Inherit the Stars

This is an amazing story! I like how all the scientific pieces seemed so disparate and yet were wrapped up at the end. Each new clue kept me riveted. I couldn’t put it down.

I first read this book in the late 1970s and thought it was one of best page turners I ever read. I have since re-read this book twice and it's just as compelling as was the first time. Hogan has created both a technical and human mystery that holds you in suspense throughout. This is a wonderful story for anyone who likes a "who dunnit."

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.

I won't comment on the literary merit of this book, which I suspect is probably not all that high, but it was distinctly different in its time and probably influenced a lot of people for that reason. As others have mentioned, it's very much of a "science" fiction book. Even at the time, most of the speculative science seemed very plausible, and even reading it again today, most of it holds up really well. That was my first real introduction to evolutionary theory and, having studied it extensively since then, the way Hogan explained it via the Danchekker character, is a very good encapsulation of Darwinian evolution (interestingly, Hogan himself has become something of Darwin contrarian; check his web site and other novels). What I find so interesting about the book is its lack of heroics, really. There's no real action taking place, no battles between aliens (sort of) and courageous Earthlings. No one's life is ever threatened. It's a scientific detective story that gradually unfolds, but logically and rationally, and based on the results of research. This is why it was particularly influential to me; I eventually went on to an advanced degree in the sciences. Hogan showed that normal, ordinary scientists can be interesting. That you don't need to wield a laser gun or a lightsaber (!) to be part of a fascinating story. Essentially, that the process of discovery and analysis can itself be intellectually exciting. He captured the essence of what drives working scientists all over the world. As a budding computer nerd, this was the right fertilizer at the right time. Over the years, I've noted how his technology and societal predictions have held up. Some well, some not so well. Lots of people are still smoking all over the place in Hogan's 2027. Digital Equipment is still a major player in that world as well (and no sign of Microsoft! Ah, one can wish. . . .) Doesn't look like we'll have people on the moon, Mars, and Jupiters moons by then though, nor a Boeing 1027 that will reach LA from London in 3 hours. Still, even back then his imagined future seemed plausible.

This is one of the best sci-fi novels I have ever read. The story is great, science is intriguing, and the author uses science to solve a 50,000-year-old mystery discovered on the moon. But wait -- just when everyone thinks they have solved the riddle, MORE clues surface from a 25 MILLION-year-old spaceship found on Ganymede. Hogan weaves an intricate tale in and out, around and through, the rational beliefs of the engineering and scientific status quo. It's Quincy goes to the Moon and beyond. It will leave you wondering if it actually could happen. You won't be disappointed.

It's been more than 20 years since I first read Inherit the Stars, and yet I still rank this book #1 of all my favourite SF books. Like other reviewers have already mentioned, how do you possibly explain a 50,000 year old corpse on the moon? Hogan spins an interesting and believable tale and the result is a page turner you can't put down. Three sequels followed this novel, and although all enjoyable reads, they can't match the freshness and originality of this hard SF classic. Read Inherit the Stars - you won't be disappointed.