Saturn Rukh

Rating:
Summary: Don't Read This Book. . .
Review: . . .for depth of character development! Like many of Forward's novels, there is a definite weakness in that department. HOWEVER, if you like "hard" science fiction -- sci fi which grasps the best that current scientific understanding has to offer, you will thoroughly enjoy this engaging book.

Forward writes of a mission to Saturn's atmosphere in order to build a fuel factory from the (almost) limitless supply of helium contained there. In the process, the crew discovers life -- life supremely suited to its environment.

4.5 for the science, 3 for the plot, 1.5 for the shallow characters. Overall, a 3 -- and a good read.

Rating:
Summary: Another good book by Forward
Review: Can life exist in a gas giant's atmosphere? Intelligent life is
a hard thing to find anywhere in the universe and this book gives us a whale of a story about a sea so far away. A mission of modern science has been to find other intelligent life and communicate with it. Very few unique kinds of intelligent life have been invented by hard science fiction writers. Robert Forward is one of the best at it.

Rating:
Summary: Robert Forward always rights good hard science fiction, but.
Review: I always enjoy the books of Mr. Forward, both the fiction and the science articles. I recommend this book to people who like hard science fiction.

However, looking on page 214,we read his character's description of hiragana "...A single Japanese hiragana character can be either a word or a long phrase..." There is more, and this is simply wrong. Each hiragana is a simple character, and a student could easily learn the entire hiragana set in one day. Each hiragana character represents a simple sound and nothing else. Examples are ka, ki, ku, ke, ko. Mr. Forward is confusing hiragana with kanji! Other than that, a good job.

Rating:
Summary: Great Hard SF
Review: I loved this book. I could hardly put it down. Being a science-oriented person, I had no problem with all the science. It did not seem dry or boring at all. The speculation as to the nature of intelligent life in a non-Terran ecosystem was fascinating. I highly recommend this book.

Rating:
Summary: Hard Science Fiction with plausible conjecture.
Review: Life; death; birth. The discovery of intelligent life within our solar system. Good science with a plausible plot and lots of entertainment along the way. What more could a science fiction fan ask for? It may be hard to quantify, but after reading Saturn Rukh, the reader is left knowing that Dr. Robert L. Forward has produced his magic combination once again. Plausibility is balanced with fascinating speculations of proportions that stretch your mind to provide the best of both worlds -- entertainment and educational enlightenment

Rating:
Summary: A fantastic story, if you can take all the science
Review: Okay, I got to admit, when I first started reading "Saturn Rukh" I didn't enjoy it at all. I thought there was too much technical details and too much scientific talk (which I'm not very interested in myself). But I kept reading and when I was finished I realised this is really a fantastic story. The aliens are impossible to describe. If you enjoy/can take all the science and technical mumbo-jumbo, then pick it up. I can't do nothing but recommend it. Even if you can't take all the scientific terms and technical jibberish, try reading it. It's a really well-written story.

Rating:
Summary: Old-Fashioned SF
Review: Spoilers!!

This is typical Forward: wooden characters whose interactions with each other are totally unbelievable, endless detail of beautiful, real near-future science, silly excuse-for-a-plot, and gorgeous, staggering vistas of real otherworlds and their realistic, amazingly creative inhabitants. The ruus, huge gasbags flying in the atmosphere of Saturn, are far more interesting than the humans who contact them, but Forward always does this. The scenes are giant, brilliantly colored, animated Chesley Bonestell movies: the ruus diving to hunt; the humans "climbing down Saturn's Rings" with the aid of the (real) Hoytether, a kind of super rope which Forward marketed; the funeral of an aged rukh whose flockmates sing as she falls endlessly to the lethal gas layers below; the final battle with an alien monster myth-made-real. If you value character and plot, take your business elswhere. For science and the sheer pleasure of the view, read this!