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timinbc's review against another edition
3.0
Well, that was a change of pace. Written in 1999, this book feels like a 1979 Heinlein crossed with Ayn Rand. The hero wouldn't be out of place in a 50s Michener book.
Rather than spoil the plot, I'll just note that the book is dedicated to Immanuel Velikovsky.
And won the 2000 Prometheus Award as Best Libertarian Novel.
So, let's review. Emotionless engineer, good at everything he tries? Check. Implausibly successful bad-guy academic professor who will stop at nothing? Check. Cardboard bureaucrats? Check. Supporting cast of salt-of-the-earth men? Check. Competing love interests with whom nothing ever happens? Check.
My gosh, this is a 1930s pulp novel!
The astrophysics is interesting and probably well worked out if you allow a few assumptions - and hey, this IS fiction after all.
We see that mankind is starting to develop a presence on the Moon and Mars, but the Kronians are wildly implausible. Earth still seems to be living in 1979, but some folks have set up on the moons of Saturn and seem to be living in Alastair Reynolds' world of the 30th century. They also have some rather powerful weapons, but no one Earthside seems to have thought of anything more sophisticated than a submachine gun.
The book's a crock, but it is nevertheless an interesting potboiler with some intriguing ideas.
Rather than spoil the plot, I'll just note that the book is dedicated to Immanuel Velikovsky.
And won the 2000 Prometheus Award as Best Libertarian Novel.
So, let's review. Emotionless engineer, good at everything he tries? Check. Implausibly successful bad-guy academic professor who will stop at nothing? Check. Cardboard bureaucrats? Check. Supporting cast of salt-of-the-earth men? Check. Competing love interests with whom nothing ever happens? Check.
My gosh, this is a 1930s pulp novel!
The astrophysics is interesting and probably well worked out if you allow a few assumptions - and hey, this IS fiction after all.
We see that mankind is starting to develop a presence on the Moon and Mars, but the Kronians are wildly implausible. Earth still seems to be living in 1979, but some folks have set up on the moons of Saturn and seem to be living in Alastair Reynolds' world of the 30th century. They also have some rather powerful weapons, but no one Earthside seems to have thought of anything more sophisticated than a submachine gun.
The book's a crock, but it is nevertheless an interesting potboiler with some intriguing ideas.
__kell__'s review against another edition
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.0
Calling this a SciFi book is generous. It's a disaster movie with extra lecturing. Nowhere near his earlier novels.
brettt's review against another edition
2.0
Engineer and salesman James P. Hogan popped onto the science fiction scene in 1977 with Inherit the Stars, the story of how the discovery of an ancient space-suited human corpse on the moon upended humanity's understanding of its solar system, its own origins and its place in the universe. The four other books in his "Giants" series are favorites among hard science fiction fans that prize technical accuracy, plausible scenarios and scientific realism.
Hogan wove his understanding of physics into several more well-received novels, from the time-travel alternate history of The Proteus Operation to how a human society with unlimited resources and no past to weigh it down might start over, in Voyage from Yesteryear, to how interaction with an alien race might change both species in The Legend that Was Earth.
But over the course of his career, Hogan's anti-authoritarian views morphed into some strange opinions, ranging from the bizarre (Immanuel Velikovsky's odd version of solar system formation) to the distasteful -- he was not a complete Holocaust denier but did question many of the facts surrounding that horror.
Cradle of Saturn suffers from Hogan's desire to use it to preach some Velikovsky as well as some of his own ideas of what makes a successful society -- which are oddly not very clearly defined. Scientist Landon Keene is part of a private company outstripping governmental efforts in space, and is part of a group welcoming a delegation of Kronians -- people who have colonized some of Saturn's moons and rebuilt human society as they see fit. The Kronians want to warn Earth that a gigantic comet ejected from Jupiter's mass will not miss them as previously believed, but will come so close it will endanger not only civilization but human survival. Velikovsky suggests this is precisely how we got the planet Venus, some 3,500 years ago.
In his "Giants" series, Hogan unfolded his alternate understanding of how people and the world came to be through the story. As the characters tried to solve the mystery of the ancient corpse where no ancient corpse should be and as they uncovered new data, the picture gradually emerged. But in Cradle, the story is incidental to presenting all of Velikovsky's talking points. We even get a conversation between Keene and his co-worker's young son about how dinosaurs could not have existed in Earth's gravity because they were just too big -- the boy coincidentally is researching the subject and wants to show off his work to Landon.
Although the 1999 book nails the intensifying narcissistically consuming culture and connects that to disinterest in space, exploration or anything beyond the pursuit of our own whims, that's about the only thing that goes right for it. Hogan's stubborn devotion to the outre seems to block him from being able to teach and propound through his storytelling as he did quite well earlier in his career.
Original available here.
Hogan wove his understanding of physics into several more well-received novels, from the time-travel alternate history of The Proteus Operation to how a human society with unlimited resources and no past to weigh it down might start over, in Voyage from Yesteryear, to how interaction with an alien race might change both species in The Legend that Was Earth.
But over the course of his career, Hogan's anti-authoritarian views morphed into some strange opinions, ranging from the bizarre (Immanuel Velikovsky's odd version of solar system formation) to the distasteful -- he was not a complete Holocaust denier but did question many of the facts surrounding that horror.
Cradle of Saturn suffers from Hogan's desire to use it to preach some Velikovsky as well as some of his own ideas of what makes a successful society -- which are oddly not very clearly defined. Scientist Landon Keene is part of a private company outstripping governmental efforts in space, and is part of a group welcoming a delegation of Kronians -- people who have colonized some of Saturn's moons and rebuilt human society as they see fit. The Kronians want to warn Earth that a gigantic comet ejected from Jupiter's mass will not miss them as previously believed, but will come so close it will endanger not only civilization but human survival. Velikovsky suggests this is precisely how we got the planet Venus, some 3,500 years ago.
In his "Giants" series, Hogan unfolded his alternate understanding of how people and the world came to be through the story. As the characters tried to solve the mystery of the ancient corpse where no ancient corpse should be and as they uncovered new data, the picture gradually emerged. But in Cradle, the story is incidental to presenting all of Velikovsky's talking points. We even get a conversation between Keene and his co-worker's young son about how dinosaurs could not have existed in Earth's gravity because they were just too big -- the boy coincidentally is researching the subject and wants to show off his work to Landon.
Although the 1999 book nails the intensifying narcissistically consuming culture and connects that to disinterest in space, exploration or anything beyond the pursuit of our own whims, that's about the only thing that goes right for it. Hogan's stubborn devotion to the outre seems to block him from being able to teach and propound through his storytelling as he did quite well earlier in his career.
Original available here.
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