Clash of the Titans

In 1980, a book named Titan won the Locus award for best novel. In 2007, another book named Titan won the Campbell award for best novel. Herewith, I give you a comparison of the two.

Novel	Titan	Titan
Author	John Varley	Ben Bova
Year Published	1979	2006
Award Won	Locus	Campbell
Stars	2	2
Plot Summary	Group of Earth scientists goes out to Saturn and gets swallowed up by giant alien orbital construct	Group of Earth scientists goes out to Saturn and gets swallowed up in convoluted melodrama
Ostensible reason for main characters visiting Saturn	Scientific exploration and research (investigating anomalies on Saturn’s moons)	Scientific research (mixed bag of atmospheric, ring, and moon investigation)
Intended duration of visit	Temporary	Permanent
Name of spaceship	Ringmaster	Goddard
Percent of book actually taking place on Titan	0%	20%
Snappy, male-sounding name of female spaceship captain main character	Cirocco Jones	Pancho Lane
Female main characters’ view of procreation	Determined to control their own procreation; three have to have an abortion to do so	Determined to get the right to have children in their space habitat; one has to run for chief administrator to do so
Forms of life discovered by humans	Centaurs; winged humanoids; killer mudfish; intelligent gas-filled blimps	Microbes in Titan’s methane seas; tiny creatures in Saturn’s ring ice
Irritating writing habits of author	Gratuitous use of palm-slapping, knuckle biting, and lip chewing	Silly regional accents; gratuitous use of dipping of the chin