Saturn Returns (Astropolis) (Paperback)

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• This item: Saturn Returns (Astropolis) by Sean Williams

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Review
"In SATURN RETURNS, Sean Williams has created a compelling story of personal bravery and loyalty set against a huge backdrop of galactic disaster and the very end of civilization" -- Kevin J. Anderson, New York Times bestselling author of HUNTERS OF DUNE 'Imre Bergamasc wakes to find himself aboard a starship belonging to the Jinc, independent components of a human hive-mind which is searching for God on the edge of the Milky Way. Bergamasc has little recollection of his previous life, other than that he was a man. He's now a woman, rebuilt from DNA and memory downloads the Jinc salvaged from his partially destroyed life-raft. On learning that he was a soldier of fortune before his death, and fearing the Jinc's motives, he escapes and locates his former colleagues-in-arms and his lover. Only then can he piece together his former identity and work out what happened to the human race while he was dead. In the first book of the Astropolis trilogy, Williams renders the passage of aeons, and the rise and fall of civilisations, with cosmic poignancy.' GUARDIAN 'Adelaide author, Sean Williams writes exceedingly good space opera. He's a master storyteller, carefully crafting tales that keep readers on the edge of their seats. Saturn Returns, his latest and the first in an exhilarating trilogy, is scientifically credible, ambitious, adventurous and thrilling. Williams' characters reside within complexly ornate social structures and in societies as elaborately elegant as a computer chip. The passion shows. The characters are wonderfully realised including one who speaks only in Gary Numan's song lyrics. With darkly brooding suspense and stylish plot twists, Williams shows his talent for placing his protagonist in impossible situations, where his worst enemy may be a portion of his own missing memory. Was Imre Bergamasc responsible for the fall of civilisation? Why did they resurrect him from information stored in a time capsule only to try and kill him again? Determined to learn the truth, Bergamasc puts his life - and the lives of his friends- in jeopardy. Saturn Returns is a wildly original, totally convincing, all-round wonderful novel.' THE INDEPENDENT 'Well-written, exciting and surprisingly smart despite being very accessible, it is genuinely difficult to find fault with Sean Williams' Saturn Returns but I think that maintaining the perfectly balanced lightness of touch will become increasingly difficult as the series goes on. The fact that the book's plot relies so much on conspiracies wrapped up in concepts of personal identity means that Williams faces a real challenge in trying to keep the series both intelligent and fun without either fudging the plot or bogging the whole thing down in endless exposition. This concern aside, Saturn Returns is a great little book and I honestly look forward to the rest of the series.' SF DIPLOMAT 'Sean has produced some good work in the past; he's had the opportunity to flex his writing muscles in a wide variety of projects. In Saturn Returns, I felt a new assuredness, a strength of voice that was compellingly entertaining and thought-provoking. Saturn Returns is Sean's best yet--go out and buy it.' AUREALIS

Product Description
When former mercenary commander, Imre Bergamasc, awakes in the 879th Millennium, 200 years after he died, he understandably has a few questions, such as: why are large chunks of his memory missing? And why is he now a woman? Resurrected from information stored in a partially destroyed time capsule, he finds that things have changed during the two centuries he was dead. Now, following a galaxy-wide disaster known as the Slow Wave, the Continuum has collapsed, the bright galactic empire reduced to millions of disparate systems in various states of disarray. Reunited with his old team-mates - or, at least, reasonable facsimiles thereof - Imre must piece together both the fragments of his memory and the story of civilisation's fall. The more he digs the more suspicion dawns that the two issues are far from separate. Was the Imre Bergamasc he no longer remembers an unwitting pawn in the fall of civilisation? Or was he, in fact, the architect? And if unknown parties have gone to such extreme lengths to resurrect him, why are they now trying to kill him? Again.

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4 Reviews 5 star:    (0) 4 star:  (2) 3 star:  (2) 2 star:    (0) 1 star:    (0)           Average Customer Review 3.5 out of 5 stars (4 customer reviews)		Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Most Helpful Customer Reviews   6 of 6 people found the following review helpful: 4.0 out of 5 stars Just good, satisfying, sci-fi fun., 12 Mar 2008 By  M. Wilkins (Manchester, UK) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)    This book was clearly meant to be exactly what it is and appears to be. Unlike the author of the first user review of this book I am very much interested in science fiction and I feel it deserves a little more credit. This is a solid and entertaining sci-fi. It's like a good episode of a decent show or a film of the same genre. Aside from one or two inexcusably cheesy lines in the first couple of chapters I was thoroughly entertained throughout. The light speed barrier hasn't been broken, so everything is on a huge time scale, there are different versions of the same people, there are hive minds, super human abilities, a vast decaying communications ring, fights, chases, interstellar journeys, a little sex, a lot of anger, big ships, little ships, dusty planets and even some gender re-assignment. We even get treated to a little realism in terms of the physics of space flight and orbital mechanics, to keep the uber geeks happy. What more do you need in a sci-fi? If you're into this kind of thing, it's a good read. I'll be buying the next books in the series ("Cenotaxis" is on order). Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)   2 of 2 people found the following review helpful: 4.0 out of 5 stars A great space opera on a huge canvas, 3 Nov 2008 By  Mark Chitty (North Wales) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)    This review is from: Saturn Returns (Astropolis) (Paperback) The Slow Wave has hit the galaxy and has wrecked the Continuum in its wake. The Forts are no more and the line is in chaos as information travelling along it is trawled to find information on this disaster. What was once a united galaxy is now in turmoil as individual systems take control for themselves, resulting in more fighting for power. When the Jinc find pieces of debris from a large artefact on the edge of the galaxy they painstakingly gather all of them together to reveal a drum, one with a back-up of Imre Bergamasc contained inside as data. After they re-create his body and mind using all this data, Imre awakens 150,000 years after his last memories, in a brand new body, unfortunately the wrong sex, and a patchy memory. Although the Jinc try and reassure him it could be due to the recreation of the drum, he has other thoughts and wants answers. A former mercenary for the corps, Imre remembers his team and plans on finding them. After escaping the Jinc with the help of a mysterious object and the key phrase `luminous', he heads for the familiar: the Mandala Supersystem. On entering this system he sees first hand how the Slow Wave has affected the galaxy, no united front and a nagging feeling that he shouldn't just go straight to the first planet he comes across. We follow Imre on a journey to reclaim his past life, to uncover the memories he is convinced are buried and to find out what exactly the Slow Wave is and who is behind it. Firstly, I enjoyed Saturn Returns quite a lot. It's a widescreen space opera with elements of military sci-fi thrown in, which is almost always a good combination. As the first part of projected trilogy (plus one short story) it does everything that it needs to do: the story, universe and characters are set up nicely and good descriptions are used to portray the technology in use. Also, plenty of questions are raised (and some answered) that make Saturn Returns a novel that is difficult to put down. The characters we meet are all unique and each have their own motivations within the main narrative. Although this may sound like it can get messy, it doesn't. All of the former corps members are given enough depth and personality to bring them to life and behave in a way that is both believable and interesting. Constant questions are raised about alliances and the history between them, but it just fits together nicely. As the story revolves around Imre and his journey we spend a lot of time seeing things from his perspective, flashbacks that reveal a little at a time and events that make the pages just turn quicker. We also know only what he does, so there is always the questioning and guessing, trying to put the puzzle together. One of the better aspects of the novel was the time span involved in the galactic history. With the technology to make time pass quicker or slower than Absolute (normal time), hundreds of years can pass in mere days, or days can last hundreds of years. This brings up interesting questions about how this time difference affects the population, but is dealt with convincingly and effectively. There is also the fact that many characters have clones of themselves that run around the galaxy and occasionally the memories are combined when this happens. This is looked upon as an extension of that person, not a separate entity, which is a strange view to understand. Although it's justified in the story, it's a subject that I wasn't entirely convinced about. All in all, Saturn Returns is a great Space Opera novel that has set up the sequel very effectively. With characters and a universe that I look forward to revisiting, Saturn Returns has set the bar high for the sequel - I'm just hoping it the story will continue in such a great way. Highly recommended. Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)   1 of 6 people found the following review helpful: 3.0 out of 5 stars Average Sci-Fi fare, 18 Sep 2007 By  Gareth Wilson "drosdelnoch2" - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)    Sean's futuristic tale that really did leave me wondering exactly what it was intended to do throughout each chapter and whilst this may seem a bit of an odd way to start off a review I can only say this because of the way the book seemed to spin in constant circles only to present something a little different further on to return to a familiar point later. As a reader who is not generally a fan of the Sci-Fi side of things, I was very impressed with certain novel idea's and concepts that the author presented to make this tale engrossing to a certain degree such as the way information was stored. Yet other parts of this novel did to hint that it was but the first part of a jigsaw puzzle that we have to wait to see the bigger pricture for. For that reason alone I will at least read the next novel in the series but I really do hope that it goes further than this tale did. Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this) Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review › See all 4 customer reviews...		Ad feedback   Most Recent Customer Reviews 3.0 out of 5 stars So-so start to new series Sean's futuristic tale that really did leave me wondering exactly what it was intended to do throughout each chapter and whilst this may seem a bit of an odd way to start off a... Read more Published 12 months ago by Gareth Wilson Search Customer Reviews Only search this product's reviews › See all 4 customer reviews...

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