Conference noted::sf

I wish I could read three books in less than a week...

-- Bill

PS: I'm reading Hogan's "Code of the Lifemaker" now, but by the time I
finish it, you'll probably have read it and everything else he's written.
Sigh!

BTW, I never realized that Hogan worked for DEC until I read the little
bio blurb in the back of "Code.." (that is, he *used* to work for DEC...).
Did anyone out there know him during his tenure with us?

-- Bill

I wish I could read books SLOWLY.  I'll pick up a paperback around
noon and have it finished by suppertime.  "Well, there's another
$2.95 shot".  I won't be able to read it again for a year, to
allow time to forget enough of it.  I have to go 3 years between
readings of Lord of the Rings.

The only ones that took long were Shogun and "Goedel, Escher, Bach",
but that was due to interruptions.

This is particularly annoying when the book is real good, because
you don't want it to end.  You want to hear more about that writer's
universe, to savor the details, etc.

A Hogan book I'd recommend is THRICE UPON A TIME.  (Hope the title is right;
the collection's not handy right now.)  This novel features a DEC PDP-64 (!)
in a leading role.  It comes off much better than it sounds. 

					-- Roger

	I recommend "Two Faces of Tomorrow" as his potential best. I knew him -
	he seemed like an ordinairy guy, apart from the fact that he was
	British. If he can do it, so can I - if I ever get the time...

	I have his phone # in CA if you want to call him up and give him hell.
	Why not? Minsky does...

I haven't read a whole lot by him (don't have the time, mostly), but my
personal favorite is THE GENESIS MACHINE.

--- jerry

re .3 - It's interesting that you wait until you've forgotten details before
        rereading something.  I've found that I get so involved with a book
        that it doesn't matter if I reread after a short interval;  I just
        don't think about what's going to happen.  What are other people's
        experiences at this?

					John

But! Is there a "Fourth Book"?????

I like reading fast since it takes more effort and ensures that I'm
totally involved in the process. If I read slowly, I end up drifting and
getting distracted, thus getting much less out of the experience of the
book. It's easier to understand complex stories when you read seriously
since you don't forget as much of the "little things" by the time they
become important... Each to his own...

		bob wyman

	No 4th book yet - Hogan was reluctant to do a second, and dutifully did
	the third (best of the series, I thought, and the proper way for a
	trilogy to wrap up) when he was bombarded by letters. He likes people
	to send him mail and argue with his plots, because it usually means
	there's a possible sequel that ties the facts up even tighter - he's
	a tidy author.

re .5

Whaddya mean "He seemed like an ordinary guy, apart from the fact that he was
British."

Tim

	Well, you know - British - the British in America - the "Wretched
	Refuse of your Teeming Shores"... that kind of thing...

					(+:  Max

"The Two Faces Of Tomorrow" by Hogan was a very good book. It held my
attention throughout. The last 50 pages were especially gripping.

I read "Inherit The Stars" not too long ago and I was wondering if 
anyone out there could give me the titles of the second two books in
the trilogy.

Chris

	#1-Inherit the Stars

	#2-Gentle Giants of Ganymede

	#3-Giants Star

					Enjoy! (I did)

						mike

re: .12

I have a real problem with Hogan's happy endings.
Sure, the story was gripping.  The setup for the resolution was okay, but
fundamentally flawed.  Why should a computer that went through 3 million
years of ethical evolution in a few months stop just when it catches up?
The insanity of the people in charge of jumping right on and down-loading
the evolved system just when it figures out that those soft squishy things
were okay was incredibly short-sighted!  At its rate of emotional and ethical
growth, it would probably take about four days to realize that those soft
squishy things are really a drain on the universe, and euthenasia might
be a reasonable experiment.
I had the same problem with Genesis Machine and especially Code of the 
Lifemaker.  Is the robot religion supposed to survive the economic war that will
result when the Russians and the Japanese do arrive and address the robot states
separately.  (This is entirely separate from my more serious problem with the
entire lack of subtlety and cuteness of Code...; more on that if I get to it.)

Inheret the Stars was well-thought, well written, and clever.  I liked it a lot.
His other work does not measure up.

- tom]

With very little publicity, the fourth Giants book has been out in hardcover
since October.  I saw it in B. Daltons and bought it in Walden's that
afternoon.  The book is called "Entoverse."  Its about 300 pages of good
read, but tending more toward the libertarian side of Hogan.

The book picks up with Vic Hunt six months after the close of the pseudo-war
and is full of Jelvan intrigue.  I won't say more and the teasers on the cover
and the fly-leaf don't give many hints, either.

BobW

>================================================================================
>Note 76.0                    James P. Hogan's works                   14 replies
>ATFAB::WYMAN                                         10 lines  23-MAY-1984 11:47
>--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>Well, I'm embarrassed... On Friday, I read my first Hogan book. It was
>"Inherit the Stars"... So, on Saturday when I discovered that it was 
>part of a Trilogy, I got the second book. Now, I've finished the last in
>the series "Giant's Star" and am wondering...
>
>Does it really end there? The story isn't finished. Is there a fourth
>book in this Trilogy? If not, any random suggestions on which Hogan book
>I should read next would be appreciated.
>
>                bob wyman
>

While perusing "Forthcoming Books" at the Chinook Book Store in Colorado
Springs, I discovered that a James Hogan book forthcame in April 199l.  I
ordered it through WaldenBooks by Mail and it came yesterday.  I have not
read it yet, but here are the vital details plus the back-cover teaser.

BobW

The Infinity Gambit
Beyond the Government.  Beyond the law

James P. Hogan
Author of the Proteus Operation

Bantam Falcon Thriller (c) April 1991 
ISBN 0-553-28918-7
$4.95
452 Pages


The Infinity Gambit

Bernard Fallon is that rarest of creatures: a master spy with a
conscience.  After years in Britain's SAS and other covert intelligence
operations, he realized that he must either deaden his conscience and
risk becoming what he intended to fight, or get out.  Bernard Fallon got
out -- and went free-lance.  No one owns him, no political system holds
him...only the idea that justice belongs to everyone, not just whoever
controls the deepest pockets or the biggest guns.

Fallon finds his services in heavy demand.  First by an African
government seeking his help in eliminating the rebel Zugendan Republican
front.  Then by the ZRF, itself, whose leaders maintain that the
government is the real terrorist group.  Business as usual...until a
third client makes Fallon an offer.  It claims to be an independent
organization with no allegiance to any nation, ideology, religion, or
economic system.  It stands for only one thing: freedom.  Its name:
Infinity Limited.

Bestselling author James P.  Hogan creates an intricate maze of political
doublespeak, impersonation, and violence in his most gripping novel to
date.

As an update, I read about the first 50 pages yesterday.  While its techy,
it certainly is not Science Fiction - at least so far.

Its entertainig reading, although I would call the book more bloody than
violent  It reminds me in style of Patriot Games, particularly the preching
against terrorism - whether state sponsored or "revolutionary."

BobW

    From the various notes (31, 64, 166, 275, 757, 848, and this one), I have
    compiled the following list of titles for James P.Hogan (not
    neccessarily in the correct order):

    Two Faces of Tomorrow
    Thrice upon a time
    Journey to Yesteryear
    ... Trilogy: - Inherit the Stars
    		 - The Gentle Giants of Ganymede
    		 - Giant's Star
    Code of the Lifemaker
    Genesis Machine
    The Proteus Operation
    Endgame Enigma
    Mirror Maze
    The Infinity Game  (non-SF ?)
    	BANTAM
    	ISBN 0-553-28918-7

    Because Hogan used to be a Digital person, this makes him even more
    interesting for me to read.

    However, I have searched for a long time here for books by him and have
    not found them (here is in the Netherlands) 8-(. Could someone provide
    some indication of which books are still in print, and if possible an
    ISBN, and publisher?

    Thanks, 

    Wildrik
    -------

    re .18 - the 4th volume of the Giants Trilogy, just published, is
    "Entoverse"
    
    len.
    

Hogan usually drops the DEC name at some point in his story.  He at least seems
to think we'll still be around.

Wook

Article: 1649
From: [email protected] (J.H.M. Dassen)
Newsgroups: alt.books.reviews
Subject: Re: Artificial Intelligence
Date: 29 Oct 1993 09:47:38 GMT
Organization: Dept. of Mathematics and Computer Science ; Univ. of Leiden ; 
              the Netherlands
 
In article <[email protected]> <[email protected]> writes:

>In article <[email protected]>, [email protected] (Garet Jax) 
>says:
>>Here are some that I already know:
>>Hogan, James P. - Entoverse                                 type=CSHe
 
>Actually, the two James P. Hogan novels preceding Entoverse in his Ganymean
>series feature AI.  I forget their names at the moment, though . . .
 
BTW I haven't read Entoverse. Is it worth reading?
 
Well, look in the bibliography:
 
Date:  1 Jan 89 00:19:39 PST (Sunday)
Subject: Author Lists: James Hogan
From: [email protected] (John Wenn)
To: SF-LOVERS%rutgers:EDU
Edited: 1-Nov-91
 
Here we are again, with another installment in the continuing series:
what books am I missing?  This is short & sweet: James Hogan.  It's
ever so much easier to get a complete list for someone who has only
written ~1 book a year for a decade.  A good hard SF writer, in a time
when hard SF is getting difficult to find. 
 
[C] == Story Collection.
[O] == Omnibus.  Includes other books.
 
/John
 
arpa: [email protected]
 
thisisthecastleanthraxitsnotaverygoodnameisit-ly
----------------------------------------------------------------
Hogan, James P(atrick)	(U.K., U.S.A., 6/27/1941- )
 
Series
	Giants Series
		Inherit the Stars (1977)
		The Gentle Giants of Ganymede (1978)
		Giants' Star (1981)
		[O/3N= The Minerva Experiment (1981);= The Giants Novels]
		Entoverse (1991)
 
Code of the Lifemaker (1983)
Endgame Enigma (1987)
The Genesis Machine (1978)
The Infinity Gambit (1991)
Minds, Machines and Evolution (1988) [C]
The Mirror Maze (1989)
The Proteus Operation (1985)
Thrice Upon a Time (1980)
The Two Faces of Tomorrow (1979)
Voyage from Yesteryear (1982)
-- 
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| J.H.M. Dassen ([email protected], [email protected])  |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| LEADERSHIP  A form of self-preservation exhibited by people with            |
| autodestructive imaginations in order to ensure that when it comes to the   |
| crunch it'll be someone else's bones which go crack and not their own.      |
|                                  - The Hipcrime Vocab by Chad C. Mulligan   |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+