenary group of fighters) who used to serve the Forts, but now oppose them. That's neither here, nor now, though...

Two hundred years later, Imre awakes on the edge of the galaxy with little or no memories of how he arrived in his current state -- it would seem that being sent to the edge of space, recorded onto the super-civilisation equivalent of a disc, wasn't quite enough for whoever sent him there. Now they're trying to kill him. They haven't quite succeeded -- yet... -- but his time is running out ... so it's quite fortunate that he's been "rescued" by people who incorrectly assumed that his body type was female, oh, and are trying to assimilate him into their collective mind! I also forgot to mention, that the Forts' empire has collapsed following a disaster known as the Slow Wave, and humanity is crumbling, with communication destroyed and war breaking out!

By designs and schemes of which he has little knowledge, Imre is helped to escape, and travels to find the old members of his Corps. Something tells him that he might not be getting the reception he'd hope, however, and that they really don't want to see him ... something about him and "betrayal"...

I seem to have been tremendously lucky in my choice of science-fiction, having not read that much before I started this blog. Since then, reading the works of Charles Stross and others, I do tend to lean towards "hard sci-fi", but that can often come with the baggage of needing a science degree to read, understand, and enjoy! That's not the case of Saturn Returns; for all its talk of Forts and body tempos -- where people are able to change how they see time, and move at slower or faster speeds, relative to those around them -- it's explained in a way that makes it seem simple and natural, as well as the coolest thing in the world. (I am, by the way, a fan of Heroes -- so perhaps Hiro should read this book!)

As can often be the case in sci-fi of this type, none of the characters are particularly likeable, or rather, what they do isn't always nice, but the interactions and relationships that re-develop between the group were intriguing, and, at times, touching, in a book where the sheer scale of devastation and the vastness of what has happened, can make most things harsh and bleak.

A short book (281 pages -- not including the very interesting appendices, and the note from Sean Williams, at the back, which both make for extra, good reading), I whizzed through Saturn Returns, and am really looking forward to the second book in the series. Hopefully, that will build on the sense of mystery experienced in this read, where Imre can never be sure of what is true or not, can't remember who he's betrayed, nor what kind of stuff he's dealing in -- whether he did what he did, for good reasons or for bad -- and whether those reasons will affect what he does now, as he heads back to long-left Earth, where it all started...

An excellent book! I didn't really go much into the worldbuilding -- in something as large as Williams' universe, it can always be difficult to get the balance right between worldbuilding and not info-dumping, and Sean Williams managed it, and well. 8/10.

For more info:

Amazon UK
Amazon US