Customer Reviews

Echoes of an Alien Sky

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There are only a handful of authors I hold in high enough regard to chance buying their latest release in hardcover, before I can go over reviews from other readers. James P. Hogan is one of those authors. I've been a fan of his for a good twenty years or more. So, am I glad I took a chance on "Echoes of an Alien Sky"? For the most part, yes.

The basic premise of the novel will be familiar to readers of other Hogan novels, such as "The Anguished Dawn" and "Star Child". Colonists from Venus, a hot, swampy world whose equatorial zone is barely habitable, have recently begun settling the next planet out from the sun, Earth. It is an older world than Venus, with enormous swathes of ocean, startling valleys and mountain ranges clearly sculpted/ravaged by catastrophism, and climates ranging from arctic to desert to jungle. Oddly enough, it seems a more suitable place to live for Venusians than Venus itself, one of many things about Earth which has the scientists scratching their collective heads in puzzlement.

The biggest mystery of all is what happened to the former inhabitants of Earth. They seemed to be very much like Venusians, except for one key difference: whereas Venusians were rationalistic, and solved their problems and worked out their differences by consensus, the old Terrans were a savage race, prone to warfare, ruled by superstition, driven by their fear of ancient, angry, cosmic deities. Indeed, there were ruins of cities on Earth, many thousands of years old, leveled by atomic bombs. To complicate matters, older records, carved in stone or written on well-preserved paper, could still be read, but the more recent electronic records, which were needed to fully understand the fate of Terran civilization, were rarely readable. Moreover, whereas Venusians spoke one language, with a few regional variants, the Terrans spoke thousands. Each one had to be decoded, keeping armies of translators very busy.

By the start of "Echoes of an Alien Sky", enough was understood about ancient Earth culture to have a significant influence back on Venus. There was an increasingly militant political group called the "Progressives" who wished to emulate Terran ways, feeling that their hierarchical top-down structure was a better way of managing people and resources than the more loosely organized Venusian ways. It was all well and good for people of merit to attain to positions of influence in their fields of endeavor, but what of those others who were not born with the right kind of talents? Why should they always be left behind?

Some of these Progressives have also set up shop on Earth, learning from their research of Terran records ever more devious ways of manipulating public opinion. Inevitably, the two different political philosophies will come into conflict, tugging at the loyalties of the novel's characters. What will be the future for Venus then?

If you're looking for something completely new, "Echoes of an Alien Sky" is not for you. Hogan has been writing since the 1970s, and inevitably some of his stories are starting to look alike. One of the main protagonists, Kyal Reen, reminds me very much of Victor Hunt in the "Giants" novels. Both men are very good at organizing investigations of startling discoveries which will change the way people look at themselves and their worlds. The main villain, Jenyn, is pretty typical for Hogan -- egocentric and ruthless, increasingly megalomaniacal -- half the fun is waiting to see how he self-destructs in the end. We all know he will, almost from Page 1.

Hogan writes "hard" science fiction, which is to say that he employs cutting-edge scientific theories which may or may not pan out in the end in real life, but they certainly make for good reading. Included in "Echoes" are the "plasma universe" theory, governing spaceship propulsion, as well as the "spinning rings" theory of subatomic particles, plus the idea that gravity is actually a side-effect of electromagnetism and thus can be manipulated. There is mention of Catastrophism. And then, as scientists investigate odd similarities between Venusian and Terran life forms, there is discussion of the Panspermia theory, the idea that life on different planets may have been seeded from one place.

I had a little difficulty with the opening chapters of the book, because the characters all had a slightly stiff, wooden way of speaking. Also, it was hard to keep everyone straight, especially given their exotic names: Kyal, Cassello, Yorim, Emur. But soon enough everything was flowing nicely, as I know it would. Sprinkled throughout the main narrative are occasional "flashback" chapters, either to earlier points in the main characters' lives, or to events thousands of years earlier.

One interesting mystery: what is the origin of the "katek", a sort of "good luck" symbol which looks like an "A", tipped partly over to the left, with an extra crossbar? Stay tuned....

All in all, then, I can recommend this book if you are a Hogan fan and enjoy science fiction mystery novels. The fact that there wasn't anything truly new didn't bother me a bit. It's like a dish of Mom's homemade lasagna: sure, I've had it many times before, but I always look forward to the next serving.

I personally thought this book was well done. I wouldn't say it was Mr. Hogan's best novel, but it was definitely a book I enjoyed reading.

Leaving the plot to the jacket and product review descriptions, I'll just focus on a few points.

This novel, like many of James P. Hogan's novels, draws from his current interests at the time of writing. Many of the themes in his recent non-fiction work "Kicking the Sacred Cow" find their way into this book. Perhaps this is what the Publishers Weekly critic deemed pseudoscience and polemic. Of course, that's the critic's prerogative; but if they're so opposed to exploration of possibilities, they almost certainly have no business reviewing science fiction for a living--and thus they all but invalidate their own opinion through hypocrisy, in my mind.

I would say, however, that I was mildly disappointed with a few points. Without introducing spoilers, I would just say I'd have liked a more in-depth exploration of some of the technology involved, and a more in-depth resolution of something I really thought would be far more impactful than it ended up being.

On the first point, I would argue that while the exploration of the technology was sufficient for the purposes of telling the story, it didn't seem to be as organised, thorough, and as detail-oriented as past Hogan novels' science-based extrapolations (the gravitics throughout the Giants novels, for instance, or the multiverse in the last of that series being good examples where Hogan went into greater detail that was far more awe inspiringly introduced). It felt, on the whole, like there was a very large scientific awe factor to be had, similar to the aforementioned examples, that was back-burnered in favour of exploring social and political points. Not that exploring the latter is a bad thing. It just could have leaned more heavily on the science, and seems to break with the JPH tradition a little in this one respect. It felt, for pretty much the first time since I've read his work, like punches were pulled and significant scientific avenues inadequately explored.

On the second point, I reread the relevant last five or so chapters and once passage in particular, and the "conclusion" to this one single aspect of the book seemed (to me) to contradict itself. I felt forced to accept one possibility over the other, lest it feel like a completely ignored or overlooked plot thread. I may just be missing something in my interpretation, however, a fair percentage of communication lying in interpretation.

That aside, I enjoyed the novel a great deal. Despite the aforementioned bleed-over of material from KTSC, the material here did not get nearly as repetitively "preachy" as, say, "The Legend that was Earth"--a novel which I also enjoyed immensely, and which was marred only by that exact quality in excess--and still was not ruined by it. Where TLtwE hit you repeatedly over the head with a singular point -almost- enough to detract from the story, the points of interest and contention in this book were spread evenly enough amongst several points that it left you thinking without pushing too far.

As for the predictability cited in the Publishers Weekly review cited, well... Yes, I had part to most of the conclusion figured out by halfway through the book, maybe a bit more, although it kept me guessing with a few twists. But that is -not- indicative of a shortcoming in a work of literature or even film, in and of itself. The television series "Columbo" is a prime example of a work where 95%+ of the time you knew at the very beginning exactly how everything was done, how it would end, and it still -worked-. Why did it work? Because the joy and charm is in the voyage, not the arrival at the destination. It's in the character development, the artistry of exposition and exploration, and the atmosphere you're treated to throughout the entire journey. It's not necessarily a matter of knowing the outcome. It's more a matter of how well you're led down the path, without feeling like you're being either interminably dragged along or quickly spoon-fed, and enticed to turn the page to see if it resolves not only the way you expect it to, but utilising the route you expect it to. I think the comparison to something along the lines of "Columbo" is rather fitting, this being a bit of a mystery SF novel, after a fashion--and it addresses the official critic's complaint rather pointedly.

In the larger view, I feel that, while this book is not Mr. Hogan's absolute finest work, this is a worthy addition to anyone's JPH or general sci-fi collection, and it is indeed a fine piece of work, despite some relative shortcomings. I say relative only because of the extremely high metrics JPH has set himself to be judged by with his prior works.

Despite some minor weaknesses (which may be subjective), I'd say it's definitely a solid and enjoyable read, and worth buying.

This is my first (and last) James Hogan novel, so I can't comment in respect to his earlier books as other reviewers have. But this book does feel like 1930s pulp science fiction, and not in a good way. It has the same one-dimensional character archetypes (rational/selfless/good vs. animal/selfish/evil) and a easily telegraphed plot that doesn't create any dramatic tension even though we know the basic answer from page 5 onwards. James Hogan repudiates general relativity (and the existence of gravity), planetary astronomy, and evolutionary timescales but replaces it with set of implausible notions. I kept waiting for him to explain them with some hard SF; there is plenty of time because nothing really happens to the characters. The premise of viewing our culture(s) from the outside was the lure to buying this book, but that was unfulfilled as well.

I was very disappointed. I love JPH's early works. Met him a few times at Con's and a very smart, intriguing fellow, full of interesting ideas and strong opinions. Not sure where that went. The characters were blah, the plot was telegraphed early on, even the "villian" went out with a sputter. The last few books have been too focused on the alternative solar system ideas he's latched on to in recent years. Time to jump back into some other hard science ideas - quantum, time travel, dimensional, etc. And speaking of dimensions, something good to try with characters as well. The "pure" hero and swarmy, manipulative villian are getting predictable.

Of course, if his goal is to relax at home, crank out pulp, and cash checks, then he's doing a great job. :-)

I expected a lot more from the author of _Inherit the Stars_ - better plot and better science. I was especially disappointed by the science, or lack there of.

Science fiction lets you get away with a lot, if you use conventional SF devices such as FTL, you don't even need to explain them much. Otherwise, a bit of smoke and mirrors goes a long way. And generally SF authors try to work within current scientific conventions.

However, if you are going to dismiss the last 100 years of geology, physics, evolutionary biology and cosmology as utterly wrong, you really need to do a bit more that to raise the spectre of observational bias. Unfortunately Hogan does exactly that here.

The pseudo-science of this novel makes it a bitter disappointment to me. If this was 1932 and the novel was published as a serial in Thrilling Wonder Stories, the "science" might fit in. However, this is the 21st century. I cannot recommend it to anyone. And I am wondering about any editor that would even consider it, much less publish it.

I haven't read anything by James Hogan in a long time so I thought I would give this one a go. It's a semi hard science fiction story set in an an indefinite future when the human race is extinct and the only inhabited planet is Venus and its inhabitants are just starting to explore the earth.

An inhabited Venus? Nothing seems less likely given what we currently know about the hellish conditions there. Very quickly we discover that these "Venusians" resemble humans so it's pretty obvious where the book is heading. It seems too that human scientists were almost totally wrong about such things as gravity and that everything in the solar system is really just controlled by electromagnetic fields. A consequence of this is that an artificially charged spacecraft can travel from point to point using the interplanetary electric field. Another consequence is that catastrophic events dictated the origin of the solar system rather than the more sedate theory favored by Terran scientists.

This seems to hark back to the seriously wacky theories of Immanuel Velikovsky back in the fifties and sixties but I digress from the main plot which is pretty simple really. The two main characters, Kyal Reen and Yorim Zeestran arrive on Earth to do some scientific archaeology to discover what happened to the Terrans. On the way they travel all over the earth and to the moon where a Terran base has been discovered. There is a romantic attachment with another scientist and involvement in a dispute between the two main political parties on Venus until it eventually becomes clear that the Terrans were fleeing some disaster on earth. There are occasional random flashbacks to the last days of the Terrans.

It's all very slow moving and, as I mentioned before, it's pretty obvious right from the start that there is some connection between the Terrans and Venusians. Perhaps this the way an archaeological investigation would proceed but it doesn't make a very good story. The book was a bit of a struggle for me to finish.

If I could award half stars I would probably give this 2 1/2 but I'll have to go with just two stars.

Mr Hogan's "Giants Novels" ([[ASIN:0345388852 The Giants Novels (Inherit the Stars, The Gentle Giants of Ganymede, and Giants' Star)]) were brilliant, each one of the trilogy presenting a clever scientific mystery. This book, unfortunately, tries to do the same but falls short. The big mystery involving the amazing similarity between humans living on Venus and the extinct humans on Earth is so obvious that I couldn't help wondering why the Venusians, who had realized that humans were better suited to Earth's environment than Venus', were so dumb. The subplots involving Venusian politics, the age of the earth and charged particle space drives were uncompelling and never really resolved.

The book could have been ok. Space fantasy can be quite fun - turn reality on its side and see what happens. But the author presents the fantasy elements as facts of the real universe. And he does so poorly. Some of the dialog between characters is undisguised criticism of current science. It doesn't advance the story, and doesn't fit the characters.

James P. Hogan is one of my favorite science fiction writers. I do however prefer his earlier work to the newer novels. I like stuff that is technically believable even if it is very futuristic and Hogan's novels are. The empahasis is on the science part of science fiction.

I bought this book as an afterthought, relying on my love for the way Hogan weaves his tales. I was not disappointed...

As others have stated, the main story outcome is pretty much telegraphed from the beginning. However, the way he arrives at the finale makes this book a must read, heh heh. Throughout, twists in the characters logic are presented that make you wonder about the finish, and the individual personal stories continuously distract you.

Definitely worth picking up, and you won't put it down often!