Inherit The Stars

[Staiduk]

'Lo!

I was cleaning out my workdesk...OK; so I was excavating it...when I came upon a novel I haven't read in years: Inherit the Stars by James P. Hogan.

Ooo, I was so happy; I dropped what I was doing - which means my desk still ain't gonna get cleaned - and dove into the book.

It is by far one of my favourite S-F books because it - and the other two books in the series; though they're far less appealing - is an S-F novel with a difference: The heros of the story are not soldiers, mercenaries, rogue pilots etc., but scientists struggling to solve a mystery.

Basically - and without throwing spoilers out - the story is this:

It's a little way into the 21st century; and mankind has expanded to colonies and scientific outposts on the Moon, with expeditions being carried out in the Jovian planets. Survey parties working the lunar Farside find a spacesuited corpse in a small cave on the surface. The body's equipment and suit are completely unrecognizeable; and it soon becomes clear the corpse doesn't come from any of the existing colonies - it is in fact fifty thousand years old.

A consortium of the brightest minds and institutions is assembled to solve the mystery of the corpse. The story relates the research, debates and discoveries that surround the project. The protagonist is Dr. Victor Hunt; an English mathematician hired (or rather, shanghaied) to lead the team; keep the seperate divisions talking with each other, and - due to his ability to think out of the box - to keep them from getting stuck in the ruts of orthodoxy.

I'm not a fan of Hogan's novels; his style is too dry and devoid of emotion for my taste. However; in this novel; that style is absolutely perfect. It's not an exciting slam-bang read; but it is nevertheless a fascinating recreation of science in action and has a fairly unique excitement of its own.

I was just wondering - has anyone else here read 'Inherit The Stars'? It's not a landmark book by any stretch of the imagination but it's still a fun read and I'd love to see the take genuine scientists have on the novel. :)

Cheers!

[Van Rijn]

I was just wondering - has anyone else here read 'Inherit The Stars'? It's not a landmark book by any stretch of the imagination but it's still a fun read and I'd love to see the take genuine scientists have on the novel. :)


Just as a note, this should really be in the "Small media" forum. I'm not a professional scientist, but I do have a bit of science background and I have read the book. My opinion: Hogan can write I story that keeps you turning the pages. That's his only good point. As for his science, Velikovsky would be proud (this is not a compliment).

In this story, there is a mystery when a dead man in a space suit of unknown design has been found on the moon. The solutions that occured to me were (a) time travel or (b) selected humans "picked up" and working with aliens . . .

In case anyone hasn't read it and wants to, I'm going to put a

SPOILER WARNING!!

right here.




I'm going to tell the solution to the mystery, so you really should stop reading now if you don't want to find out.







YOU'VE BEEN WARNED.


Of course, it wasn't either of those. Oh, no! It turns out that humans originally lived on the fifth planet of the solar system which is now the asteroid belt. In fairly recent history they blew up their planet. Our moon was orbiting the fifth planet, and the dead astronaut was there when the planet exploded. The moon happened to wonder over to earth and settle into the current orbit.

There are so many things wrong with that it isn't funny: Such a planet would be too far from the sun for life as we know it. If a planet did explode there would be much more material in the belt. There would be impact damage on other planets because of all the junk floating around. The moon would show massive recent impact damage. The moon would not make its way to earth and settle into a neat orbit. Several lines of evidence show the moon has been around for a long time. Humans are too similar to other species on this planet for a recent introduction. And so on.

I felt cheated when I read that conclusion. It was a terrible ending.

Ironically, I've been told that he does introduce time travel in later stories. :wall:

[The Incredible Bloke]

It is by far one of my favourite S-F books because it - and the other two books in the series; though they're far less appealing - is an S-F novel with a difference: The heros of the story are not soldiers, mercenaries, rogue pilots etc., but scientists struggling to solve a mystery.

I'm sure it's a good book but that's hardly unusual.

[Staiduk]

Oh well, I liked it. :)

Considering it was written in 1977; I wasn't exactly hoping the science was accurate - heck, I like Star Wars and it ain't exactly accurate either. Unlike Velikovsky - who took a bunch of 'shroom-spawned fiction and tried to pass it off as fact; Hogan was simply writing a work of fiction. I just liked the idea of a story which concerns smart people doing smart things, unlike the more common 'slam-bang' form of S-F.
Bloke suggested there are similar stories out there - if there are; If you could provide titles; I'll be indebted. :)