"Saturn Rising" is a short story by the British writer

Arthur C. Clarke Sir Arthur Charles Clarke (16 December 191719 March 2008) was an English science-fiction writer, science writer, futurist, inventor, undersea explorer, and television series host. He co-wrote the screenplay for the 1968 film '' 2001: A Spac ...

. It was first published in March 1961 in ''

The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction ''The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction'' (usually referred to as ''F&SF'') is a U.S. fantasy and science fiction magazine first published in 1949 by Mystery House, a subsidiary of Lawrence Spivak's Mercury Press. Editors Anthony Boucher a ...

''. It was included in ''

Tales of Ten Worlds ''Tales of Ten Worlds'' is a collection of science fiction short stories by British writer Arthur C. Clarke. The stories all originally appeared in a number of different publications. Contents This collection, originally published in 1962, ...

'', a collection of stories by Clarke first published in 1962. It has been translated into French, German, Italian and Croatian.. Retrieved 23 January 2019. The story imagines the development of

space tourism Space tourism is human space travel for recreational purposes. There are several different types of space tourism, including orbital, suborbital and lunar space tourism. During the period from 2001 to 2009, seven space tourists made eight s ...

Story summary

The narrator, talking as though the subject has arisen during a conversation, tells the story of his association with Morris Perlman. The narrator, back from a pioneering voyage to

Saturn Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second-largest in the Solar System, after Jupiter. It is a gas giant with an average radius of about nine and a half times that of Earth. It has only one-eighth the average density of Earth; h ...

, first meets him while breakfasting at his hotel during a lecture tour. Perlman attended the narrator's lecture the previous evening, and tells him that he was always fascinated by Saturn: he saw

Chesley Bonestell Chesley Knight Bonestell Jr. (January 1, 1888 – June 11, 1986) was an American painter, designer and illustrator. His paintings inspired the American space program, and they have been (and remain) influential in science fiction art and illustr ...

's paintings; a memorable moment in his youth was seeing the planet for the first time, with a home-made telescope. His father, manager of a hotel in

Third Avenue Third Avenue is a north-south thoroughfare on the East Side of the New York City borough of Manhattan, as well as in the center portion of the Bronx. Its southern end is at Astor Place and St. Mark's Place. It transitions into Cooper Square ...

, New York, with business worries, resented his timewasting and destroyed the telescope. When the

Third Avenue El The IRT Third Avenue Line, commonly known as the Third Avenue Elevated, Third Avenue El, or Bronx El, was an elevated railway in Manhattan and the Bronx, New York City. Originally operated by the New York Elevated Railway, an independent railwa ...

closed, land values there rose and the hotel business, now run by Perlman, expanded. The narrator learns afterwards that Perlman owns the hotel where he is staying, and many others. He meets Perlman a few years later, after a second voyage to Saturn, in an expensive restaurant that Perlman owns. Perlman wants to know what it is like to be near Saturn, and the narrator describes it. He asks which moon of Saturn would be best for a tourist resort; he dismisses the response that tourism is out of the question because of the distance and expense, saying that places in the world that were remote centuries ago are now tourist destinations. The narrator suggests

Titan Titan most often refers to: * Titan (moon), the largest moon of Saturn * Titans, a race of deities in Greek mythology Titan or Titans may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Fictional entities Fictional locations * Titan in fiction, fictiona ...

. When Perlman is very old, and paragravity drives, of which he financed the research, have replaced rocket propulsion, he offers the narrator a job. The circumstance of the narrator's conversation becomes clear. "Even after all these years," he says to his dining companions, "I still like to watch Saturn rising."

References

{{reflist 1961 short stories Short stories by Arthur C. Clarke Space tourism Fiction set on Saturn

Story summary

See also

References