Titan, Ben Bova
Titan, Ben Bova
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Titan
A Tale of Cataclysmic Discovery

Author: Ben Bova

Series: Grand Tour

Narrator: Gabrielle de Cuir, Stephen Hoye, Amanda Karr, Stefan Rudnicki

Unabridged: 16 hr 11 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 02/21/2006

Categories: Fiction, Science Fiction

Synopsis

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.

About Ben Bova

Ben Bova (1932-2020) was the author of more than a hundred works of science fact and fiction, including Able One, Transhuman, Orion, the Star Quest Trilogy, and the Grand Tour novels, including Titan, winner of John W. Campbell Memorial Award for best novel of the year. His many honors include the Isaac Asimov Memorial Award in 1996, the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Arthur C. Clarke Foundation in 2005, and the Robert A. Heinlein Award “for his outstanding body of work in the field of literature” in 2008.Dr. Bova was President Emeritus of the National Space Society and a past president of Science Fiction Writers of America, and a former editor of Analog and former fiction editor of Omni. As an editor, he won science fiction’s Hugo Award six times. His writings predicted the Space Race of the 1960s, virtual reality, human cloning, the Strategic Defense Initiative (Star Wars), electronic book publishing, and much more.In addition to his literary achievements, Bova worked for Project Vanguard, America’s first artificial satellite program, and for Avco Everett Research Laboratory, the company that created the heat shields for Apollo 11, helping the NASA astronauts land on the moon. He also taught science fiction at Harvard University and at New York City’s Hayden Planetarium and worked with such filmmakers as George Lucas and Gene Roddenberry.

About Gabrielle de Cuir

Gabrielle de Cuir is a Grammy-nominated and Audie Award-winning producer whose narration credits include the voice of Valentine in Orson Scott Card’s Ender novels, Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Tombs of Atuan, and Natalie Angier’s Woman, for which she was awarded AudioFile magazine’s Golden Earphones Award.  She lives in Los Angeles where she also directs theatre and presently has several projects in various stages of development for film.

About Stephen Hoye

Stephen Hoye is an Audie Award and Earphones Award winner for the Best Voice in Biography and History.  His audiobook career includes reading dozens of audiobooks, including James Ellroy’s The Black Dahlia, Michael Lewis’s The Blind Side, Carl Hiaasen's Skinny Dip, and Ben Bova's The Aftermath.   Hoye trained at Boston University and The Guildhall in London. Hoye has worked as an actor for more than 30 years, with roles in films such as The Delivery, Star Wars: X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter, Little Shop of Horrors, and Spies Like Us.  On television, he's been seen in The Return of Shelley, Drop the Dead Donkey, and Crossroads.  He's also appeared on stage in Henry V and Love's Labours Lost, both at the Open Air Theatre in Regents Park, London.

About Amanda Karr

Amanda Karr is an award-winning actress and director. In addition to television appearances on The Guardian and Days of Our Lives, Amanda has played Zelda Fitzgerald in the critically acclaimed musical Tender. On audio, she can be heard as the voice of Ender's cyber-friend, Jane, and as Pancho Lane in Ben Bova's Planet series.

About Stefan Rudnicki

Stefan Rudnicki is an award winning audiobook narrator, director and producer. He was born in Poland and now resides in Studio City, California. He has narrated more than three hundred audiobooks and has participated in over a thousand as a writer, producer, or director. He is a recipient of multiple Audie Awards and AudioFile Earphones Awards as well as a Grammy Award, a Bram Stoker Award, and a Ray Bradbury Award. He received AudioFile’s award for 2008 Best Voice in Science Fiction and Fantasy. Along with a cast of other narrators, Rudnicki has read a number of Orson Scott Card's best-selling science fiction novels. He worked extensively with many other science fiction authors, including David Weber and Ben Bova. In reviewing the twentieth anniversary edition audiobook of Card’s Ender's Game, Publishers Weekly stated, "Rudnicki, with his lulling, sonorous voice, does a fine job articulating Ender's inner struggle between the kind, peaceful boy he wants to be and the savage, violent actions he is frequently forced to take." Rudnicki is also a stage actor and director.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Paul on March 10, 2023

Modern science fiction the way it OUGHT to be! In Earth's past, Australia was effectively a prison colony, a place for transportation of convicted felons to get them out of sight and out of mind, a place where misfits, recluses and hard-nosed independents could live or die on the strength of their ow......more

Goodreads review by Jonathan on December 26, 2024

This book is a solid follow up to Saturn. Not quite as good overall, but a solid follow up nonetheless. It's probably the most direct "sequel" that I've read thus far in the Grand Tour universe. The political intrigue in this book featuring the election was exciting throughout. I thought that Bova h......more

Goodreads review by AndrewP on February 23, 2019

Reading this one out of order as book #14 Mercury is a stand alone and I wanted to read this one while the events of 'Saturn' were still fresh in my mind. Another good adventure yarn and a lot more exploration and scientific study takes place in this book. There are several sub plots and various rela......more

Goodreads review by Gendou on January 11, 2014

Classic Bova. First, you got your space stuff, an asteroid hollowed to form a space habitat, and flown out to Saturn. Next, there's an angry antagonist, two in this book, who terrorize their subordinates and all the people around them. I think the main character is Titan Alpha, a rover with the miss......more

Goodreads review by Clark on January 20, 2013

Titan is another excellent science fiction novel in Ben Bova’s Grand Tour series. Goddard, a permanent space habitat containing 10,000 people from Earth, is in orbit around Saturn in the years 2095-2096. The unethical Chief Administrator of Goddard is planning to extract the water from the rings of......more

Quotes

“Veteran sci-fi scribe Bova nails our current society on the head with this futuristic fable. Wisely cast with a skilled group of readers…. Well acted, grippingly and wittily written, Saturn runs rings around most Sci-Fi.” —AudioFile magazine on SATURN

Awards

  • John W. Campbell Memorial Award - Winner
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