Titan

A Tale of Cataclysmic Discovery

By: Ben Bova

Narrated by: Gabrielle De Cuir, Stephen Hoye, Amanda Karr, Stefan Rudnicki

Master storyteller Ben Bova continues his multi-volume "Grand Tour" saga chronicling humanity's exploration of near space with Titan, a fast-paced thriller focused on the first manned mission to the Solar System's most intriguing world. Skillfully blending high drama, passionate characters, and daring speculation with the latest discoveries from the current Cassini/Huygens probe of Saturn's moon, Bova has crafted a heart-stopping tale of epic adventure on mankind's next frontier.

The gigantic colony ship Goddard has at last made orbit around the ringed planet Saturn, carrying a volatile population of more than 10,000 dissidents, rebels, extremists, and visionaries seeking a new life among the stars. Chief scientist Edouard Urbain's avowed mission is to study the enigmatic moon called Titan, which offers the tantalizing possibility that life may exist amid its windswept islands and chill black seas.

But when the exploration vessel Titan Alpha mysteriously fails after reaching the moon's surface, long buried tensions surface among the colonists. Torn by political intrigue, suspicious accidents, and an awesome discovery that could threaten human space exploration, a handful of courageous men and women must fight for the survival of their colony, and the destiny of the human race.

©2006 Ben Bova (P)2006 Audio Renaissance, a division of Holtzbrinck Publishers, LLC

Critic reviews

• Titan: Winner, John W. Campbell Memorial Award, 2006

"The solidly hypothesized science enthralls." (Publishers Weekly)

sad narration

consistent with my opinion of each of the novels in this series.... I just am not digging the multiple voices for individual characters.

Interesting and educational

I enjoyed this story - it kept my interest from beginning to end. The story line was not predictable, which was refreshing. The author added a lot of good solar system information to this novel, which added to its realism. I look forward to hearing it again on my iPod.

Excellent

My favorite of the Grand Tour series, and I love them all. Great narrator, thank heavens he has done most of Bova's books. This book has more stuff happening in it than you can shake a stick at. I never wanted it to end, I just wanted it to go on and on forever. I wanted to be there!

Technology doing what it is told in the Grand Tour

Welcome back Poncho Lane in this installment of the Grand Tour.
Dare Devil do and a probe gone awry set the background of this adventure. The attempt to probe Titan's surface has gone bad and humans are outlawed to touch the surface, how do you repair the probe and not touch the ground? fast paced and well developed story and characters make this book a great listen.

Great Story

I have always enjoyed Ben Bova’s books. This was no exception. I enjoyed the different characters and their interactions.

Social experiment in space

It was great! Social experiment, science project, political turmoil, and romance all rolled into one story.

Good Hard Science Fiction

I guess I grew up reading Ben Bova over the years (the Dueling Machine early on through Mars and Return to Mars later on), so I've always liked his slow paced, realistic writing style that puts character development in front of action.

Titan is as good as any of those books and very well narrated, too. I saw there seemed a lot of negative reviews, but Ben Bova doesn't write pulp fiction. He writes hard science fiction.

This was a good book.

Another great book from Ben

If you haven’t been following the series up to this point, the book may be a lot to understand as it is part of a 20+ series of books. I recommend going through in order if you can and this book will seem much better than if read alone. Anyway, I enjoyed it and hope you do too.

One of my Favorite Books Ever

I've listened to this audiobook four times. It's a most excellent story with great action, believable characters, good dialog, and marvelous narration by some of the best readers. I have recommended this book to other readers and will continue to do so.

5 stars for Poncho Lane

Great sequel to Saturn, if not quite as engaging. Most of the thrills and adventure were already covered in Saturn as well as the scientific concepts. But fans of Poncho rejoice - she's back in a big way in this book!