★ 07/27/2015
In this thoroughly absorbing first-contact yarn from author Sanford (the Lucas Davenport thriller series) and photographer Ctein, the Americans and Chinese reenact the fable of the tortoise and the hare in a race to claim the richest scientific find in human history. When Sanders Heacock Darlington takes a position at the Caltech Astrophysics Working Group, it’s only a way to keep himself occupied until his inheritance comes through. By accident, he’s first to observe an alien object decelerating in the solar system. This draws the attention of Crow, security adviser to President Amanda Santeros. Political power and social ideology create a volatile mix, with brinkmanship and errors of hubris that swiftly reduce the characters to their bare humanity. Scenes of wonder and beauty are joined with moments of helpless calamity at a pace that leaves the reader no time to look back and consider what just happened. The authors include plenty of fascinating technology and inside jokes for SF fans, and the conclusion is inevitable and satisfying. Agent: Esther Newberg, ICM. (Oct.)

A terrific story of alien first contact. It’s a book Michael Crichton would have enjoyed, but never could have written...With the able partnership of Ctein, it’s fast, scientifically believable, and peopled by characters who become good friends. Fans of Lucas Davenport and Virgil Flowers will eat this up.”—Stephen King
 
“Three things to now: First, I’m the world’s biggest John Sandford fan. Second: I saw this book and thought... What? Third: I needn’t have worried. It’s vintage Sandford all the way, with all his trademark strengths and insights, except set in the future, not the present. You won’t be disappointed.”—Lee Child
 
“Utterly captivating!...the heart of a breakneck thriller and the mind of the best science fiction (Bradbury and Heinlein come to mind).... Sandford and Ctein have brilliantly pulled off the difficult task of making a very different world familiar, proving that a born storyteller is a storyteller, whether he sets his books on mean streets or in deep space. I, for one, want more.”—Jeffrey Deaver

Ambitious and alluring, “Saturn Run” is sci-fi in the Arthur C. Clarke tradition, but stepped-up and updated.

It's still powered by romance—not of the unknown, but of what could—just possibly—be within our reach.

“John Sandford is an amazing, protean writer, and Saturn Run is a terrific story of alien first contact. It’s a book Michael Crichton would have enjoyed, but never could have written; he didn’t have Sandford’s gift of good humor and his uncanny ear for dialogue. With the able partnership of Ctein, it’s fast, scientifically believable, and peopled by characters who become good friends. Fans of Lucas Davenport and Virgil Flowers will eat this up.”
     
 •  Stephen King 

“Three things to know: First, I’m the world’s biggest John Sandford fan.  Second: I saw this book and thought ... what?  Third: I needn’t have worried.  It’s vintage Sandford all the way, with all his trademark strengths and insights, except set in the future, not the present.  You won’t be disappointed.”
 
•LEE CHILD

Utterly captivating! With the heart of a breakneck thriller and the mind of the best science fiction (Bradbury and Heinlein come to mind), Saturn Run keeps us enthralled from beginning to end. Sandford and Ctein have brilliantly pulled off the difficult task of making a very different world very  familiar, proving that a born storyteller is a storyteller, whether he sets his books on mean streets or in deep space. I, for one, want more.
•Jeffery Deaver

 “James Bond meets Tom Swift, with the last word reserved for…international piracy, state secrets, and a spot of satisfyingly underhanded political pressure.” • Kirkus

“One of the most gifted thriller writers at work in this country or any other.”
•  Richmond Times-Dispatch
 
“John Sandford writes entertainment that is not to be missed. He is consistently brilliant.”
  •  Cleveland Plain Dealer
 
“Sandford has always been at the top of any list of great mystery writers.”
   •  The Huffington Post

"My compliments to Ctein and John Sandford for Saturn Run. I enjoyed it greatly. It's a meticulous novel, 100 percent hard science fiction. A space war is the most difficult thing to portray, and the authors have pulled it off. I was reminded of Footfall, my and Jerry Pournelle's own work, and Carl Sagan's Contact."
  • Larry Niven, Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author of the Ringworld series

05/15/2015
This time 'round, Sandford isn't Prey-ing. He's doing an sf/thriller blend with the help of Ctein, a renaissance man who figures largely in the sf community. In 2066, a Caltech intern notices that an object approaching Saturn is decelerating, which means it's a spaceship. Something out there has technology way ahead of ours, and getting it would confer immense advantage. With a 500,000-copy first printing.

It’s impossible for one man to operate two spacecraft at the same time, but narrator Eric Conger makes an admirable attempt to do so in this space thriller. In 2066, a chance telescope sighting by a Caltech intern reveals a spaceship visiting Saturn. An American brain trust of scientists and bureaucrats decides that the aliens have advanced technology, which will give whichever country captures it a huge advantage, so the politicians order a secret mission to Saturn. The Chinese soon find out about both the mission and the prize, and the space race is on. Conger masterfully employs accents and pacing to create memorable characters on both ships, whether American or Chinese, male or female. It’s a suspenseful journey, and Conger makes listeners happy to be along for the ride. D.E.M. © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine

2015-07-15
Quite a departure for Sandford, who sets aside his Lucas Davenport crime franchise (Gathering Prey, 2015, etc.) and partners with photographer and sci-fi buff Ctein to leave Earth's gravitational field for the rings of Saturn. Sanders Heacock Darlington may be nothing more than a wealthy, handsome intern assigned to the Sky Survey Observatory, but he's the one who accidentally notices the evidence that something's approaching the gravitational field of Saturn and decelerating. Heavenly bodies don't decelerate that way, but spaceships do, and soon President Amanda Santeros (hey, it's 2066) is pulling out all the stops to send a mission to Saturn to investigate. The stakes are so high that only a few people—Capt. Naomi Fang-Castro, who's quickly drafted as mission commander; Dr. Rebecca Johansson, who's charged with designing the ship's power plant; David "Crow" Crowell, the rough-and-ready security chief; and a handful of others—are told from the beginning that Saturn is the destination of the Richard M. Nixon. The goal behind this deception—to keep the Chinese from launching a competing mission—predictably fails, and the space race is on. Unlike their Chinese counterparts, who seem to get all the smooth sailing in the solar system, the Americans are beset by troubles. One of their two power reactors keeps shutting down. An accident in deep space claims a valued crew member. A mathematician aboard the Nixon starts an orgy club. The authors ladle on the tech details and blossoming romances, but the pacing is frustratingly episodic and discontinuous for both the characters and the readers until the ship reaches its destination, at which point the story assumes the momentum it needs to escape the ringed planet's formidable gravitational pull. James Bond meets Tom Swift, with the last word reserved not for extraterrestrial encounters but for international piracy, state secrets, and a spot of satisfyingly underhanded political pressure.