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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Techo-fun.,
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This review is from: Inherit the Stars (Mass Market Paperback)
At first blush, this books seems a not-too-veiled copy of 2001: A Space Odyssey An alien object (in this case a preserved alien body) is discovered on the moon, and the world is turned upside down.Actually, the book is really a variation on a theme. Instead of a mythic acid trip, we are given a scientific mystery novel. Think "CSI: Moon Base Clavius," with a healthy does of the Dilbert office politics added for spice. The central question of this book revolves around unlock the mystery of the 50,000 year old astronaut found on the moon. Hogan gets into the nuts and bolts of how scientist would process such a find. That is what makes this book so fun: historians and the broader scientific community do in fact operate along the lines the book depicts. Each discipline has its own specialty and protocols, with each faction coming to its own conclusion about the origin of Charlie. This process is comparable to the one that surrounded the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Only more so! You see, science is not as cut and dried as Carl Sagan made it out to be in The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark. Scientists have their fair share of politics, and an occasional grab into the bag of Dirty Tricks. I'll never forget sitting twenty feet from Dr. Immanuel Tov, where he said, in not so few words, that yes, the Dead Sea Scrolls had been suppressed, and they would finally be going out as they should have. This was in the context of Brigham Young University producing a CD-ROM with computer images of the fragments. The book's only weakness is that it seems derivative--we have a Sentinel left on the moon that gets the story going (2001), the asteroid belt was a plant destroyed by war (Space Cadet, Stranger in a Strange Land). It is stronger, however, in that there are more artifacts left over from the previous civilizations. You'd expect more cultural litter than Clarke or Heinlein depict in their books. This book is really a link between the old School of Clarke, and the new school anime Robotech: The Macross Saga: Battle Cry (Robotech). Look at the names: Victor Kaminski and Charles Hunter becomes Victor Hunt who becomes Rick Hunter, Zorac becomes Zor, Danchekker becomes Fokker. The most obvious hint is that the book makes a cameo in the Invid Arc. It's the same story--especially the "Giants of Ganymede"--just told in a slightly different manner. As a fan of Joseph Campbell, I love seeing the story behind the stories. Seeing both versions gives us a parallax to see the truth in full 3-D. * The cover blurb from Isaac Asimov sums this book up: Hogan is comparable to Arthur C. Clarke. Both are bona fide science fiction writers, not mythopoets using technology as part of the setting. You feel like the hardware depicted in the book is within reach. If you like Michael Crichton or Homer Hickam's Back to the Moon: A Novel, you'll love this book.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Intellectual drama almost compensates for absent human drama,
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This review is from: Inherit the Stars (Mass Market Paperback)
In the prologue to Inherit the Stars, two individuals (one in a red spacesuit, one in blue) are making a long journey on foot across desolate land. The one in red is exhausted. The one in blue has greater stamina; he helps the other along but finally leaves him in a cave, promising to return with help. The rest of the novel takes place fifty thousand years later. A body, clad in a red spacesuit, is found in a cave on the moon. A team of scientists is convened to investigate the body's origin (it appears to be human, with all the attributes of a life form that evolved on Earth), as well as the equipment and writings found on or alongside the body. The investigation expands as more specialists, from physicists to biologists to linguists, join the effort. Adding to the puzzle is the discovery of a spaceship buried on Ganymede twenty five million years earlier -- and a much larger body of much different physiology. Victor Hunt is brought in as a generalist to facilitate communication among the specialists and to synthesize the results. The novel follows Hunt in his quest to solve the mystery.A common failing of "hard" science fiction is the tendency to emphasize the science while shortchanging the fiction. In other words, the writer waxes poetic about his ideas while neglecting character development, dramatic tension, and the other requirements of well-written fiction. Inherit the Stars contains a better balance of science and fiction than many hard sf novels, although the science clearly dominates the fiction. Only two characters have any personality at all: Hunt, about whom we know almost nothing meaningful until late in the novel, when we begin to learn what the man is all about; and a biologist named Danchekker, who fits the stereotype of a gruff, arrogant curmudgeon. The plot can be summarized as "scientists at work," and it's intellectually interesting but lacking in emotional resonance. Fans of action-oriented fiction probably won't find much to admire in Inherit the Stars after the prologue ends. Inherit the Stars is nonetheless a well-written sf mystery that grabs hold of big ideas and pieces them together to solve a fascinating puzzle. It avoids another common failing of hard sf: descriptions of science that are incomprehensible to a lay reader. Hogan clearly explains the science he invokes and makes the application of the scientific process understandable. While I might have hoped for more human drama -- some acknowledgment that hundreds of people working together for years on Earth and for months on a ship traveling to Ganymede might form positive or negative relationships -- the intellectual drama in Inherit the Stars is nearly strong enough to compensate for the absence of its human counterpart. Inherit the Stars is a novel that most sf fans should enjoy.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A tightly told tale...,
By
This review is from: Inherit the Stars (Mass Market Paperback)
When a 50,000 year old human is found on the surface of the Moon, it's sure to cause a stir. The stir becomes, at times, a fracas, in James P. Hogan's "Inherit the Stars," a 1979 release that began his Giants Trilogy. I ran across this little gem on a shelf at a used bookstore, and was intrigued enough by the cover that I decided to give it a try.Hogan manages to create a very consistent feel of scientific study and exploration, both in the laboratory and in the far reaches of the Solar System, with a tightly written storyline that flows quickly. The personages in "Inherit the Stars" are often a bit cliché: the quintessential problem-solver, the defender of science-quo, the skilled government manipulator - but the mystery of the storyline allows one to forgive the clichés and accept them for what they are: vehicles to tell the tale. Throughout the book, one finds them self guessing elements of the truth, and in the closing of the book we find the truth to be revealed... but the struggle for the truth is an omnipresent feature of this book. People of a spiritual background who have issues with evolution may find difficulties with this tale, particularly in a scene where the interaction of a divine power is dismissed outright. Science fiction, though, is not for the thin skinned... and the story itself draws on many disciplines to provide a complex story that is most satisfying. There are some items of the story that are nothing but scientific quackery... and they will be plainly obvious to anyone who bothers to do a bit of research. But on the whole I can recommend this novel without hesitation.
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