Inherit the Stars

James P. Hogan: The Two Moons, Part 1: Inherit the Stars (Baen Books, ISBN 13: 978-1-4165-0936-3).

I first read this book when it was one of the first releases from Ballantine Books under its new Del Rey line of science fiction. The cover (by Darrell K. Sweet) really grabbed me: A body in a 2001-style spacesuit being examined by two astronauts in similar suits. The latest installment in what is now a multi-book series is out, so I picked up the omnibus edition containing the first two books in the series to read them again after nearly thirty years. Has the tale held up?

Yes and no. The main character, one Victor Hunt, gets involved in a mystery. There's a body found on the Moon. The problem is, nobody is missing any crew. And the suit doesn't quite match the technology being used. And it appears to have been there for some 50,000 years.

The book has relatively little action, it resembles more a gentleman's club mystery, where people sit around and solve the puzzle by talking. That's not to say nothing happens (heck, we travel to Jupiter!), but much of the action is just the conversational interplay between the characters.

I was really struck by some things in the book. Hogan gets some stuff right: One character spends some time catching up on scientific journals that appear to be not only online but contain hyperlinks to references and other papers. So, a book in the dark ages of 1977 (at least where information technology is concerned) correctly antiicpates something that we all make use of every day. On the other hand, he has characters (for example) making reservations using a picture phone built into the same briefcase that acts as a personal computer, instead of anticipating electronic transactions.

The oddest thing that struck me is the number of cigarettes, cigars, etc., that get lit up in the story...even on spaceships. How times have changed!

The reviewer's dilemma: The book was first published in 1977. How much do I keep the plot a secret to avoid "spoilage"? Oh well, in a nutshell: It turns out the body on the Moon is human, but, as I said, had been there some 50,000-odd years. What group of humans were running around with advanced technology 50,000 years ago? Eventually it is discovered that humans had been living on the fifth planet of the Solar System (where we now have the Asteroid Belt). A war lead to the destruction of the planet (some of it ended up as Pluto), and our Moon...previously circling the fifth planet...eventually settled into orbit around Earth.

Who brought humans to the fifth planet? Another discovery is made on Ganymede, one of Jupiter's larger moons. A crashed spaceship, even older than the body on the Moon, containing samples of earthly life. And peopled by...aliens. So, it seems the aliens brought sample of life to the fifth planet and then they eventually moved on.

It was an enjoyable tale when I first read it, and I enjoyed the re-read, but can't take the "science" seriously. It appears that Hogan does take this sort of thing seriously (one only has to look at his website, or see his columns, or see his list of recommended books). While I do support open discussion of scientific controversy, I think the preponderance of evidence has disproven the likelihood of planets and moons scuttling across our Solar System in historic times. (But I'd gladly be proven wrong, if anybody can chime in!)

Will I read the next book? Sure, I'm already several chapters into it. I'll pick up the second omnibus, and the fifth book (when it is out in paperback). I enjoy Hogan's tales of worlds in collision. I just don't think they are scientific fact.