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hannahstohelit 's review for:
Inherit the Stars
by James P. Hogan
I just read this with raised eyebrows- I'm not a scifi person at all and was sure I'd hate it, and indeed I rolled my eyes at some bits of the premise/setting (by the 2020s the world has eliminated racism, apparently... but clearly not sexism or smoking lol). But when it boiled down to the actual narrative it could be riveting.
It's interesting, because while I certainly don't think it's a fair play mystery novel (we're basically just told things, and things are scientifically-to-them-but-magically-to-us solved as we go along), I originally was like "okay this is cool but is it a mystery?" but then by the time I got to the end figured that it might not be a CRIME novel but it is a novel of detection, if that makes sense. There is an assemblage of information and it is put together in order to come to a particular conclusion. I did see the final twist coming just because I have a biology degree and that particular hole just seemed particularly glaring before it was filled in, but what impressed me was that it felt systematic, even though, as noted, it's not particularly a "mystery novel" with a crime and evidence.
Weirdly, I compared it positively to the recent Netflix series The Residence, which in some ways was fair play (the detective did rely on clues that are visible throughout the show) but didn't seem to have any real method of putting the pieces together, at least not in a way that is perceptible on screen. Here, the scifi setting contributed to the "scientific detective" vibe of figuring out what must have happened. In the end, while suspending my disbelief for this kind of book is not always my thing, it was super enjoyable. (I will note though- the fact that they never shared "Charlie's" real name, which surely they figured out in their search, was disappointing. It didn't feel like a likely lacuna in this sort of investigation, which made it feel like sloppiness of Hogan's in having already named a character and not remembering he needed to rename it.)
It's interesting, because while I certainly don't think it's a fair play mystery novel (we're basically just told things, and things are scientifically-to-them-but-magically-to-us solved as we go along), I originally was like "okay this is cool but is it a mystery?" but then by the time I got to the end figured that it might not be a CRIME novel but it is a novel of detection, if that makes sense. There is an assemblage of information and it is put together in order to come to a particular conclusion. I did see the final twist coming just because I have a biology degree and that particular hole just seemed particularly glaring before it was filled in, but what impressed me was that it felt systematic, even though, as noted, it's not particularly a "mystery novel" with a crime and evidence.
Weirdly, I compared it positively to the recent Netflix series The Residence, which in some ways was fair play (the detective did rely on clues that are visible throughout the show) but didn't seem to have any real method of putting the pieces together, at least not in a way that is perceptible on screen. Here, the scifi setting contributed to the "scientific detective" vibe of figuring out what must have happened. In the end, while suspending my disbelief for this kind of book is not always my thing, it was super enjoyable. (I will note though- the fact that they never shared "Charlie's" real name, which surely they figured out in their search, was disappointing. It didn't feel like a likely lacuna in this sort of investigation, which made it feel like sloppiness of Hogan's in having already named a character and not remembering he needed to rename it.)