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Giants #1-2
The Two Moons
''PURE SCIENCE FICTION . . . ARTHUR CLARKE, MOVE OVER.''
-Isaac Asimov
Inherit the Stars:
When they found the corpse in a grave on the Moon, wearing a spacesuit of unfamiliar design, his identity was a complete mystery. Analysis showed that the deceased was 50,000 years old-meaning that he had somehow died on the Moon before the human race even existed.
The Gentle Giants of Ganymede:
On another moon, Jupiter's Ganymede, still another mystery: a wrecked spaceship, which had been there for millennia, and was obviously designed for beings larger than the humans of Earth. The mystery seemed insoluble until another ship, manned by the same humanoid giants arrived, and were very surprised to find humans inhabiting their Solar System. . . .
BEGIN THE CELEBRATED ''GIANTS'' SERIES WITH TWO COMPLETE NOVELS BY A MASTER OF SCIENCE FICTION WITH REAL SCIENCE!
At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (DRM Rights Management).
-Isaac Asimov
Inherit the Stars:
When they found the corpse in a grave on the Moon, wearing a spacesuit of unfamiliar design, his identity was a complete mystery. Analysis showed that the deceased was 50,000 years old-meaning that he had somehow died on the Moon before the human race even existed.
The Gentle Giants of Ganymede:
On another moon, Jupiter's Ganymede, still another mystery: a wrecked spaceship, which had been there for millennia, and was obviously designed for beings larger than the humans of Earth. The mystery seemed insoluble until another ship, manned by the same humanoid giants arrived, and were very surprised to find humans inhabiting their Solar System. . . .
BEGIN THE CELEBRATED ''GIANTS'' SERIES WITH TWO COMPLETE NOVELS BY A MASTER OF SCIENCE FICTION WITH REAL SCIENCE!
At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (DRM Rights Management).
- GenresScience FictionFiction
427 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 28, 2006
156 people are currently reading
171 people want to read
About the author
James P. Hogan
114 books268 followersJames Patrick Hogan was a British science fiction author.
Hogan was was raised in the Portobello Road area on the west side of London. After leaving school at the age of sixteen, he worked various odd jobs until, after receiving a scholarship, he began a five-year program at the Royal Aircraft Establishment at Farnborough covering the practical and theoretical sides of electrical, electronic, and mechanical engineering. He first married at the age of twenty, and he has had three other subsequent marriages and fathered six children.
Hogan worked as a design engineer for several companies and eventually moved into sales in the 1960s, travelling around Europe as a sales engineer for Honeywell. In the 1970s he joined the Digital Equipment Corporation's Laboratory Data Processing Group and in 1977 moved to Boston, Massachusetts to run its sales training program. He published his first novel, Inherit the Stars, in the same year to win an office bet. He quit DEC in 1979 and began writing full time, moving to Orlando, Florida, for a year where he met his third wife Jackie. They then moved to Sonora, California.
Hogan's style of science fiction is usually hard science fiction. In his earlier works he conveyed a sense of what science and scientists were about. His philosophical view on how science should be done comes through in many of his novels; theories should be formulated based on empirical research, not the other way around. If a theory does not match the facts, it is theory that should be discarded, not the facts. This is very evident in the Giants series, which begins with the discovery of a 50,000 year-old human body on the Moon. This discovery leads to a series of investigations, and as facts are discovered, theories on how the astronaut's body arrived on the Moon 50,000 years ago are elaborated, discarded, and replaced.
Hogan's fiction also reflects anti-authoritarian social views. Many of his novels have strong anarchist or libertarian themes, often promoting the idea that new technological advances render certain social conventions obsolete. For example, the effectively limitless availability of energy that would result from the development of controlled nuclear fusion would make it unnecessary to limit access to energy resources. In essence, energy would become free. This melding of scientific and social speculation is clearly present in the novel Voyage from Yesteryear (strongly influenced by Eric Frank Russell's famous story "And Then There Were None"), which describes the contact between a high-tech anarchist society on a planet in the Alpha Centauri system, with a starship sent from Earth by a dictatorial government. The story uses many elements of civil disobedience.
James Hogan died unexpectedly from a heart attack at his home in Ireland.
Hogan was was raised in the Portobello Road area on the west side of London. After leaving school at the age of sixteen, he worked various odd jobs until, after receiving a scholarship, he began a five-year program at the Royal Aircraft Establishment at Farnborough covering the practical and theoretical sides of electrical, electronic, and mechanical engineering. He first married at the age of twenty, and he has had three other subsequent marriages and fathered six children.
Hogan worked as a design engineer for several companies and eventually moved into sales in the 1960s, travelling around Europe as a sales engineer for Honeywell. In the 1970s he joined the Digital Equipment Corporation's Laboratory Data Processing Group and in 1977 moved to Boston, Massachusetts to run its sales training program. He published his first novel, Inherit the Stars, in the same year to win an office bet. He quit DEC in 1979 and began writing full time, moving to Orlando, Florida, for a year where he met his third wife Jackie. They then moved to Sonora, California.
Hogan's style of science fiction is usually hard science fiction. In his earlier works he conveyed a sense of what science and scientists were about. His philosophical view on how science should be done comes through in many of his novels; theories should be formulated based on empirical research, not the other way around. If a theory does not match the facts, it is theory that should be discarded, not the facts. This is very evident in the Giants series, which begins with the discovery of a 50,000 year-old human body on the Moon. This discovery leads to a series of investigations, and as facts are discovered, theories on how the astronaut's body arrived on the Moon 50,000 years ago are elaborated, discarded, and replaced.
Hogan's fiction also reflects anti-authoritarian social views. Many of his novels have strong anarchist or libertarian themes, often promoting the idea that new technological advances render certain social conventions obsolete. For example, the effectively limitless availability of energy that would result from the development of controlled nuclear fusion would make it unnecessary to limit access to energy resources. In essence, energy would become free. This melding of scientific and social speculation is clearly present in the novel Voyage from Yesteryear (strongly influenced by Eric Frank Russell's famous story "And Then There Were None"), which describes the contact between a high-tech anarchist society on a planet in the Alpha Centauri system, with a starship sent from Earth by a dictatorial government. The story uses many elements of civil disobedience.
James Hogan died unexpectedly from a heart attack at his home in Ireland.
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
January 25, 2019
This is one of the best science fiction books I have read. The other was Nightfall by Isaac Asimov. The storyline is compelling and difficult to put down once I started reading. I wish there could be a follow up story about the Giants.
June 18, 2018
"Two Moons" is actually a combination of two books: "Inherit the Stars" and "The Gentle Giants of Ganymede". The story sets out with the discovery of a body on the moon. It turns out to be 50000 years dead, adding to the mystery. The story takes from there, I don’t want to give away too much.
The first book has an interesting story setting and many good ideas. I liked the appraisal of science and the scientific approach – more often than not that gets second place in sci-fi books. To set the stage of a more or less unified world which ventures out into space, a rather naive and unrealistic world history development is described. I had to wince a little bit at this, but can accept it as background explanation, similar as with Star Trek. My complaint: Too much faith in the human nature, when time and again we show how divisive and war mongering we as a species really are.
The naivety does not decrease in the second book. While things happen, and things are entertaining, I felt this getting a bit much. Characters and whole groups were a bit too black and white for me. I definitely liked the first part better, but overall I have to deduct at least one star for all the things that troubled me. Nevertheless, these are good books if you like science fiction!
The first book has an interesting story setting and many good ideas. I liked the appraisal of science and the scientific approach – more often than not that gets second place in sci-fi books. To set the stage of a more or less unified world which ventures out into space, a rather naive and unrealistic world history development is described. I had to wince a little bit at this, but can accept it as background explanation, similar as with Star Trek. My complaint: Too much faith in the human nature, when time and again we show how divisive and war mongering we as a species really are.
The naivety does not decrease in the second book. While things happen, and things are entertaining, I felt this getting a bit much. Characters and whole groups were a bit too black and white for me. I definitely liked the first part better, but overall I have to deduct at least one star for all the things that troubled me. Nevertheless, these are good books if you like science fiction!
September 8, 2020
This is fairly hard sci-fi and it can be a bit bland at times (especially since this is a combination of the two books in the series, and the second book repeats pages and pages of exposition from the first book about *carbon dioxide in the circulatory system* and *vertebrate evolution* But the world building is fun, and there's some compelling mysteries that you can try to solve along with (or before) the main character.
Here's some suggestions for a The Two Moons drinking game. Take a drink every time one of these things happens:
Book namedrops a Fortune 500 company
A character lights a cigarette
Casual sexism in the workplace
A detailed description of how a radio transmission travels to its destination. Take a sip for each hop in the signal's journey (for example if a radio message is sent from Point A and the book tells us that it reaches its destination after going through two satellite relays, take 3 drinks). If the description includes the speed of light using metric or imperial units, finish your drink.
A human character in the book is amazed by an alien technology that already exists in the real world (for example wireless earbuds and videophones)
The book explicitly mentions that a specific location has become the most popular place for people to congregate
Here's some suggestions for a The Two Moons drinking game. Take a drink every time one of these things happens:
Book namedrops a Fortune 500 company
A character lights a cigarette
Casual sexism in the workplace
A detailed description of how a radio transmission travels to its destination. Take a sip for each hop in the signal's journey (for example if a radio message is sent from Point A and the book tells us that it reaches its destination after going through two satellite relays, take 3 drinks). If the description includes the speed of light using metric or imperial units, finish your drink.
A human character in the book is amazed by an alien technology that already exists in the real world (for example wireless earbuds and videophones)
The book explicitly mentions that a specific location has become the most popular place for people to congregate
April 18, 2024
James P. Hogan is one of my absolute favorite sci-fi writers of all time - I started with "The Genesis Machine," and then moved on to the "Giants Trilogy," the first two books of which are in this volume - it contains "Inherit the Stars" and "The Gentle Giants of Ganymede" - both are written as sort of scientific mysteries which are unraveled by the protagonists as the stories unfold. For example, the first book (set in a near future in which humans are beginning to thoroughly explore the inner Solar System) really begins when a human skeleton is found on the moon . . . and turns out to be about 50,000 years old. How did he get there? Is it REALLY human? What civilization could have existed 50,000 years ago that could have put a man on the moon? And so forth - and the answers reveal ever more incredible secrets, including a planet they name "Minerva" that once occupied the place in our Solar System where there is now only the asteroid belt . . . . and the possible involvement of an ancient race of aliens from that world, Giants we call Ganymeans (because a derelict ship of theirs is eventually found crashed on Ganymede), who flourished millions of years ago . . . It is great stuff, and cunningly told . . . I'm so happy to be able to re-read these again . . .
February 11, 2024
A somewhat dated book about time
This book is actually two books written in 1978 and 1981 and re-released in 2006 as book 1 of another series. Together they tell a story spanning 25-50 million years of two species in our solar system who could not have re-met were it not for relativity and the passage of time. Interestingly, the books are filled with references to cigarette smoking, scotch drinking and an old-fashioned view of men and women that tends toward chauvinism. Though curious, these don't distract too much from the story. I'm undecided about trying to find the subsequent releases in the series as the action is a bit plodding and the science is dragged out and muddled.
This book is actually two books written in 1978 and 1981 and re-released in 2006 as book 1 of another series. Together they tell a story spanning 25-50 million years of two species in our solar system who could not have re-met were it not for relativity and the passage of time. Interestingly, the books are filled with references to cigarette smoking, scotch drinking and an old-fashioned view of men and women that tends toward chauvinism. Though curious, these don't distract too much from the story. I'm undecided about trying to find the subsequent releases in the series as the action is a bit plodding and the science is dragged out and muddled.
July 15, 2021
A interesting read, but…..
The author puts way too much effort into detailing pseudo scientific explanations. I’m a hard SF reader and expect some of this silliness; but I’m here for the story, not detailed explanations of fictitious science. He goes on and on. I ended up skimming through most of the books. Eh, FWIW. I’ll probably pass on further reading. This would have been a better short story.
The author puts way too much effort into detailing pseudo scientific explanations. I’m a hard SF reader and expect some of this silliness; but I’m here for the story, not detailed explanations of fictitious science. He goes on and on. I ended up skimming through most of the books. Eh, FWIW. I’ll probably pass on further reading. This would have been a better short story.
January 29, 2023
Exceptional Read!
I read this book many eons ago when paperbacks were a "thing", when ebooks were a fantasy, and placed it in the back of my mind. Just recently I remembered it and reread this classic. It still had the ability to transport me away to the world of the Giants! And with that being said....onward in my travels to the world of the Gentle Giants of Ganymede!!
I read this book many eons ago when paperbacks were a "thing", when ebooks were a fantasy, and placed it in the back of my mind. Just recently I remembered it and reread this classic. It still had the ability to transport me away to the world of the Giants! And with that being said....onward in my travels to the world of the Gentle Giants of Ganymede!!
August 19, 2025
'The Two Moons' -> two novels in one volum. This review is about the first novel - Inherit the Stars.
I give it 4 minus. Almost like reading a science book, investigating a mystery about aliens ands its relation. In this sense his first book differs in that as a hard core science fiction novel it does not belong to the sub-genre 'political thriller', of which Hogan is a master.
I give it 4 minus. Almost like reading a science book, investigating a mystery about aliens ands its relation. In this sense his first book differs in that as a hard core science fiction novel it does not belong to the sub-genre 'political thriller', of which Hogan is a master.
August 25, 2020
Classic SciFi
An excellent story (perhaps too much smoking) and a good prediction of the future. Well written, great characters. This was an old friend in college days, glad to have it on Kindle.
An excellent story (perhaps too much smoking) and a good prediction of the future. Well written, great characters. This was an old friend in college days, glad to have it on Kindle.
September 1, 2021
Excellent Sci-Fi novel, especially if you are a bit of a science nerd or like following the path of logical connections. Even though this was written in the 70's, much of the science and ideas stemming from it still bear relevance. Well written and many twists and turns.
September 12, 2017
Absolutely fantastic read. Lots of science and fantastic aliens.
May 2, 2019
Exceptional hard science SF
September 29, 2021
Read book one of this two book series.
February 20, 2017
Thumbs up.
I read this long ago and finally found it again. I Still love it. especially in electronic format. Looking for next in series.
I read this long ago and finally found it again. I Still love it. especially in electronic format. Looking for next in series.
January 23, 2014
James P. Hogan's debut novel, _Inherit the Stars_, is the first half of this collection and is nothing short of astonishing. It's a true "big idea" novel that keeps the reader enthralled from the initial problem to the final resolution. No character is ever in any jeopardy, and yet the sheer intellectual conflict pulls you along.
I won't give away the plot except to say that it begins in the near future with lunar colonizers discovering a space-suited human corpse on the moon—one that has been there for fifty thousand years! They nickname the ancient astronaut "Charlie." Solving the mystery of Charlie's origins—and our own—takes us from the US to the Moon and out to Jupiter's orbit.
I think Hogan is a significantly better writer than many other "science-y" writers like Robert L. Forward. This might well be the finest debut novel ever in the science fiction genre.
Fair warning: the characters are flat. Quite flat. Inherit the Stars is not a character or personality driven story, and really it doesn't need to be. Also as I noted above, there aren't any swashbuckling deeds of derring-do or life-and-death moments. But it's awesome without those things.
The second half of this volume is the equally good, but somewhat different, Gentle Giants of Ganymede. Gentle Giants tells the tale of humanity's first contact with an alien species, the enormously tall Ganymeans. (They aren't actually from Ganymede; the name sticks because the first evidence humans find of the aliens is a long-wrecked spacecraft on that moon.)
Humorous and at times extremely touching, Gentle Giants affected me deeply the first time I read it years ago, and still does. My wife and I agree—we really, really want to meet some Ganymeans. You will too.
I won't give away the plot except to say that it begins in the near future with lunar colonizers discovering a space-suited human corpse on the moon—one that has been there for fifty thousand years! They nickname the ancient astronaut "Charlie." Solving the mystery of Charlie's origins—and our own—takes us from the US to the Moon and out to Jupiter's orbit.
I think Hogan is a significantly better writer than many other "science-y" writers like Robert L. Forward. This might well be the finest debut novel ever in the science fiction genre.
Fair warning: the characters are flat. Quite flat. Inherit the Stars is not a character or personality driven story, and really it doesn't need to be. Also as I noted above, there aren't any swashbuckling deeds of derring-do or life-and-death moments. But it's awesome without those things.
The second half of this volume is the equally good, but somewhat different, Gentle Giants of Ganymede. Gentle Giants tells the tale of humanity's first contact with an alien species, the enormously tall Ganymeans. (They aren't actually from Ganymede; the name sticks because the first evidence humans find of the aliens is a long-wrecked spacecraft on that moon.)
Humorous and at times extremely touching, Gentle Giants affected me deeply the first time I read it years ago, and still does. My wife and I agree—we really, really want to meet some Ganymeans. You will too.
January 10, 2015
This collection of two Hogan novels includes 1977s 'Inherit The Stars' and the followup 'The Gentle Giants of Ganymede'. I only read 'Inherit The Stars' this time around...
And what a weirdly constructed tale it is. It's almost like a bunch of meetings of various scientific types in 2029 trying to get to the bottom of where a-not-from-Earth-but-looks-human body-that-is-found-on-the moon came from. The various discoveries as the book progresses begin to paint a theoretical history of the mysterious "Charlie" and his people, and Hogan eventually tries to go for a big shocker by the final pages.
The weirdness is the narrative is mostly supposition and conjecture, at least until the Linguistics team starts contributing. Then it gets a little too pat in how dots are connected, sometimes bordering on the absurd. But Hogan reins in the big mystery to present a not-that-entirely-unexpected final act reveal.
For whatever reason I didn't feel compelled to venture in Hogan's followup, so perhaps that says something for my overall enjoyment...
And what a weirdly constructed tale it is. It's almost like a bunch of meetings of various scientific types in 2029 trying to get to the bottom of where a-not-from-Earth-but-looks-human body-that-is-found-on-the moon came from. The various discoveries as the book progresses begin to paint a theoretical history of the mysterious "Charlie" and his people, and Hogan eventually tries to go for a big shocker by the final pages.
The weirdness is the narrative is mostly supposition and conjecture, at least until the Linguistics team starts contributing. Then it gets a little too pat in how dots are connected, sometimes bordering on the absurd. But Hogan reins in the big mystery to present a not-that-entirely-unexpected final act reveal.
For whatever reason I didn't feel compelled to venture in Hogan's followup, so perhaps that says something for my overall enjoyment...
October 28, 2007
This was a reasonably fun book. But I enjoyed it because of how it seems to have dated itself. It was written in the 70's and it shows. The constant chain smoking of all the main characters and the unspoken belief that while women might be perfectly nice they're clearly not cut out for serious scientific work made me giggle. But the other assumption that was intriguing was something that is getting harder to believe in: The general perfectibility of man. The idea once everyone in the world gets enough to eat and has similar toys that they'll all basically become Americans in their sensibilities and outlook. This slightly Marxist view of the world isn't really working out thus far. It's nice to think that we can out grow our baser instinct but it's certainly not happening on a local time scale. Still I'd recommend this book to science fiction fans... though I wouldn't suggest spending much time trying to parse the 'science' that the main character's discuss.
November 24, 2013
Im not a huge science fiction fan but i do enjoy it, most of the time however it feels like the author fills the book with inside jokes and made up things only he understands, Hogan did an incredible job breaking down the science in the book. I've never read a book that was like this either, no action or conflict, just a puzzle that needed solving, but the plot and situation was incredibly fascinating! This book may seem dated but the ideas expressed were ahead of this time, the Lunarian origins, how the moon came to be, and the Ganymean interference fit so well with the context of Earths History. This book was slow at times but it was an incredibly intriguing book, i would recommend it to any avid reader or a fan of science, any science since all are included.
May 11, 2008
This is the first two book omnibus from James P. Hogan's "Giants" series.
The first book is very very very dated. The entire premise of the universe (and the first book) is based upon what I have learned over the past few years is bad science data about the origins of Pluto and the moon.
It's hard to get past that, especially when there isn't a whole lot of character development or action.
I didn't particularly like it, but I bought it and read it.
The first book is very very very dated. The entire premise of the universe (and the first book) is based upon what I have learned over the past few years is bad science data about the origins of Pluto and the moon.
It's hard to get past that, especially when there isn't a whole lot of character development or action.
I didn't particularly like it, but I bought it and read it.
March 10, 2009
James Hogan must be the most SCIENTIFIC Science fiction writer I've read. Right up there with Asimov. Although this novel contains prbably more science than fiction it provided an exiting look at the possibilities of discovery of other sentient beings in the universe. The thought processes that go into exploration and creation. I only gave it a three on my personal record, but I think that most science-fiction afficionados would rate it better.
December 29, 2014
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I found the investigation into the mystery of Charlie and the Ganymeans fascinating and each revelation a lightbulb moment. The only reason this got a four from me was that it was quite tech heavy in parts and I am not technical at all, so this made some parts of the book difficult for me to stay focused; however for those with an interest in the technical aspects it shouldn't be a problem. All in all a really engaging read.
March 8, 2023
The strange past and fascinating furture.
Intriguing fascinating and thought provoking, I loved the book the detail and the plot I will look forward to reading the next book. It's a 5 star book with a 6 star story line.
Intriguing fascinating and thought provoking, I loved the book the detail and the plot I will look forward to reading the next book. It's a 5 star book with a 6 star story line.
June 2, 2012
I liked it, but there was not enough conflict. I guess I was in the mood for something a bit more suspenseful.
August 4, 2014
An oldie but a goody.
November 2, 2016
The hard sci fi nature of this book was fantastic. Much detail and mind-blowing revelations made along the way.
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews