The Thumbnail Book Reviews
by John Q McDonald --- 14 January 2002
by James P. Hogan
This interesting novel opens in January 2010 (without so much as a "happy new year"), as young scientists Murdoch and Lee arrive in Scotland to join Murdoch's grandfather where he has just made a remarkable scientific breakthrough. Capitalizing on an earlier discovery of energy moving backward in time, Charles Ross has devised a machine that can send messages into the past. The implications of such a discovery are evident and massive. In the midst of all the excitement and the urge to proceed carefully, two unrelated world threatening events force the scientists to decide to use the machine before anyone really grasps its full potential and danger. Hogan writes with an attitude of reverence for science and its ability to save mankind from its problems, and that its biggest impediments are the uninformed masses who become alarmed by its potential, if sometimes exaggerated, negative consequences (Who knows, maybe giant nuclear power plants will provide nearly limitless energy one day. But we digress). Within that political stance, Hogan writes with detail about the science he envisions; detail that can be either engrossing or dull depending on what you look for in a novel. This reader found the ideas behind the communication backward in time and the structure of serial and parallel universes intriguing and thought-provoking. The physics seems to hinge on accumulating enough quantum-scaled events to create a macroscopic reversal of time. But, isn't the nature of quantum reality that its tiny momentary violations of physical laws cannot be made macroscopic? Then again, this is fiction isn't it? To what scientific standard should it be held? Hogan himself seems to be raising the bar. He writes with detail that approaches a theoretical treatise. As a result, the literary aspect of the book is limited and somewhat contrived. However, it will get the interested reader thinking. It works pretty well as an entertainment, and even a little as an ethical dilemma.