Customer Reviews (3)

"Stealth" creationism?
I knew nothing about James Hogan before I read The Minervan Experiment, and now having done a little research on him the book makes more sense.I enjoyed the book and especially the "hard" science in it, but I think he should probably have stopped with the second book...the third one got pretty ridiculous at the end, with the whole human/Vulcan/Borg (Earthmen/Ganymean/Jevlenese) confrontation and time loop silliness.But as I read it I couldn't help wonder if Hogan was subtly sending a message about intelligent design or "stealth creationism."His extremely intelligent evolution-character tended to be closeminded and stubborn, the only character like that.And it always turned out that any settled evolutionary theory of species-origin had been created, engineered, or manipulated by advanced or intelligent alien civilizations.So hardly any "mutation" explanations ever worked.That said, the books continually disparaged religious beliefs (though when any specific religions were named, Christianity was conspicuously absent).

But then I read some about Hogan and looked at his webpage and "heretics' list" of recommended books, and it makes more sense.Though he is not a creationist, he has major problems with the "settled" science of evolution (and global warming, for that matter).He's an oddball, but very intelligent.And as both a Christian and a creationist who fully supports the concepts of adaptation and natural selection (surprise, most of us do), I was amused at the extensive support for evolutionary theory that always came back to...a higher power.

A Science Fiction Mystery Story
I read this book several years ago and I'm impressed with it years later. I've loaned it to couple friends to read and they also enjoyed it.

Minervan Experiment is about a mystery that was created by the discovery of a fifty thousand year old human corpse in a cave on the MOON. Space Agency investigation leads humans to Ganymede, a moon of Jupiter where we discovery an ancient alien spaceship, expanding the mystery.

Who was the corpse investigators named Charlie and who were the Ganymeans? What was their connection to Charlie and the human race in antiquity?

This novel is the best of both worlds, a great science fiction novel that reads like a mystery.

Revising the History of the Solar System
The Minervan Experiment is an omnibus edition of the Giants series.This volume contains Inherit the Stars, The Gentle Giants of Ganymede, and Giants' Star.These novels were the first published by the author.

Millennia before the Apollo project, mankind had reached Luna.As man returns to the Moon, he finds evidence of a prior human technological society.Moreover, he finds artifacts of another alien civilization on Ganymede, the largest moon of Jupiter.

In Inherit the Stars, a survey party finds someone in a spacesuit within a cave-like hole in the Copernicus crater.The body was that of a human being who had died over 50,000 years ago.Apparently it had come from Minerva, the long destroyed planet between Mars and Jupiter.

In The Gentle Giants of Ganymede,an alien spaceship has been found under the ice of Ganymede.Inside are found the remains of eight-foot tall entities who have been named Ganymedeans.Then the Shapieron, a fully operational Ganymedean spaceship, appears near Ganymede.

In Giants' Star, the Shapieron leaves to search for the migrated Ganymedeans at a star in the constellation of Taurus.Before their departure, a message is sent from a human installation on the Luna Farside toward this star telling of the ship's departure and a response is received soon thereafter welcoming the crew to their new home.Although no other responses are received for some time, months later messages start arriving in English using standard communication codes from a source in the fringe of the solar system.

These novels established the author's reputation as a writer of hard science fiction capable of inducing a sense of wonder.All three of these novels concern the use of the tools of science and technology to explore the past and present of other societies, one human and the other alien.They evoke the vicarious excitement of discovery, from gathering data to forming a consistent explanation.

Highly recommended for Hogan fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of archaeological investigation of alien civilizations and first contact with such aliens. ... Read more