Eighteen years have passed since the first manned mission to Earth arrived from Venus. With the first colonists already establishing themselves across the bright, sunny world of clear blue skies and wonderlands of towering mountains and ice deserts, Kyal Reen arrives to join the Venusian scientific and archeological teams that are working to reconstruct the story of the mysterious and enigmatic extinct Terran race that once flourished there. Studies of Terran geology, scientific works, and ancient records show that Earth's early peoples witnessed terrifying cataclysmic cosmic events in skies very different from those seen today. In his travels among the Terran ruins, Kyal meets a biologist called Lorili, who is attempting to explain certain baffling similarities between some Terran and Venusian life forms that are irreconcilable with the established fact that Venus is a far younger planet than Earth. Formerly aligned with the "Progressive" activists back on Venus, Lorili admires the qualities of tenacity and determination written through Terran history. She constructs a theory of Venusians being descended from Terran ancestors. However, even allowing for the greatly exaggerated time scales that Terran science assigned to the processes of biological and planetary evolution, further research shows that there could have been no overlap. The Terrans were extinct long before life emerged on Venus. But there is a different, unexpected answer to the riddle. Lorili and Kyal will have to fight for their theory and their lives.
About the Author
James P. Hogan is a science fiction writer in the grand tradition, combining informed and accurate speculation from the cutting edge of science and technology with suspenseful story-telling and living, breathing characters. His first novel was greeted by Isaac Asimov with the rave, "Pure science fiction . . . Arthur Clarke, move over!" and his subsequent work quickly consolidated his reputation as a major SF author. He has written nearly twenty novels including Cradle of Saturn and Bug Park (both Baen), the Giants series (Del Rey), the New York Times bestsellers The Proteus Operation and Endgame Enigma, and the Prometheus Award Winner The Multiplex Man.
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Product ReviewWay too preachy, and the solution to the 'mystery' the book centers around is too obvious from page 1. The characters are very one dimensional even for a hard scifi book. The culture on Venus is a standard authorial utopia, the only reason it has any problems is due to sudden exposure to dead earth cultures. Read Hogan's Inherit the Stars instead. Similar plot, but far less preachy and more interesting.
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Product ReviewI think James Hogan is a tad frustrated because he remembers what a lot of people, including some so-called scientists, have forgotten, science ISN'T a matter of "consensus" but of evidence. Hence the touch of preachiness. But the story itself was well-told, and the puzzle aspect interesting. In the end, it was the evidence that counted. Ignore the touch of preaching and enjoy the puzzle/story.
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Product ReviewI like Hogan's earlier stuff, but this book has far too much of a preaching tone to it for my tastes. Perhaps it's just me, but I feel when reading it that he's trying to persuade me that the weird science in it is really true, rather than just true in the story. Oh - and when I did force myself to finish it, the 'unexpected answer to the riddle' wasn't unexpected by me.
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