Customer Reviews

Code of the Lifemaker

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Unlike a lot of other reviews, I found the first 30 pages a little boring, and the rest of the story great. The beginning of the book is excellent, then the character development of the humans occurs, and I found it hard to get through. Then once the robots are in the picture, I found it very exciting to the last page. I have read this general story line of the evolution of machines before, just not in this way. I found it very good. I liked the robot dialogue. I found myself enjoying the robot characters, and the primitive culture they had. The feelings of robots evolving over millions of years is neat, as is the origin of the robots on Titan. There seemed to be a lot of negative reviews of this book, with the beginning being all they liked. I liked the very beginning too, but most of the rest of the book did not let me down. It gets trivial at times, and the rescue of certain characters at the last minute occurs. All in all though, I did not find it a waste of time to read at all. In fact, I think it may be one of the most enjoyable reads I ever had.

Reading the prologue was like witnessing the birth of the human race. This book takes the question of Darwinism versus Creationism and through a unique perspective -- that of a race of robots on Titan -- gives both sides something to think about. And even if you're not into not into the heavier issues, the evident renaissance metaphor is extremely effective (and the source of amusement when humans arrive on the scene).

As someone with a background in biology and computer science (my degree was in cellular biology, but I work in computer software), I found Hogan's Code of the Lifemaker awesome. The world he creates, where machine intelligences evolve self-awareness, is unlike anything you've ever imagined. Yet his understanding of evolution makes it completely plausible.

The book manages to give many new perspectives on commonly asked questions about religion, life, death, science, and the universe without ever getting dull. It is truely a fascinating read.

This is a very intriguing book that follows the formula of all Hogan's other novels. The plot is used as a tool to examine what ails our society. "The Legend That Was Earth" and "Thrice Upon a Time" are good examples of this technique. The characters are for the most part very interesting. Zambendorf is in constant conflict with Massey, until they realize that their real goals coincide(i.e., preventing corporate greed from exploiting and destroying an alien race). The book was entirely enjoyable, although the periphery characters were a bit one dimensional. All in all, a great read.

From the prologue about how this mystical world came about I was completely hooked. Also loved the robots 'reversed' scientific abilities and the reason behind it.

Millions of years ago, an ancient civilization sent out robot ships to find uninhabited planets with rich resources, to mine them and manufacture products to ship back home. When a suitable planet or planetoid was found, the ship would set up a self-sustaining and expanding mining operation, then move on to find another. But one ship accidentally catches the fringe of a star going nova, and is damaged. It lands on Titan, a moon of Saturn, and tries to set up operations. But its programs have been altered, and all sorts of aberrations and mutations start occurring, and things go very wrong. But then, natural selection sets in, and the long, slow process of evolution begins. . . .

Hogan is both deep and funny. I have read about 10 books by him. This is set on a moon of one of our Gas Giants. A lost mining factory spacecraft winds up in our solar system a few thousand years before Christ. It lands on a moon of a gas giant, and starts building robots to mine the planet and eventually send the raw materials back to the planet of origin ( unknown). The software starts to generate errors, and slowly but surely intelligent robot life evolves on the planet. The moon is covered in haze, and the robots cannot see the stars. One day earthlings arrive and the wildness begins. Great story, get moral tales as well. This one has a great sequel.

Lifemaker is an endearing and really insightful tale regarding religion and science. The major characters are evolved robots that were created by an alien manufacturing plant that landed on a moon of Jupiter . Humans go out to meet them and one of the key humans is a popular psychic. It is at times hilarious and profound.
That psychic and his gimmicks make for a great short story on its own. The Robots have much to learn about their life and religion.

This book starts off very slow. Knowing that I'd previously enjoyed Hogan's Sci-Fi (more than many other authors in the genre), I kept going and going. Eventually, after perhaps a third of the way in, it became hard to put down. From that point on the book becaume a quick and enjoyable read.

There's a few theme's of the book. One is that a self replicating and administered alien machine infrastructure could, over time, develop in a biological fashion, and eventually acquire life like properties and even sentience. Another is that there would likely be an attempt by humanity to exploit a local sentient race and technologies if discovered, repeating once again the historical story of our conqueror culture. Both themes were played out in a typical Hogan-like believable way that was a pleasure to read. There is a lot one could potentially reflect on from this story, the science and cultural aspects of the story, and what the nature of life and sentience is.

The book ends very optimistically, with everything working out just perfectly in the end. An ending with a few more loose ends hanging around, ragged and still in need of repair, would probably have made the story more believable and realistic. But, hey, it is fiction after all.

I liked Mr. Hogan's prologue. Interesting primise with the alien creators. I felt the characters come alive through the book and this made it a nice read. I would have liked to seen the author go into more detail on the theological and philosophical points. I think the other readers who gave this book really low ratings missed the whole idea of the book which was about the crimes committed in the name of religion. This point was made clear on the back cover. That being said the book was a nice but simple diversion.