A decent work by Mr. Baxter, but I had trouble connecting the on- and off-world stories to each other. Both stories could've been good novels on their own, but combining them didn't seem to work for me.

Did not finish this book due slowness and lack of engagment. Only learned after giving up on it that it's actually the second part of an alternate history series... which did explain some of the strange inconsistencies with the world as we know it.

I read Stephen Baxter's short story Last Contact a few years ago on an acquaintance's suggestion and found it to be three things: scientifically interesting, well written, and the most depressing short story I'd ever read.

Titan follows in a similar mold: the science generally seems realistic (and he obviously did a lot of research into the US space program), the story is engaging and interesting (in fact, having reached the last ~80 pages I could not put the book down until I had finished it; it finishes very strongly), and afterwards I kind of wanted to weep for humanity. :-P

The one downside to the book is that I found the political aspects of the story to be only a caricature of reality, unlike the science, which tracked very closely to the actual and possible. Some part of me wonders if Baxter had waited until after Obama's presidency to write the book if he would have been able to write a president who could implement such vast, sweeping changes or not; I know that reading such a president, even knowing that it was a caricature in service to the story, came across as making it very difficult to suspend my disbelief.

That said, the book is thought-provoking and well worth reading if you have any interest in space exploration and/or humanity's long term chances.

Il y a certains bouquins qui sont incroyablement faciles à résumer. Titan est de ceux-là. Il s’agit en effet simplement du compte-rendu de l’expédition d’une navette vers Titan, le sattelite de Jupiter.
On est là dans la grande tradition de la SF à tendance réaliste et scientifique, puisque l’auteur, qui est lui scientifique, connaît très bien la NASA et les arcanes de la politique qui s’y pratique. Ce qui donne du reste une bonne part de sa force et de sa pertinence à ce roman. Mais plus encore que la politique de la NASA, c’est la technique du vol spatial qui donne à ce récit toute sa force.
En effet, l’auteur arrive imaginer, avec un luxe de détail inimaginable pour nous autres simples lecteurs, les outils et les moyens permettant à cette expédition de se monter, et, surtout, aux astronautes qui la composent de survivre (pour autant que ce soit possible) au voyage et à l’atmosphère de Titan qui, rappelons-le, du fait de la température de surface nettement inférieure à zéro, est composée de méthane et d’ammoniaque.
Bien sûr, ce roman n’est pas exempt de tares, dues d’une part au genre, mais aussi et surtout au désir de l’auteur de dénoncer certains aspects politiques de l’exploration spatiale actuelle. On ne peut donc que regretter toutes ces phases de négociation budgétaire qui n’apportent pas grand chose au récit, à part peut-être un ancrage dans les rouages budgétaires de cette administration, ancrage qu’on découvrait du reste déjà (à moins que je ne sois dans le mauvais ordre temporel) dans [b:Poussière de Lune|63775|Moonseed|Stephen Baxter|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170619149s/63775.jpg|2117020], avec également toute la gestion administrative de l’espace.
D’autres défauts sont également agaçants, sans être gênants, au premier lieu desquels le style littéraire, aussi léger qu’un rapport de la susnommée NASA. Mais on ne peut pas lire de la hard-science écrite par un scientifique sans en payer le prix, identique à ce qu’on paye dans un [a:Benford|22645|Gregory Benford|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1224059011p2/22645.jpg]. Enfin, le dernier défaut, qui, là, est vraiment de l’ordre du goût personnel. Ce roman se divise en plusieurs parties : la genèse de l’expédition, le voyage, la vie sur Titan et une dernière partie dispensable à tous points de vue : pas très bien écrite, apportant une touche d’optimisme dans un roman qui est sinon singulier par son pessimisme, sortant alors une nouvelle race pour le plus grand mépris d’un lecteur qui était, jusqu’alors, fasciné par le réalisme total de cette histoire.
Malgré ces défauts, j’ai pourtant un faible pour cette histoire pour des raisons au moins aussi nombreuses que les défauts déjà mentionnés. Car on y trouve de l’héroïsme et un aspect visionnaire qui, associé au réalisme de l’univers envisagé, font de cette histoire l’une des meilleures sur le thème pourtant rabâché du décollage de l’Homme de la surface de la Terre.

If you ignore the rather shallow and comic-book treatment of US politics and then the human-influenced bolide impact, this book makes sobering and gripping reading.

Baxter's ability to gleefully yet plausibly destroy Mankind is very much on show here. There's a lot to hate about this book (trawl through some of the other reviews - they're on the money), but there's three times as much to like.

Compare what happens to the crew as they float their way to Titan with that of a later effort of Baxter's: Ark.

I enjoyed this one a lot but I usually enjoy Baxter's books. Titan is the second book in the NASA trilogy (Voyage being book 1 and Moonseed being book 3). A great story about finding signs of life on Saturn's largest moon Titan. We are treated to a bunch of fascinating science, which is per usual as Baxter likes to show his technical and scientific knowledge quite regularly in his writing. The entire trip to Titan was well done and then what happens once the team lands is worth the read in and of itself. I don't agree with people who say that Baxter's prose is dry and that he has a hard time with characterization. I have been enthralled with every book that I have read by him and consider him one of the best hard sci-fi writers up there with Vernor Vinge and Gregory Benford. My only criticism is there were a couple of times when it was a little slow-going but other than that, I loved it. On to the next Stephen Baxter book!

I read Stephen Baxter's short story Last Contact a few years ago on an acquaintance's suggestion and found it to be three things: scientifically interesting, well written, and the most depressing short story I'd ever read.

Titan follows in a similar mold: the science generally seems realistic (and he obviously did a lot of research into the US space program), the story is engaging and interesting (in fact, having reached the last ~80 pages I could not put the book down until I had finished it; it finishes very strongly), and afterwards I kind of wanted to weep for humanity. :-P

The one downside to the book is that I found the political aspects of the story to be only a caricature of reality, unlike the science, which tracked very closely to the actual and possible. Some part of me wonders if Baxter had waited until after Obama's presidency to write the book if he would have been able to write a president who could implement such vast, sweeping changes or not; I know that reading such a president, even knowing that it was a caricature in service to the story, came across as making it very difficult to suspend my disbelief.

That said, the book is thought-provoking and well worth reading if you have any interest in space exploration and/or humanity's long term chances.

The ambition of this book doesn't become clear till near the end... and it is going to haunt me for a very long time...

I thought it was strange, and a bit of a hard slog. The political stuff was frustrating, and now it's been so long since I've read it, I've forgotten what I thought of the rest of it. I did like the part when they actually got to Titan.