n 2020, 12 of the world's richest and most powerful people comprise the Council, a cartel that makes these people more influential than most governments. The Council employs Chaz Kato III, a computer genius--although he's actually Chaz Kato I, given secret longevity treatments to ensure his loyalty. To help him create intellectually enhanced dolphins and sharks, Chaz recruits Lenore Myles, a brilliant biological researcher. They meet on Xanadu, one of the Council's high-tech floating islands, and fall in love.
While on Xanadu, Lenore discovers a plot to lower third-world birth rates by sterilizing a whole generation of women. Not knowing if Chaz is involved, she flees. A mysterious entity called Saturn nearly kills her before Chaz can intervene. Although Chaz saves her life, he must erase her memory of the past few days to appease Saturn. Lenore returns home to America, while Chaz begins clandestine efforts to learn Saturn's identity and the nature of the his plot.
Chaz and Lenore meet again by sheer coincidence in India. Lenore and her old boyfriend (a member of an international anti-Council terrorist group) are getting medical help, while Chaz and his ex-wife, Clarise, are attending a wedding. When the starilization plot is announced and blamed on the Council, riots break out. The four escape together to Xanadu, but terrorists and government forces attack the island. They run again, to a small, primitive island society in Java, where Clarise was born.
There, they continue to fight for their lives, against third-world government forces and against the Councilors who want to make Chaz the scapegoat for Saturn's plot.
Flavorful, but yesterday's soup
Saturn's Race is the latest in a series of successful collaborations between Niven and Barnes. They have concocted a compelling mixture of adventure, romance and intrigue, and done a better job of developing their characters than in most SF adventure novels. They raise a number of interesting ethical questions regarding the problem of population growth. They paint both Saturn, who imposes his Machiavellian solution, and the third-world governments who seek to perpetuate their population problems, as equally evil. The heroes, fighting to stay alive, have little time to debate the issue. The novel therefore falls short of providing any new insights on these pivotal social issues.
In addition, although the characters and story remain interesting throughout, most experienced SF readers will find familiar ingredients. The near-future world where the high-tech corporate elite are more powerful than governments has become a cliché, as have conspiracies to stop the "marching moron" phenomenon. So are secret masters of cyberspace, primitive tribes that are morally and ethically superior to modern societies, cybernetically enhanced animals, life extension therapy, and even people able to fall in eternal love before even getting to know each other. (The section where Chaz and Lenore meet uses every formula of romance fiction.)
Despite all this, the book stirs the desire to find out what happens next to Chaz Kato III, and that puts Saturn's Race ahead of most genre fiction published today.
