Inherit the Stars

[Staiduk]

Just curious - is anyone familiar with James P. Hogan's 'Giants' series? If so; what did you think of 'em?
I personally loved the first book; "Inherit the Stars". The first book I ever read where the focus was on scientific discovery; on piecing together a puzzle from the remains of a dead man. Could be a dry subject; but Hogan's excellent characters (Christian Danchekker in particular - the ideal irascible scientist!); brilliant storyline and beautiful settings (for instance; how he vividly paints Jupiter as Hunt sees it from the surface of Ganymede) kept it a terrific, entertaining read.
I thought the translation of the diary was a particularly powerful piece of writing, myself. Also loved how the book ended with the single word: KORIEL - a perfect wrap-up.
The two following books were not quite as good; though "The Gentle Giants" was scarcely less entertaining, IMO.
What did you guys think? :)

[SeanF]

It's been a long time since I've read them, but I agree with you. Inherit the Stars was an excellent book, but I think he should've left it as a stand-alone. :)

[Nowhere Man]

I read and enjoyed all three. I would agree that Inherit the Stars is the best of the lot, but only if you can ignore the bad astronomy that is the final answer that the characters are searching for.

Fred

[bobjohnston]

There's actually a fourth in the series, "Entoverse", and a fifth one is to be published next year. I'm less impressed with Hogan's books now than earlier on; he's gotten more into pseudoscience, it seems.

[Staiduk]

There's actually a fourth in the series, "Entoverse", and a fifth one is to be published next year. I'm less impressed with Hogan's books now than earlier on; he's gotten more into pseudoscience, it seems.

Agreed - Entoverse was just plain silly. The whole business with JEVEX went way beyond speculation and right into dumbness.

As for the third - "Giant's Star" I have mixed feelings. I thought that (spoiler) the warlike Cerians (sp? It's been a while) being tossed back in time to become themselves (/spoiler) was too weird for the rest of the series; though I must admit it really made one think - going around in circles trying to imaagine where the beginning actually was. :)

[ChesleyFan]

I liked the first book, and the second book was good, too, but I never finished the third-- I got about fifty pages in a gave up. Looking back the entire series has a lot of questionable astronomy and biology, but I love the fact that it revolves around solving a science mystery. Still haven't found anything quite like it. (Silk Code was close).

[tracer]

Fun fact: One of the characters was carrying a copy of Inherit the Stars in an episode of Genesis Climber Mospeada (the anime series that got translated into English as the "next generation" portion of Robotech).

[Chip]

Just curious - is anyone familiar with James P. Hogan's 'Giants' series? If so; what did you think of 'em?
I personally loved the first book; "Inherit the Stars". The first book I ever read where the focus was on scientific discovery...

What I liked about "Inherit the Stars" was that every question or possibility about the central mystery of the story, (Charlie and his origin) which my mind would think up while reading, would be addressed within a page or two.

[MrT]

Hi:

I was just rereading Inherit from long long ago in a place far away
and I suddenly remembered seeing a movie about discovering a 50K year old human specimen in a red space suit on the moon.

Anyone know what I am referring to? Or is this a delusion and wishful thinking?

Thanks.

Best regards

[Ut]

As for the third - "Giant's Star" I have mixed feelings. I thought that (spoiler) the warlike Cerians (sp? It's been a while) being tossed back in time to become themselves (/spoiler) was too weird for the rest of the series; though I must admit it really made one think - going around in circles trying to imaagine where the beginning actually was. :)

You know, Red Dwarf did the same thing. Lister's his own father. Now, figure THAT one out.

[nomuse]

I liked the central conciet of Entoverse -- that the registers of a super-computer could be considered as elementary particles themselves describing a "world" where intelligent life eventually evolves. The connections (and explorations), to this world, from the "it looks just like Ultima Online to us" to "Hilter was an Ent," were just silly.

The "Giants" books were plain silly fun, SF on the grand scale in which all we know about ourselves and our place in the world is a mere footnote in some-one else's story.

I've read most of his books by now. Enjoyed most (for different reasons) "Voyage from Yesteryear" and (at least the first part of "Star Child."

But even in an oddity like "Endgame Enigma" you have some marvellous moment about the process of scientific discovery (when they finally sift through the subtle clues and perform a few simple experiements proving beyond a doubt that they weren't where they thought they were.)