‘Saturnalia’ an old but good space tale

  While cleaning up my garage I stumbled across an old paperback titled "Saturnalia" by Grant Callin. The book, which was released straight to paperback in 1986, brought back many memories for me, as I purchased it way back in early '87 at a small PX at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., only days before graduating from Army basic training.
  The name of this little bit of fiction is misleading since Saturnalia is typically associated with an ancient Roman festival celebrating Saturn, as in the Roman god, while Callin’s work deals with Saturn the planet.
  The story unfolds with an unlikely hero with the ridiculous name of Kurious Whitedimple who has the equally ridiculous job of being an archaeology professor. I say ridiculous because he teaches at SpaceHome University, a university that is part of the privately owned SpaceHome Corporation human habitat orbiting 400,000 kilometers above Earth in the late 21st century.
  With the discovery of a mysterious alien artifact on one of the moons of Saturn, Whitedimple (called Whitey) finds himself drafted by the president of the SpaceHome Corporation and is sent out to the Saturn system in a race against Earth-based interests to unlock the mysteries of the artifact.
  Callin — who graduated from the Air Force Academy in 1963, served as an officer until retirement in 1984, worked for Boeing Aerospace Company as a research analyst and worked on the NASA Space Station Program — has a superb grasp of space and what near future spaceflight probably will be like. His knowledge of the Saturn system is top-notch even though Callin did not have the benefit of what has since been learned through NASA's Cassini mission to Saturn and its moons.
  "Saturnalia" is a quick read and while it defies tradition in that there are no deadly laser battles and no steamy love interests, the story is fun and mostly satisfying. I hedge, saying mostly satisfying because clearly the story’s end leaves room for a sequel. Which Callin released in 1985 titled "A Lion of Tharthee." But that review is for later.