Customer Reviews

Thrice Upon a Time

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

One of the things I like about James P. Hogan's fiction is that it's so largely idea-driven. He makes plausible projections from present-day science and uses them as the basis for a story (which generally includes the story of the discovery of the scientific principles at issue).

This is one of my favorites. In it, Hogan explores a mind-blowingly cool scientific concept: what if it were possible for information to travel from the future to the past?

"Classic" SF treatments of time-travel themes leave something to be desired -- even Robert A. Heinlein's fine short story "By His Bootstraps," which depends for its success on several narrative tricks that work in the story but aren't very realistic elsewhere. (The protagonist has to relive the same series of events several times, from different points of view, without really being able to _make decisions_ as this happens.) Others allow the possibility of changing the past but allege that _actually_ changing it would somehow make the universe go blooey. A few allow the past actually to be changed but don't explain how it's possible (in particular ducking the obvious paradoxes).

So Hogan started from scratch and tried to provide a plausible scientific basis for his own tale. And what he came up with was a way that information from the future _can_ change the past -- with, let's say, _very_ interesting consequences for his characters, including a host of brand new moral problems and hard choices. As I suggested above, the story is (like most "hard" SF) fundamentally idea-driven rather than character-driven, but Hogan's characters are believable and interesting all the same.

If you enjoy this sort of thing, you'll also want to read his later novel _Paths To Otherwhere_ for exploration of the Many Worlds Interpretation of quantum mechanics. And check out _The Proteus Operation_ for yet another fascinating twist on the time-travel/changing-the-past theme.

Thrice Upon a Time is my first Hogan book, but I have followed up by ordering more. Time travel is a favorite topic of mine. I've read so many I've lost count. This one stands out in that it is very heavy on science and theory. If you like to ponder the possibilities and ramifications of communication across time, this book will appeal to you as it did to me. It has an excellent treatment of the paradox dilemma. One guage I use to measure a time travel novel is believability...Hogan has managed to be creative while at the same time presenting a plausible scenario. The consequences of altering the future are explored in a satisfying (and believable) manner. Those reviewers who found the book dull are not people who have spent a great deal of time pondering the theories. The book involves the reader in trying to figure out the theory, because once the ability to send communication back in time is discovered, the next step is figuring out how it's done and how the paradox situations fit into the equation. The true nature of time is explored thoroughly. It is not a book of rip-roaring action, but definitely a book for those who are enthralled by the idea of communication through time. I found it immensely satisfying.

I've read this book twice. Once when I was younger, and again recently. It was what I would consider a Good book. Hogan always seems to turn out an entertaining book, a book worth reading, but not a Snow Crash. I could read this book again when its turn comes up. Worth buying and reading.

James P. Hogan's best works have always been about science and scientists exploring the universe, finding out how it ticks, and being surprised not so much by what they find as by the byproducts of what they find. In this story, a machine which can send signals back in time is invented, and the rest of the story revolves around three key questions: "Exactly how does it work?", "What does it mean about the way the universe works?", and finally, "How do we use it wisely?"

Hogan's characters quickly became friends, and I got thoroughly caught up in their quest for answers, some of which, as you would expect, are kept secret until right up to the very end, which includes one of the most gorgeous juxtapositions of "Surprise!" with "Of course!" I've ever read. This one was more than worth the time spent reading it.

This book starts with a lot of potential, but unfortnately the author gets bogged down in ad infinitum descriptions and details of the "science and theory" of his device that is the heart of the story, and the real story gets lost. I thought this book was written in 2000, but it was actually first copyrighted in 1980, so the science is somewhat outdated. His later books are better, such as The Legend That Was Earth.

The concept of time travel is one of the oldest themes in science fiction. Just when you think its been milked dry, someone like James P. Hogan comes along and breathes new life into an otherwise tired concept. I found "Thrice Upon a Time" to be the most thoughtful, innovative takes on time travel I've seen yet. Almost universally, time travel books or movies deal with a person being transported either back or forward in time. In this case, Hogan deals with information being sent back in time. He theorizes that "in any reaction, a tiny (almost undetectable) amount of energy goes back in time". If properly modulated, that energy can act as a signal to relay information. This technique makes it possible for those in different futures to send messages back to a point in the past. So, someone in the future can tell their former self what to do or avoid. That, in turn, changes the course of events. This becomes a way to avoid dangerous or costly mistakes, since those in the future can reveal how a given course of action turned out. Of course, it also results in the negation of those timelines not taken. This means that one's future self risks elimination when they send any type of message back in time. That's some pretty heavy stuff. Hogan's unique skill as an author is his ability to use his engineering knowledge to make the impossible seem practical. One example is his use of "bootstrapping" (a mainstream computing hack) and reinventing it as a way to send messages back one day at a time (thus bridiging a larger time gap with the past). The idea that from every instant, there are multiple (perhaps infinite) possible timelines is fascinating too. Bottom line: if you care more about ideas than horrible aliens or exploding spaceships, then this is the book for you.

I've never been a fan of "conventional" time travel stories with ideas of parallel timelines or other ways around the famous "grandfather paradox." They've all seemed cheesy. Along comes Hogan, who looks at the paradox square in the eye, and deals with it once and for all.

Foes of time travel stories won't find this one hard to follow. Hogan takes the reader along with himself, describing the 3 different histories and how they change, without losing the reader in a miasm of contradictions and scene-switches.

This excellent 1980 hard science fiction novel is somewhat like a more scientific version of the film "The butterfly effect" except that the characters are trying to literally save the world from imminent destruction instead of making alterations in individual lives. And that this novel isn't quite so unbearably sad.

Though of course, this novel was written many years before that film so it is Hogan who had the original idea.

Of all the dozens of novels I have read which include either time travel or other speculations about the nature of time, "Thrice apon a time" includes far and away the most imaginative and brilliantly explained picture of how a universe in which you actually can change the past might work.

Almost every single other novel I have read or film I have seen in which the possibility of changing the past comes up is a variation of one of the following views, explaining why you can't or shouldn't:


1) you can't do it at all because the past has already happened and may not be altered

2) you won't notice any effect, because if you change anything you'll find that you "already did it" and any change you made will already have been incorporated in the universe you started from

3) you absolutely must not attempt to do it because it will destroy your universe or cause a huge catastrophe such as a split in the timestream

4) you should not attempt to do it because there are likely to be unpredictable side effects which may be very harmful.


The scientists who are the central characters of "Thrice apon a time" discover an unusual side effect of certain reactions - a small amount of energy is sent backwards in time. They build a machine to measure the effects when that energy arrives in the past - and then find that it can be used like a receiver for messages which can be sent backwards in time. E.g. they can use the effects which their machine measures to send messages back to their earlier selves at any time after the machine was built.

Being very aware of the potential threats described in 3) and 4) above, our heroes initially have no intention of using the machine for any significant communication. Until it turns out that a new experimental reactor which was used for the first time a few days after they built the machine has produced catastrophic effects.

So catastrophic, in fact, that trying to change the past may be their least bad option, even though it means that their present selves and things which are very valuable to them will be erased ...

"Thrice Upon a Time" is a science-fiction novel about a 'problem' in a fusion reactor and about a few messages that are sent through time. This is a different sort of time travel and, at the time this book was written, scientists thought that it might be possible!

This is a very good, tightly written, story.

I recommend it.

Thrice Upon a Time is not a book to read if you're not ready to be totally absorbed. The author allows the reader to imagine the consequences of altering the entire universe by changing one small event in the past. The reader will quickly become lost in the story-line as well as the characters. This book is excellent if you're prepared to do some thinking. I highly recommend it.