Cradle of Saturn

Cradle of Saturn #1

by James P. Hogan

"THAT PLANET HAS NO RIGHT TO BE THERE!"

Among the Saturnian moons, farsighted individuals, working without help or permission from any government, have established a colony. They call themselves the Kronians, after the Greek name for Saturn. Operating without the hidebound restrictions of bureaucratic Earth, the colony is a magnet, attracting the best and brightest of the home world, and has been making important new discoveries. But one of their claims -- that they have found proof that the Solar System has undergone repeated cataclysms, and as recently as a few thousand years ago -- flies in the face of the reigning dogma, and is under attack by the scientific establishment.
Then the planet Jupiter emits a white-hot protoplanet as large as the Earth, which is hurtling sunwards like a gigantic comet that will obliterate civilization....

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy, Space

544 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published June 1, 1999

About the author

James Patrick Hogan was a British science fiction author.

Hogan was was raised in the Portobello Road area on the west side of London. After leaving school at the age of sixteen, he worked various odd jobs until, after receiving a scholarship, he began a five-year program at the Royal Aircraft Establishment at Farnborough covering the practical and theoretical sides of electrical, electronic, and mechanical engineering. He first married at the age of twenty, and he has had three other subsequent marriages and fathered six children.

Hogan worked as a design engineer for several companies and eventually moved into sales in the 1960s, travelling around Europe as a sales engineer for Honeywell. In the 1970s he joined the Digital Equipment Corporation's Laboratory Data Processing Group and in 1977 moved to Boston, Massachusetts to run its sales training program. He published his first novel, Inherit the Stars, in the same year to win an office bet. He quit DEC in 1979 and began writing full time, moving to Orlando, Florida, for a year where he met his third wife Jackie. They then moved to Sonora, California.

Hogan's style of science fiction is usually hard science fiction. In his earlier works he conveyed a sense of what science and scientists were about. His philosophical view on how science should be done comes through in many of his novels; theories should be formulated based on empirical research, not the other way around. If a theory does not match the facts, it is theory that should be discarded, not the facts. This is very evident in the Giants series, which begins with the discovery of a 50,000 year-old human body on the Moon. This discovery leads to a series of investigations, and as facts are discovered, theories on how the astronaut's body arrived on the Moon 50,000 years ago are elaborated, discarded, and replaced.

Hogan's fiction also reflects anti-authoritarian social views. Many of his novels have strong anarchist or libertarian themes, often promoting the idea that new technological advances render certain social conventions obsolete. For example, the effectively limitless availability of energy that would result from the development of controlled nuclear fusion would make it unnecessary to limit access to energy resources. In essence, energy would become free. This melding of scientific and social speculation is clearly present in the novel Voyage from Yesteryear (strongly influenced by Eric Frank Russell's famous story "And Then There Were None"), which describes the contact between a high-tech anarchist society on a planet in the Alpha Centauri system, with a starship sent from Earth by a dictatorial government. The story uses many elements of civil disobedience.

James Hogan died unexpectedly from a heart attack at his home in Ireland.

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think Cradle of Saturn is Hogan's most problematic novel. In short, it professes that the theories of Velikovsky are accurate and posits how that might look in a Libertarian future. I've read some very convincing works that place Worlds in Collison in the same category as the Hollow (or flat) Earth theories, or the green cheese Moon idea. However, I really enjoy Pellucidar as science-fantasy adventure, and if this one is approached the same way it can be enjoyed as a pulp-influenced outer space adventure. Some of the political and philosophical lectures become tiresome, and the introduction of major characters near the end of a story never really works well, but Hogan was an entertaining and thought-provoking writer. I think part of his goal was to get his readers to keep an open mind and ask questions. It's not on the same level of some of his other books (Inherit the Stars, for example), but Cradle of Saturn has some worthwhile parts.

[Tim Hicks · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, that was a change of pace. Written in 1999, this book feels like a 1979 Heinlein crossed with Ayn Rand. The hero wouldn't be out of place in a 50s Michener book.

Rather than spoil the plot, I'll just note that the book is dedicated to Immanuel Velikovsky.
And won the 2000 Prometheus Award as Best Libertarian Novel.

So, let's review. Emotionless engineer, good at everything he tries? Check. Implausibly successful bad-guy academic professor who will stop at nothing? Check. Cardboard bureaucrats? Check. Supporting cast of salt-of-the-earth men? Check. Competing love interests with whom nothing ever happens? Check.

My gosh, this is a 1930s pulp novel!

The astrophysics is interesting and probably well worked out if you allow a few assumptions - and hey, this IS fiction after all.

We see that mankind is starting to develop a presence on the Moon and Mars, but the Kronians are wildly implausible. Earth still seems to be living in 1979, but some folks have set up on the moons of Saturn and seem to be living in Alastair Reynolds' world of the 30th century. They also have some rather powerful weapons, but no one Earthside seems to have thought of anything more sophisticated than a submachine gun.

The book's a crock, but it is nevertheless an interesting potboiler with some intriguing ideas.

[L]

It took only 37 pages to realize that this preachy book was not going to be any fun at all. It would be too preachy even if Hogan didn't see private enterprise as the savior, but that really put it over the line.

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Kronians have come to Earth to deliver a warning. They are the colonists who have settled among the Saturnian moons and have discovered that Earth is facing yet another catastrophe. Interestingly, their ideas are those of Immanuel Velikovsky ( without stating that), ideas which have been discredited on Earth. The scientific establishment does everything they can to discredit the Kronians, but when a protoplanet is ejected from Jupiter, I would think the world's scientists would sign on to Velikovskyism. But they don't and suffer the consequences as the new planet bears down on our pale blue dot of Earth...a disaster novel like many others, but interesting to see Velikovsky's pseudoscience become science fact. I think there is a sequel in which the enlightened Kronian good guys will seek to colonize Earth ( I suppose ).

[Gilda Felt · Rating 1 out of 5]

Velikovsky? Really? It was bad enough that the characters were cardboard cut-outs, that the story is practically a paean to laissez faire capitalism, dripping sarcasm whenever any type of regulation is mentioned. But for a so-called science fiction book, by a so-called hard science fiction writer, to be so obviously based on the discredited work of Immanuel Velikovsky has to be a cosmic joke. And how come the first time a planet just pops out of Jupiter, all it does is part the Red Sea and bring down all the plagues on Egypt, but this time it’s going to wipe out civilization? Didn’t this guy ever watch Cosmos?

I’ve enjoyed several of Hogan’s previous books. They were well thought out with interesting characters. I really do wonder where that writer went.

Needless to say, I won’t be reading the sequel.

[Lars Dradrach · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun action filled catastrophe novel, which even though it's written in 1999 feels rather aged.

As a light summer holiday reading it's quite entertaining, as long as you don't think to much about Hogan's political messages and his opinions in general (see below).

James P. Hogan is one of the more problematic writers i once in a while enjoys reading - He was clearly a libertarian with only contempt for rules and regulations defined by a central government, even worse he was a holocaust denier and had some very strange ideas about AIDS as well.
He apparently also believed firmly in the rather far fetched ideas of Immanuel Velikovsky which forms the basic Foundation for "the "Cradle of Saturn".

[Lisa (Harmonybites) · Rating 1 out of 5]

No, just no. I've enjoyed some of Hogan's books. I assume I read this one years ago and must have liked it, because it survived several purges of my bookshelves. (My books reproduce like tribbles, periodically, that means it's them or me--and I prefer me.) Yet, I couldn't recall a thing about it. Utterly unmemorable. Strike One. Then there's the dedication, which reflects the core premise: "To the work of Immanuel Velikovsky and the untiring efforts of Charles Ginenthal." Did I just not notice this back when I first read this or not know back then Velikovsky was a crackpot? (Ginenthal was a disciple.) Strike Two. I possibly overlooked it for two reasons. First, I'm a space junkie, so something about space colonization and exploration on Saturn is definitely my crack. Second, especially back then as a newly minted libertarian I loved to read anything that reflected back my beliefs--although these days, even if I agree with a message, I hate being preached at--and this time I found that aspect unbearable; this time I couldn't make myself last fifty pages in on reread. Strike Three--it's out of my library.

[Jonathan Hockey · Rating 4 out of 5]

For the ideas and first 200-300 pages I will focus on the positive and give it 4 stars. But the change of pace in the second half to more of an adventure novel with little more discussion of ideas was a bit of a disappointment. I was hoping for more interaction with the Kronians and more developed tension between them and the dogmatic scientists of earth as the story went on, but this aspect reached its peak in the first half and then disappeared from the second half. In its own way as an apocalyptic adventure novel, the 2nd half is done quite well, and gives a good sense of the magnitude of such an event in how it would or could impact upon people. But it became a bit too linear and the introduction of new characters later on not central to the plot, who I am supposed to show interest in is asking a bit much, particularly when in the last 200 pages or so it becomes very clear how the rest of the story is going to develop and what the inevitable conclusion is going to be.

[Darnoc Leadburger · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like it, but the interesting sci to concepts were detracted by characters I didn't give a crap about and a long drawn out narrative about the end of the world... Didn't gain much of anything reading this. Still, where credit is due, Hogan wove together lots of scientific theories into believable rubbish. Well done for that.

[E.R. Everett · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another amazing book by Hogan. Was enthralled until the very last page. Much of the book takes place in South Texas, which is where I live, so it was especially cool to be able to visualize the action that takes place in the areas south of San Antonio.

[Amber Traylor · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was way too long. The science of it was interesting, but there were too many characters to keep track of and not enough action for me. Meh.

[Jon · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not really a SciFi book, it's a disaster movie.

[Roddy Williams · Rating 3 out of 5]

‘”THAT PLANET HAS NO RIGHT TO BE THERE!”

Among the Saturnian moons, farsighted individuals, working without help or permission from any government, have established a colony. They call themselves the Kronians, after the Greek name for Saturn. Operating without the hidebound restriction of bureaucratic Earth, the colony is a magnet, attracting the best and brightest of the home world, and has been making important new discoveries. But one of their claims – that they have found proof that the Solar System has undergone repeated cataclysms, and as recently as a few thousand years ago – flies in the face of the reigning dogma, and is under attack by the scientific establishment.
Then the planet Jupiter emits a white-hot protoplanet as large as the Earth, which is hurtling sunwards like a gigantic comet that will obliterate civilization…’

Blurb from the 2000 Baen Books paperback edition.


Landon Keane is a scientist, working on advanced nuclear-powered propulsion systems and at the start of the novel upstages a US rocket launch when his own craft literally runs rings around it and zips off to dock at a space station.
Decades before, a group of idealists left Earth and settled on a moon of Saturn where they have an essentially non-capitalist communist society where everyone works toward the common good.
The Kronians, as they are called, set off for Earth after Jupiter vomits forth a planet-sized ball of matter which immediately sets off for the inner system.
Earth’s scientific establishment refuses to accept The Kronians’ findings which indicate that Athena, as the protoplanet has been named, will not follow the course which Earth scientists predict. Soon afterwards it is confirmed that Athena is heading on a course which will bring it close to Earth and therefore cause untold destruction.
Meanwhile, Keane’s nemesis, Professor Voler, is plotting a scheme to kidnap the Kronian delegation and escape on their ship.
The plot is a fairly standard affair and, with all due respect to Hogan, the effects of the protoplanet’s passing was done to far better effect in ‘When Worlds Collide’ some seventy years before.
Hogan has to be credited however with his examination of a rather unorthodox and one would imagine unpopular branch of scientific theory, based on the work of Immanuel Velikovsky. Some of the arguments put forward seem quite plausible.
Keane’s love interest in the novel is Vicki, a woman bringing up her gifted son Robin alone. Robin (who is no more than a plot device to expound Fortean theories) has worked out that dinosaurs could not have existed in Earth’s gravity since they would have collapsed under their own weight. It is suggested, following archaeological discoveries among Saturn’s moons, that Earth was once a satellite of Saturn and was knocked out of orbit at some point in the past. This apparently explains the dinosaurs since the proximity of Saturn would have negated some of the planet’s gravity, although it’s not explained how anything could have survived when the planet moved from Saturn (which may have provided heat at the time) all the way to Earth’s habitable orbit.
One has to say however that Hogan throws in lots of proper science to make the whole thing seem like common sense.
There’s also a handy list of further reading at the back for those who would like to know more about Velikovsky and his work.
It’s an enjoyable enough read, although the characters are a tad one-dimensional. One would also like to have learned more of the Kronians who have established what is essentially a Communist Technocracy within the rings of Saturn.

[Brett T · Rating 2 out of 5]

Engineer and salesman James P. Hogan popped onto the science fiction scene in 1977 with Inherit the Stars, the story of how the discovery of an ancient space-suited human corpse on the moon upended humanity's understanding of its solar system, its own origins and its place in the universe. The four other books in his "Giants" series are favorites among hard science fiction fans that prize technical accuracy, plausible scenarios and scientific realism.

Hogan wove his understanding of physics into several more well-received novels, from the time-travel alternate history of The Proteus Operation to how a human society with unlimited resources and no past to weigh it down might start over, in Voyage from Yesteryear, to how interaction with an alien race might change both species in The Legend that Was Earth.

But over the course of his career, Hogan's anti-authoritarian views morphed into some strange opinions, ranging from the bizarre (Immanuel Velikovsky's odd version of solar system formation) to the distasteful -- he was not a complete Holocaust denier but did question many of the facts surrounding that horror.

Cradle of Saturn suffers from Hogan's desire to use it to preach some Velikovsky as well as some of his own ideas of what makes a successful society -- which are oddly not very clearly defined. Scientist Landon Keene is part of a private company outstripping governmental efforts in space, and is part of a group welcoming a delegation of Kronians -- people who have colonized some of Saturn's moons and rebuilt human society as they see fit. The Kronians want to warn Earth that a gigantic comet ejected from Jupiter's mass will not miss them as previously believed, but will come so close it will endanger not only civilization but human survival. Velikovsky suggests this is precisely how we got the planet Venus, some 3,500 years ago.

In his "Giants" series, Hogan unfolded his alternate understanding of how people and the world came to be through the story. As the characters tried to solve the mystery of the ancient corpse where no ancient corpse should be and as they uncovered new data, the picture gradually emerged. But in Cradle, the story is incidental to presenting all of Velikovsky's talking points. We even get a conversation between Keene and his co-worker's young son about how dinosaurs could not have existed in Earth's gravity because they were just too big -- the boy coincidentally is researching the subject and wants to show off his work to Landon.

Although the 1999 book nails the intensifying narcissistically consuming culture and connects that to disinterest in space, exploration or anything beyond the pursuit of our own whims, that's about the only thing that goes right for it. Hogan's stubborn devotion to the outre seems to block him from being able to teach and propound through his storytelling as he did quite well earlier in his career.

Original available here.

[Curtiss · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an end-of-the-world cataclysm story based of the theories of Immanuel Velikosky from the book "Worlds in Collision", which postulated that the similarity of various myths and legends from around world of titanic events and global floods had their origin in real events triggered by the emission of Venus from Jupiter a few thousand years in the past followed by several near-misses between the Earth and Venus before the later settled into its current orbit.

Hogan has a second ejecta-event happen in the near future which results in an actual collision, coincidentally-timed with a visit from members of a colony of scientific iconoclasts and misfits (Kronians - from the Greek name for the planet Saturn) asking Earth to dedicate itself to expanding into the rest of the Solar system so that not all of humanity's eggs are in one basket, so to speak.

Not being a Velikovsky believer, I still think that Hogan missed providing the Kronians with a devastating piece of evidence to support their claims. If Venus WAS emitted by Jupiter, couldn't the giant "Red Spot" on Jupiter represent the scar left by it? He could have given Jupiter a second giant Red Spot after the emission of Athena (the near-future ejecta) which would have been all the evidence ANYBODY could possibly need to support Velikovsky's and the Kronian's theories, and swung all of Earth onto their side.

Admittedly, the initial 'conflict' in the story derives from Earth's political resistance to the Kronian proposals, but once the newly-ejected Athena's path becomes altered into a head-on collision course, the story turns into a race-for-survival ahead of the impending catatastrophe anyway, so why not have a second Red Spot as the crowning piece of evidence?

I might have given Cradle of Saturn a 4-star rating, IF I didn't think Velikovsky's theories were sheer nonsense and utter rot. As it is, I regret that Hogan passed away back in 2010, as I thoroughly enjoyed many of his previous Sci-Fi series (particularly the Giants of Ganymede series) and Science Fact collections, and now I can't suggest the second Red Spot idea to him.

[Mark · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read many books quite like this when I was a teenager. Some were written by Hogan himself. They featured engineers and scientists and some great challenge that proves their worth. I'd like to think most were better than this but a more likely hypothesis is I wasn't especially discriminating. Although in defense of teenage me I think this one hit some especially weird notes.

The basic plot involves a group of people who believe they are right and have a lot of contempt for those outside their circle. Ultimately they will discover the horrifying truth that they are even more right than they thought and their enemies are even more contemptible.

In this case it involves Velikovsky (of "a flying piece of Jupiter parted the Red Sea then became Venus" fame) being literally correct--and not in a fun over-the-top thought experiment sort of way or as a metaphor for the scientific establishment being bullheaded. As far as I can tell the the arguments offered are completely in earnest, even when they rely on invented events and discoveries. Eventually we find we are living in a world where an AAAS meeting is a national event and it makes complete sense that the hero's ex-wife, a status-seeking social climber would marry an astronomy professor to gain the credibility she seeks. (The ex-wife is a minor character, but I'd say it's one of the more gratuitously malicious portraits of an ex-wife I've run into.)

The first third of the book is mostly meetings and, once I decided nothing was slyly tongue-in-cheek, was so very boring. There are better moments later on, when it's closer to a standard genre adventure.

[Gary Holt · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked the first half of this book. The second half, where things are getting destroyed, dragged pretty badly.

Hogan here takes screwball scientific theories and asks, what if they were actually true? It turns out to be quite fascinating, actually. All that pseudoscience from Velikovsky is just tailor-made for science fiction. This part was really, really nice.

[George Ashmore · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is why I loved sci fi as a child and still do--real science, not just fantasy or space opera. Someone finally wrote about the possibility of Dr Velikovsky's theories being true and happening again. Hogan is worth a dozen deriviative vampire "drama" or LOTR would be's

[colleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

read 01.31.06

[Lynn Calvin]

baen ebook

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this book brought up some interesting ideas about the history of our solar system and the origins of Earth and the moon. It was kind of slow moving at times, but overall I enjoyed the book.

[Howard]

5

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Story was fairly compelling, but the hoodoo science under the guise of hard scifi got really old really fast

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bit slow to start with, but soon picked up - proper disaster novel that, no fannying around with an odd asteroid....

[Karen Train]

Well firstly I haven't begun to read yet so ask me later and I am sorry if you take offence

[Paul Doyle · Rating 1 out of 5]

Bad, bad, so bad. Only pride will get me to the end of this thing.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good book, lots of action. The science seemed so real, you'd believe it could really happen