Saturnalia

Rating:
Summary: Classic -- to me, anyway :)
Review: I love this book. I've worn it to the nub reading it since 1986. Grant just created a universe I enjoyed visiting, and I hope he writes the third book.

Rating:
Summary: Storyline from back of book
Review: Saturn Alia by Grant Callin

Professor Kurious Whitedimple was an unassuming teacher of archaelology at Space-Home University. Possessor of a boring life and a boring future. Junior Badille was a 20-year-old wrinkled gnome with an improbably high IQ. Living with his parents in an isolated research station orbiting Saturn at 3.5 million kilo-meters. Possessor of a lonely life and a short future. Teh odds of these two meeting, sharing high adventure, and forming a lasting friends were astronomical - on the same order, for instance, as the accidental artifcat on the surface of Iapetus...

Rating:
Summary: Great Hard Sci-Fi
Review: This book has some great engineering and solar system geography. Mr. Callin's incredible descriptions of Saturn and her moons is breathtakingly rich and intense . The plot is great, the science is magnificent. This book has some of the best spaceflight passages I have read. It's a must have, and I am sorry to see it out of print.

Rating:
Summary: This is an incredible book, similar to Heinlein.
Review: This is one of the best SF books I've ever read. I just finished reading it for the third time, and it got me again with its great characters and gripping plot. The transformation of Dr. Kurious Whitedimple from mild-mannered professor of Archeology to hairy-chested space hero is gradual and highly enjoyable. I don't like the sequel, _A Lion on Tharthee_, quite as well, but it's also a very good book. I wish Grant Callin had been more successful/written more books.