Saturn Run

I know of John Sandford, but I haven't read any of his books before this one. I think he writes mystery/intrigue thrillers. Saturn Run was better than I expected it to be. It is high tech hard science fiction. It's full of info dumps. If you aren't into that sort of thing then maybe this one isn't for you, but I love it. It's a race to Saturn between the US and the Chinese, after the discovery of an alien presence there. It really is an intrigue thriller in a science fiction setting. John Sandford wrote the story and Ctein, whom I have never heard of, authenticated the science and technology.

I really appreciated the authors' note at the end of the book in which the science is explained. We are told of a term coined by Greg Benford: wanton mechanics. Doncha just love it? It's fake science. "Captain, if we reverse the polarity of the phasers and couple it to the warp drive..." Saturn Run is based on real science and technology that could be feasible in half a century.

If John Sandford's non-sci-fi books are this good, I'm gonna read some of his stuff.