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| Cover art by Darrell K. Sweet |
| GIANTS' STAR James P. Hogan |
Rating: 5.0 High |
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| New York: Ballantine Books, 1981 | ISBN 0-345-28771-1 | 305pp | SC/GSI | $2.50 | |
An advanced extraterrestrial civilization in contact with Earth raises the possibility that Earth's culture has been manipulated throughout history. We were introduced to such a culture in Hogan's first novel of his "Giants" series. That was the Ganymean civilization, which arose on Minerva some 25 million years ago and then vanished. Its only survivors are one ship, the Shapieron, which had been caught in a relativistic time warp and returned to Earth in our year 2028, to spend six months before departing for the supposed new home of their people: the so-called "Giants' star."
Hogan wrote five novels in his "Giants" series:
In this, the third, we learn that previously a message was beamed from the radiotelescope on lunar farside to that star. After the Shapieron had departed, a reply was received — far too soon for Earth's message to have reached the star, 20 light years distant. There is no way to contact the Shapieron with its drive field on, and the situation remains a mystery. Earth continues to transmit, but months pass with no further message.
But now Victor Hunt is notified by his boss Gregg Caldwell that signals have resumed. However, the messages are in English, and they use UNSA prefix codes. Hunt assumes the Shapieron must have been intercepted somehow. But Caldwell informs him that the contents of the messages make this doubtful, and the first of them warns against discussion of the subject via any electronic communications. It doesn't take long for the sharp minds in Caldwell's group to understand what this means: Earth is under surveillance, has been for some time, and whoever sent the new messages is not the party doing the surveillance.
Indeed, the senders of these new messages express concern about the Shapieron, and seem to think Earth is on the verge of World War III. They want to send a delegation to Earth on the Q.T., and ask the UN to set things up. But the UN is discouraging contact, just as it tried to prevent outbound messages after the original reply came in.1 The situation is deeply puzzling, and clearly calls for another channel to Gistar — one that can't be monitored by whoever is monitoring. Fortunately, Dr. Hunt has good friends out on Ganymede, friends who will draw the correct conclusion from clues and cryptic messages he sends in the clear, to avoid attracting attention.
Thus, a meeting at an out-of-the-way spot is arranged, and the delegation arrives. But far from resolving the mystery, their visit uncovers deeper ones.
"Lyn stared as if she couldn't believe her ears. "But that's ridiculous! You're telling us that for . . . I don't know how many years, people like this have been keeping whole nations backward, sabotaging education, and supporting all kinds of idiot cults and propaganda to stay on top of the pile, and there's nothing anybody can do? That's crazy!" Page 163 |
Like any of Hogan's novels, this one has good dialogue, decent characterization, coherent plotting, and a fast pace. One other thing that made it enjoyable to me is that it doesn't portray Victor Hunt as the man with all the answers, who knocks down conundrums impenetrable by lesser minds like so many sets of ninepins. Rather, he's one competent member of a competent team. Top marks.
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