R.I.P. James P. Hogan

[Ptrope]

io9.com reports the passing of hard s/f author James P. Hogan, author of over 30 novels, along with several short story collections.

I first read Hogan's Code of the Lifemaker, a novel about a robotic culture that 'evolved' and was then discovered by humans; it was a fun read, with a lot of odd, quirky humor. The Proteus Operation was one of my favorite alternate reality novels, about America after Germany won WWII, and their discovery that it was with the assistance of time travelers from, presumably, our own future; it had a kind of noir pulpish feel. Thrice Upon A Time also involved time travel, of a sort, where they were able to communicate backwards in time for a limited temporal distance; this one took me 3 tries to get going, but once I got past the illustration of the divergent timelines, it really picked up - the secret, I found, was to simply skip over what I'd read and gotten bogged down in previously .

Apparently, there were also some controversies about Hogan's personal views; I'd never heard of them, having only read his actual works, and those are how I'll remember him.

R.I.P. J.P.H.

 

[Mistral]

Aw, crap. RIP. Inherit the Stars is one of my all-time favorite books, and the Proteus Operation was so good I've read it 3 times. I have a whole shelf of his work at home. He will be missed.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Always enjoyed his work. RIP and thank you.

 

[Mysterion]

That's a bad piece of news. I've really enjoyed many of his novels.

 

[stj]

He was sort of wingnut, but you never, ever felt like you'd turned over a rock when you were reading his stuff. He was an entertaining writer and one of the few SF guys left. He will be missed.

(My favorite was The Genesis Machine, which had some of the most entertaining fake science I'e ever read.)

 

[RandyS]

He was sort of wingnut, but you never, ever felt like you'd turned over a rock when you were reading his stuff. He was an entertaining writer and one of the few SF guys left. He will be missed.

(My favorite was The Genesis Machine, which had some of the most entertaining fake science I'e ever read.)

I read that twenty one years ago when I was convalesing from a surgery. Unfortunately, all I remember about it was that I enjoyed it. I still have it though. I might have to pull it out for a second look. Of course, I still have seven or eight books of his that I've never read at all in my "to read" pile.

 

[FluffyUnbound]

I don't know if I'd call him a wingnut.

It appears he was a Holocaust denier, which puts him somewhere beyond wingnut territory.

But it sounds like that didn't spill over into his science fiction writing.

 

[Silvercrest]

How can he have denied the Holocaust when he also wrote The Proteus Operation????

 

[Procutus]

Aw, crap. RIP. Inherit the Stars is one of my all-time favorite books, and the Proteus Operation was so good I've read it 3 times. I have a whole shelf of his work at home. He will be missed.

I'm glad to find someone else who enjoyed Inherit the Stars as much as I did. His 'Giants' series were my particular favorites of his novels, but I've read most of the ones mentioned in this thread.

He will indeed be missed.

 

[Stevil2001]

I've only read Inherit the Stars (my dad gave it to me when I was a boy), but it was boss!

 

[Procutus]

I've only read Inherit the Stars (my dad gave it to me when I was a boy), but it was boss!

It's been years since I last read it, but I think it might be time again. The book really did have a sense of 'wow' to it.

 

[Starbreaker]

Never read anything of his, but I see his name everywhere. I might have to check out Inherit the Stars after seeing the high praise in here.