Giants' Star
Series: Giants 3
Reviewed date: 2009 Jun 18
Rating: 3
315 pages
Giants' Star is the third book in James P. Hogan's Giant series. The first two books are excellent, well-written and meticulous. The loose ends left in The Gentle Giants of Ganymede pointed the way to a sequel, and Giants' Star is it.
Like the previous books, Giants' Star is a cosmic mystery. It's not something so mundane as a whodunit, but it's a puzzle of cosmic scope and significance. The characters must piece together clues to figure out what is going on around them. Hogan does not disappoint.
The puzzle here is that the Ganymeans begin communicating with Earth. There are two curious things about this. First, they communicate faster than light. Second, they insist that the communication must be kept absolutely secret from the public. A special delegation from the United Nations heads up the program. As they talk to the Ganymeans, another even more curious fact emerges: a group of Ganymeans secretly asks to open another line of communication with the Americans--a line of communication to be kept secret even from the United Nations. Secrets within secrets, wheels within wheels.
Such secrecy and double-dealing is contrary to Ganymean nature, so there is clearly something strange going on. What secret are the Ganymeans hiding from Earth? Why the cloak-and-dagger routine? Who are they hiding from?
Hogan reveals it all, of course, and his explanation is logical, meticulous, and complete. My only complaint is that Hogan resorts to time travel to wrap up some loose plot threads--and thereby intentionally introduces a cause-and-effect logical discontinuity. But he will surely address this in the subsequent books.