Customer Reviews

Moon Flower

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According to James P. Hogan's latest novel, "Moon Flower", Earth of the mid-twenty-first century has become a truly disagreeable place. The world is ruled by mega-conglomerates like Interworld Restructuring Corporation and its thuggish military contractor, Milicorp Transnational. Countries like the United States of America have fragmented into smaller, regional entities which serve primarily as bill collectors for the corporations. Personal rights have practically ceased to exist. You can't even leave the university at Berkeley for lunch without passing through a checkpoint and getting wanded and frisked. Is it worth the hassle?

Certain people are born misfits. Take quantum physicist Marc Shearer. Sure, he could make tons of money coming up with nasty new superweapons for one of the big corporations, but he'd rather do basic research to further the understanding of reality. Very early on, he gets dumped by his girlfriend because he isn't Going Places. He amuses himself by playing a certain parlor game called "nuts" with his companions -- it serves as a fascinating insight into basic, dysfunctional human nature.

Then there's Jerri Perlok. She's an anthropologist who looks at the strutting and preening of the privileged classes, and sees little difference between them and peacocks going through their mating rituals. She trusts her instincts, as well as the instincts of her little dog, Nimi (short for Nimrod). If the dog doesn't like someone, neither does she.

Both Marc and Jerri quickly find themselves on an interstellar voyage to a recently discovered planet called Cyrene. Marc was selected because of his ties with another physicist, his mentor, Evan Wade. Dr. Wade has gone missing -- along with practically everyone else in the two previous missions to Cyrene. Even hardened, dedicated officers of Interworld or Milicorp. Those who do stay in touch with Earth seem oddly lackadaisical. They just don't see any reason to keep up with Earth's mindless rat race any more. Something about Cyrene is getting to them. Is it the water? Something in the air? Or something much more mysterious?

Thus begins Hogan's latest engaging story. The basic theme will be familiar to long-time Hogan readers: the tyrannical forces of greed and conformity -- and their deluded minions -- on the one side, versus the more individualistic and altruistic people on the other. It's embodied in the question native Cyreneans, a humanoid race, ask of their Terran visitors: "But what is it that you actually DO?" They understand architects, doctors and engineers. They don't understand spoiled, bratty socialites whose sole claim to fame is whom they're related to, or how big their house is, or how many pictures they have hanging on their walls.

Interworld, we learn early on, has a very brutal, underhanded way of subjecting uncooperative client worlds. They pit different factions against one another, or appeal to religious phobias with an updated version of Moses and the Ten Plagues of Egypt. But the Cyreneans aren't impressed. They have a peculiar sort of intuition which renders them immune to the usual sorts of ploys. It even guides their science: they just "know" that this particular type of steam engine is "right", even if they don't fully grasp the fundamentals of physics. Interworld is losing a lot of money on this latest venture, and it's time to lay down the law.

I found the characters very engaging right from the outset, with none of that clunky, awkward dialog some of Hogan's recent novels have suffered in the opening chapters. Hogan's descriptions of the world of Cyrene are very imaginative. Picture a world with a very elongated orbit, around the larger member of a binary star system. It has complicated extremes of day and night, summer and winter, depending on how close together the two suns are in the sky, and how close the planet is to its primary sun. Hogan's landscape descriptions are very vivid, making me want to reread them and savor them. In fact, I'm thinking of rereading the whole book.

And, of course, there's the science. A hallmark of Hogan's novels can be described by this dust jacket blurb: he combines "informed and accurate speculation from the cutting edge of science and technology with suspenseful story-telling and living, breathing characters."

Central to the plot is the study of "A-waves", an artifact of certain quantum mechanical wave functions, which theoretically propagate backward in time. If it could be established that these actually existed, and that biological systems (plants and animals) were sensitive to such things, what would be the effect? Of particular interest to Terran scientists like Wade Evans is the ubiquitous Cyrenean moon flower.

About the only major complaint I have about this book is poor editing. Hogan uses "perigee" and a misspelled "perigree", which he really means "perihelion". Ditto for "apogee" versus "aphelion". And there are a few other typos which occasionally jar the reader and obscure meaning. Come on, guys: advanced spelling and grammar checkers are no substitute for a real, live human being.

No doubt some detractors will see Hogan as harping monotonously on the same themes over and over again: the need to escape from a society mindlessly squabbling over a bowl of beer nuts, be it to another planet, another star, or a distant timeline in the multiverse. But for me, each Hogan novel is just enough different to keep my interest piqued. I'm looking forward to many more.

Moon Flower (2008) is a standalone SF novel. It is set about four decades from now. Discoveries in quantum physics have led to the invention of an FTL drive that makes interstellar exploration and colonization possible.

Dozens of solar systems have been explored with robot probes. Aliens -- who look much like humanity -- have been found on several planets. New corporations have been formed to exploit interstellar resources and natives.

In this novel, Evan Wade is a physicist on the first expedition to Cyrene by Interworld Restructuring Corporation. His specialty is advanced waves. Retarded waves are the normal kind that travel forward in time, but advanced waves travel into the past. Wade has tried to detect advanced waves using biophysical sensors.

Marc Shearer is also a physicist and Wade's former assistant. Now he is head of the project at Berkeley while Wade is away. He has heard from Wade that some interesting things are happening on Cyrene. Wade tries to wire a job request to get Marc to Cyrene as his assistant. Naturally, Marc applies for the job when the opening is posted.

Jerri Perlok is an anthropologist. She has recently been hired by Interworld for the third expedition to Cyrene. She skipped a preflight training session to attend a social event. After all, she has plenty to observe at such occasions.

Jeff Lang is a historian. He is traveling to Cyrene to prepare an account of their progress. He is also an agent for Milicorp, the company that provides security for Interworld.

Myles Callan is a Facilitator for Milicorp Transnational. He is now a civilian executive of the mercenary corporation, but he has worn a uniform in the past. He is very intelligent, but rather cold-blooded, rational and calculating without strong emotions.

In this story, Myles finishes his last assignment and returns to the San Francisco area for a briefing on his next task. Rath Borland tells him that the Interworld effort on Cyrene is disintegrating. Personnel have been deserting the company and the remaining employees are showing signs of mental disorientation.

Interworld had sent two prior shipments of personnel and equipment to Cyrene. Now they are assembling a third emergency voyage to resolve the situation. Myles will be going with the third complement.

In addition to resolving the personnel problem, Myles is tasked with returning Evan Wade to Earth. Interworld suspects that his presence has worsened the situation and would like him off the planet. Borland has also arranged for Shearer to be on the ship, so he should lead to Wade.

Arriving for his preflight orientation, Marc meets Jeff in the cafeteria. Soon Jeff is a close associate, but he becomes a little irritating due to his obsessive questioning. He seems especially interested in Evan Wade.

Marc also meets Jerri during the preflight training. She seems different from other women whom he knows. For one thing, Jerri is more of an observer than a participant. Maybe that comes from her professional training?

When they reach Cyrene, Marc and Jerri wander around the base and find an unlocked gate. Beyond it, a path leads down into the surrounding greenery. Walking down the path, they find a native group waiting for them with a letter from Wade.

This tale leads Marc and Jerri into a puzzle. The natives always seem to know intuitively what to do about problems. They can't explain it, but a premonition leads them to the optimal choice on many things. Moon flowers are considered to invoke the best solutions.

The natives are positive that trying for longrange solutions is the wise thing to do. Ways that lead to the best solutions for everybody seem to reduce social unrest and internal conflict. The natives have had very few intergroup hostilities, possibly because of such feelings about ideas and the individuals who espouse them.

The author introduces strange scientific speculations into his novels. This work continues the Velikovsky premise from Cradle of Saturn, but also adds some strangeness from quantum mechanics. Not that strangeness is anything new in QM, but advanced waves have only recently become an acceptable subject for scientific experiments. Some labs are currently trying to explore such exotic events, but the author takes these efforts a bit further.

This novel emphasizes the gullibility of humanity as compared to the Cyreneans. OTOH, the Cyreneans are deficient in logical reasoning. The combination of humanity and natives may well lead to some exciting discoveries. Read and enjoy!

Recommended for Hogan fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of exotic physics, social theories, and human relationships.

-Arthur W. Jordin

Why oh why can't Hogan's newer books be as good as his older ones? I found Moon Flower to be overly wordy and badly edited. Too many unanswered questions, and the characters are sadly one-dimensional.
Oh, darn.

Typical J.P.Hogan science fiction with a solid nononsense message about life on our planet and what to do about it.
Good solid science fiction.

In the middle of the twenty-first century the mega-conglomerate Interworld Restructuring Corporation controls much of earth and other planets through its questionable ethics enforced by its even less scrupulous military contractor, Milicorp Transnational. The Bill of Rights does not exist as those amendments were protection from government not corporations and was affirmed by Supreme Court judges.

Quantum physicist Marc Shearer has plenty of offers to join the weapons of mass destruction wing of MT, but prefers basic and applied research rather than experimental design so is on the outside not looking in. At the same time Marc studies physical reality, anthropologist Jerri Perlok is whimsically comparing the preening of the affluent elite to that of peacocks in heat.

People are vanishing on the recently found Cyrene while those still in contact seem to not care about anything; if it was just a civilian lost no one would care, but officials of IRC and officers of MT are some of the missing. Hard ass Myles "the Facilitator" Callen leads an expedition from earth to Cyrene to learn the truth. Marc was given no choice but to join the crew as his scientific mentor Dr. Evan Wade vanished while Jerri is also drafted due to her unique social anthropology skills of studying bizarre cultures like the rich and almost-famous.

This is a fascinating encounter between humans and a sentient species that thinks radically different. Whereas mankind is avaricious in its one for one belief that the individual matters regardless; the selfless Cyreneans feel everyone counts as no one is left behind. What makes James P. Hogan's latest sci fi look at human avarice and the extrapolation of the Bush corpocracy is the reaction of the Cyreneans who understand revering teachers and doctors, but not social flits. This comparison of the two human species make for a strong social anthropological thriller as the greedy invoke the wrath of the God of Economics to save Wall St while the altruistic wonder why waste energy negatively when Main St needs help.

Harriet Klausner