Titan

A Tale of Cataclysmic Discovery

By: Ben Bova

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

Length: 14 hrs and 55 mins

Publisher's summary

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.

Fun science, terrible readers.

Bova wrote this and many other books as excuses for taking the real scientific data for the planets and giving it to us in the form of a story... it is interesting insofar as you like astronomy and planetary physics... as a story it is pretty much fluff... some angsty characters, a mysterious robot gone awol... and a dash of interstellar politics. Nothing dumb, nothing offensive, but also nothing to write home about. The readers on the other hand, are terrible... sounding like a bunch of WASPy actors trying to play ethnic types. The dialects come and go, depending on how tired the readers are, and they try so hard to inflect the voices with character and pizazz that they do a disservice to the simplicity of the tale. Read this if you like hard sci-fi stories about terraforming/space exploration, but don't expect Red Mars (Robinson). It's no where near that complex.

Even better

I got interested in Bova with the paper back versions of the "Rock Rat" series.. I took a chance on "Jupiter" (in audio) because of the reviews, and was riveted.

I probably should have listened to "Saturn" next, but the reviews aren't that good, so I skipped it and got "Titan" instead.

Titan is one of Bova's best Works yet... usually I just listen to audio books while traveling, but thanks to Bova, My Family has become accustomed to seeing me with my MP3 player in my pocket and ear-buds hanging out of my ears.

I was also really glad to see Poncho back!!! I grew to "know" her in the Rock Rat Series in paper back.

Titan is one of those books where you find yourself wishing they'd read faster near the end... The Suspense is well laid out along several plot lines that all tie up at the end.

Hopefully Bova will continue the series... If so, WRITE FASTER ;)

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!