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The Genesis Machine
Drafted to work on defense projects, mathematical physicist Brad Clifford defies his superiors to bring about world unification and teams up with a maverick fellow scientist to build a machine capable of neutralizing all weapons. Reprint.
338 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1978
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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 - 30 of 38 reviews
August 21, 2024
The Genesis Machine was Hogan's second published novel; it appeared in 1978. It's a good old-fashioned big-idea book about scientists doing science, and some of the technical parts are difficult to wade through. Once the story takes off, though, it's a really interesting and challenging look at how technology can (or should) impact politics and economics and society in general. Hogan embraced some contrarian ideas and attitudes in his later years, but in this one he put the story at the forefront and his political ideas seem introduced just to advance the story. The writing isn't as polished as some of his later books, and the characterization is minimal, but it's good science fiction in the original and traditional sense of the term. It's a thought-provoking read.
July 5, 2022
3.5 stars, rounding up for the nostalgia value! I have always liked Hogan's writing, even though he really puts the hard in hard science fiction to say the least. You can always count on at least a few physics lessons/lectures/info dumps and if you are not into science in any way, Hogan is definitely not for you.
The Genesis Machine has a rather typical Hogan protagonist in Brad Clifford-- a scientist to the core whose main passion is the expansion of knowledge about the universe with libertarian tendencies. Yet, it is the 'big idea' that moves this novel along rather than the characters, which are something like walking tropes to ground the 'big idea' in society. Brad starts off as a frustrated scientist working in a government lab out in the sticks in Nevada. The Cold War dominates geopolitics and economics and science is being increasingly directed by government to simply develop new weapons for an edge over the other side. This was first published in 1978 and set in around 2006 and has an obviously dated feel in 2022, but this does not really impact the story that much. What matters is the world is on the brink of devastating war with the 'Eastern bloc' challenging the 'Western democracies' at every turn. Hogan sets a stage where the communist East threatens the West, but MAD has until now ensured wars are regional.
The 'big idea' that motivates the novel is Brad's discovery of a new way to understand physics that manages to unite Newtonian and quantum ideas in a universal way. I will not go into the details (Hogan does that quite well in the first 50 pages or so), but Brad's theory of 'k-space' posits a six dimensional reality of which we can only really understand/comprehend four dimensions. Non the less, it opens the door to an entirely new way to make sense of the world and science in general perhaps even greater than Newton or Einstein.
Brad wrote a paper on this but the governmental bureaucrats at his lab nixed it for publication and berated him for wasting his company time working on it; they want weapons, not science damn it! Nonetheless, going behind his back, they realize there may be something there and set up a classified research team on it. Brad hates the idea and quits, but lands on his feet at one of the only private research centers left in the West and he, along with Aub, an fellow traveler and scientist, start to prove that the theory is correct and testable. When the government finally elbows it way in, Brad comes up with the idea to make the ultimate weapon-- as the cover blurb states, "It could wreck the world or save it." So what will be the outcome?
I understand reading Hogan (and other hard scifi) is not everyone's bag, but if you are into it, this is not a bad read, although it is still a little rough around the edges for sure and has some classic rookie mistakes (this was his second novel). Yet, I really enjoyed the 'big idea' and how Hogan developed it as the story progressed. Neat stuff, and again, lots of nostalgia! I first read this decades ago and if you can bypass the rather dated geopolitical stuff, it still holds up rather well.
The Genesis Machine has a rather typical Hogan protagonist in Brad Clifford-- a scientist to the core whose main passion is the expansion of knowledge about the universe with libertarian tendencies. Yet, it is the 'big idea' that moves this novel along rather than the characters, which are something like walking tropes to ground the 'big idea' in society. Brad starts off as a frustrated scientist working in a government lab out in the sticks in Nevada. The Cold War dominates geopolitics and economics and science is being increasingly directed by government to simply develop new weapons for an edge over the other side. This was first published in 1978 and set in around 2006 and has an obviously dated feel in 2022, but this does not really impact the story that much. What matters is the world is on the brink of devastating war with the 'Eastern bloc' challenging the 'Western democracies' at every turn. Hogan sets a stage where the communist East threatens the West, but MAD has until now ensured wars are regional.
The 'big idea' that motivates the novel is Brad's discovery of a new way to understand physics that manages to unite Newtonian and quantum ideas in a universal way. I will not go into the details (Hogan does that quite well in the first 50 pages or so), but Brad's theory of 'k-space' posits a six dimensional reality of which we can only really understand/comprehend four dimensions. Non the less, it opens the door to an entirely new way to make sense of the world and science in general perhaps even greater than Newton or Einstein.
Brad wrote a paper on this but the governmental bureaucrats at his lab nixed it for publication and berated him for wasting his company time working on it; they want weapons, not science damn it! Nonetheless, going behind his back, they realize there may be something there and set up a classified research team on it. Brad hates the idea and quits, but lands on his feet at one of the only private research centers left in the West and he, along with Aub, an fellow traveler and scientist, start to prove that the theory is correct and testable. When the government finally elbows it way in, Brad comes up with the idea to make the ultimate weapon-- as the cover blurb states, "It could wreck the world or save it." So what will be the outcome?
I understand reading Hogan (and other hard scifi) is not everyone's bag, but if you are into it, this is not a bad read, although it is still a little rough around the edges for sure and has some classic rookie mistakes (this was his second novel). Yet, I really enjoyed the 'big idea' and how Hogan developed it as the story progressed. Neat stuff, and again, lots of nostalgia! I first read this decades ago and if you can bypass the rather dated geopolitical stuff, it still holds up rather well.
September 27, 2018
Written one-half decade before 1983 when CERN (Conseil Europeen pour la Recherche Nucleaire aka European Council for Nuclear Research) discovered W and Z particles by turning their SPS (Super Proton Synchroton) into a proton-antiproton collider by using its IRS (Intersecting Storage Rings), The Genesis Machine (1978) posited the idea of k-particles which both created particles which could be seen and were “annihilated” into a different space-time referent. In The Genesis Machine, the scientists at a low-profile laboratory (hiding in plain sight as it were) attempt to use the gravitational dynamics of these newly discovered particles to create and manipulate gravity fields.
Sure, gravity fields are old-hat in science-fiction, even before Hugo Gernsback coined the term “Scientifiction” for Amazing Stories magazine (April, 1926), though, it shouldn’t be surprising that discoveries proliferate and gravititational manipulation is not where The Genesis Machine eventually gets its name. Yet, the literature rarely offers a plausible, yet incredibly speculative, theory for how this artificial gravity might be induced. In The Genesis Machine, the scientists treat the k-particles’ relationship to gravity as analogous to the experiments of Farraday relating the creation and manipulation of magnetic fields through electricity (p. 115). Now, lest one think I am unveiling a nasty spoiler, note that this analogy comes more than 100 pages into a 300-page novel. And, as noted earlier, that isn’t the last speculative and mindboggling discovery. Science is often subject to military-industrial intrigue where “weaponizing” becomes the primary interest of government. Such as intrustion leads to a devastating set-up which quickly endears the reader to the idealistic protagonists before moving to the point that the magnetic analogy (along with references to theories like the “Hawking Effect” (p. 124)) pushes one into the “main event,” so to speak.
The truth is, The Genesis Machine makes a valid point about the subservience of science to the service of the military. There is a great line in Heisenberg’s War about a former German scientist working on the Manhattan Project who discovered that the Germans weren’t going to put together an atomic bomb, after all. The scientist said to the military liaison that since the Germans didn’t have the bomb, the U.S. wouldn’t have to use the bomb developed by the Manhattan Project. The liaison responded that the scientist didn’t understand. “If we have it, we’re going to use it.” That sentiment pervades the characterization of the government in The Genesis Machine.
The Genesis Machine is idealistic about science, but not so sanguine about geopolitics. Starting on p. 170, James P. Hogan visualizes a pan-African coalition and pan-Arab confederation joining together under a Treaty of Khartoum. He sees the then Soviet Union dividing into two major blocs, one favoring western ideas with the other become ever more hardliners in Marxist/Leninist/Stalinist terms, as opposed to dividing into a group of autonomous nations. China was perpetrating ruthless aggression along the Indian border and had galvanized Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, Australia, and New Zealand into a more unified grouping. Remember, The Genesis Machine was written in 1978, before the wall came down. The story is dealing with the idea of MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction) as Hogan saw it then, and as it could conceivably happen with a sufficiently destructive weapon in the future.
Despite the geopolitical speculation being somewhat off, the scientific speculation is fascinating, the resolution of the plot problem is amazing. I did not see that coming. The implications for cosmology if the scientific speculation proved demonstrable reminds me of some of Rudy Rucker’s amazing ideas. Though I didn’t see the “big idea” coming, there were several points which were predictable, but not enough to keep me from enjoying The Genesis Machine thoroughly.
Sure, gravity fields are old-hat in science-fiction, even before Hugo Gernsback coined the term “Scientifiction” for Amazing Stories magazine (April, 1926), though, it shouldn’t be surprising that discoveries proliferate and gravititational manipulation is not where The Genesis Machine eventually gets its name. Yet, the literature rarely offers a plausible, yet incredibly speculative, theory for how this artificial gravity might be induced. In The Genesis Machine, the scientists treat the k-particles’ relationship to gravity as analogous to the experiments of Farraday relating the creation and manipulation of magnetic fields through electricity (p. 115). Now, lest one think I am unveiling a nasty spoiler, note that this analogy comes more than 100 pages into a 300-page novel. And, as noted earlier, that isn’t the last speculative and mindboggling discovery. Science is often subject to military-industrial intrigue where “weaponizing” becomes the primary interest of government. Such as intrustion leads to a devastating set-up which quickly endears the reader to the idealistic protagonists before moving to the point that the magnetic analogy (along with references to theories like the “Hawking Effect” (p. 124)) pushes one into the “main event,” so to speak.
The truth is, The Genesis Machine makes a valid point about the subservience of science to the service of the military. There is a great line in Heisenberg’s War about a former German scientist working on the Manhattan Project who discovered that the Germans weren’t going to put together an atomic bomb, after all. The scientist said to the military liaison that since the Germans didn’t have the bomb, the U.S. wouldn’t have to use the bomb developed by the Manhattan Project. The liaison responded that the scientist didn’t understand. “If we have it, we’re going to use it.” That sentiment pervades the characterization of the government in The Genesis Machine.
The Genesis Machine is idealistic about science, but not so sanguine about geopolitics. Starting on p. 170, James P. Hogan visualizes a pan-African coalition and pan-Arab confederation joining together under a Treaty of Khartoum. He sees the then Soviet Union dividing into two major blocs, one favoring western ideas with the other become ever more hardliners in Marxist/Leninist/Stalinist terms, as opposed to dividing into a group of autonomous nations. China was perpetrating ruthless aggression along the Indian border and had galvanized Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, Australia, and New Zealand into a more unified grouping. Remember, The Genesis Machine was written in 1978, before the wall came down. The story is dealing with the idea of MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction) as Hogan saw it then, and as it could conceivably happen with a sufficiently destructive weapon in the future.
Despite the geopolitical speculation being somewhat off, the scientific speculation is fascinating, the resolution of the plot problem is amazing. I did not see that coming. The implications for cosmology if the scientific speculation proved demonstrable reminds me of some of Rudy Rucker’s amazing ideas. Though I didn’t see the “big idea” coming, there were several points which were predictable, but not enough to keep me from enjoying The Genesis Machine thoroughly.
November 26, 2018
Wär's ein Lesebuch gewesen, hätte ich es abgebrochen. Zuhören ist einfacher, da bin ich toleranter ....
May 9, 2018
After winning a bet by getting his first novel Inherit the Stars published, James Hogan decided he kind of liked writing and figured he'd take another shot at it. Dissatisfied with the way faster-than-light (FTL) travel was often shown in science fiction novels, he decided he would try to build a story around the process by which an FTL drive was discovered, and extrapolate it from then-known scientific principles. The result was 1978's The Genesis Machine.
Bradley Clifford is a brilliant researcher who spends his day hours working for a government-directed research facility and his spare time researching the strange behavior of subatomic particles. But the political climate frowns on research without application -- specifically military application -- and his private hobby gets him on the bad side of his bosses. When he quits and joins a like-minded co-researcher at one of the last private research foundations around, he pursues his own research to fantastic implications. But that draws the attention of the same military and government officials he just left, and they pressure Clifford to use his research for their purposes. How will he maintain his principles while not sacrificing his friends and allies to government pressure?
A design engineer by trade, Hogan shows real skill at exploring and explaining the science that drives his story. The characterizations are rather flat, which makes the final twist he sets up a little artificial as well. The politics and the "villains" of the piece are barely more than caricatures at best and more often cartoonish than anything else. Although he had more than a handful of good science fiction novels left in him, Genesis finds him doing pretty well at the science but leaving a lot to be desired in the fiction.
Original available here.
Bradley Clifford is a brilliant researcher who spends his day hours working for a government-directed research facility and his spare time researching the strange behavior of subatomic particles. But the political climate frowns on research without application -- specifically military application -- and his private hobby gets him on the bad side of his bosses. When he quits and joins a like-minded co-researcher at one of the last private research foundations around, he pursues his own research to fantastic implications. But that draws the attention of the same military and government officials he just left, and they pressure Clifford to use his research for their purposes. How will he maintain his principles while not sacrificing his friends and allies to government pressure?
A design engineer by trade, Hogan shows real skill at exploring and explaining the science that drives his story. The characterizations are rather flat, which makes the final twist he sets up a little artificial as well. The politics and the "villains" of the piece are barely more than caricatures at best and more often cartoonish than anything else. Although he had more than a handful of good science fiction novels left in him, Genesis finds him doing pretty well at the science but leaving a lot to be desired in the fiction.
Original available here.
October 18, 2020
I’d read Inherit the Stars years ago and enjoyed it very much. This book was written the same year, so I figured I couldn’t go wrong with it. I couldn’t have been more wrong.
Perhaps if the rest of the book had been as interesting as the last few chapters, this would have been a book worth recommending, but, as it is, it’s a dull slog through pages of scientific babble, led by a character that leans toward pompous self-righteousness. The man knows all, and is in line for sainthood.
I wasn’t too crazy about the author placing his rants about the political left into the book, either. I get it, government bad, laissez-faire capitalism good. But there’s another flaw in the author’s logic. War isn’t made by weapons, it’s made by man. We’ll throw stones at each other if we have to.
Perhaps if the rest of the book had been as interesting as the last few chapters, this would have been a book worth recommending, but, as it is, it’s a dull slog through pages of scientific babble, led by a character that leans toward pompous self-righteousness. The man knows all, and is in line for sainthood.
I wasn’t too crazy about the author placing his rants about the political left into the book, either. I get it, government bad, laissez-faire capitalism good. But there’s another flaw in the author’s logic. War isn’t made by weapons, it’s made by man. We’ll throw stones at each other if we have to.
May 27, 2015
This is an outstanding contribution to the speculative world of how things might be explained which seem impossible within our four sensory dimensions. This book has influenced my writing, especially the yet-to-be published third book of the Janus Unfolding Series. I really like the k-space theory. I read for the first time several years ago and just re-read it. I liked it even better the second time. I also am very attracted to the notion that science could be used to find a way out of our war/arms stupidity.
February 28, 2020
I've read the book now, and I have to say it was very difficult for me to get through the first 50 pages. The problem is that I work in the field of magnetic resonance imaging, and Hogan has borrowed and completely misused terms like "k-space" (which is the multi-dimensional frequency domain, not some higher order dimensionality) and "resonance". But the plot is engaging and the book fun. Now, if only he hadn't engaged in voodoo physics...
May 4, 2023
Este libro me ha sorprendido más de lo que esperaba. No es un género habitual en mi y tenía miedo de que no me gustase. Pero ¡todo lo contrario! Hacía tiempo que no leía un libro tan divertido e interesante.
El tema que trata sobre una máquina que salve el planeta de la guerra, es un concepto muy chulo. Me encanta que al final del libro se haga incapié en el título, porque es el momento en el que entiendes porqué se llama así. Los protagonistas son una pasada. Te ríes con ellos como si no hubiese un mañana. Cuando estás terminando el libro, te sorprende. Porque te engaña haciéndote pensar que está pasando una cosa y es todo lo contrario.
Libro súper recomendado. Es fácil de leer y no es muy largo. Se hace muy ameno, jurao'.
"Esto es una selva en la que nos despedazamos todos: solo sobreviven lo más fuertes y los débiles se derrumban".
El tema que trata sobre una máquina que salve el planeta de la guerra, es un concepto muy chulo. Me encanta que al final del libro se haga incapié en el título, porque es el momento en el que entiendes porqué se llama así. Los protagonistas son una pasada. Te ríes con ellos como si no hubiese un mañana. Cuando estás terminando el libro, te sorprende. Porque te engaña haciéndote pensar que está pasando una cosa y es todo lo contrario.
Libro súper recomendado. Es fácil de leer y no es muy largo. Se hace muy ameno, jurao'.
"Esto es una selva en la que nos despedazamos todos: solo sobreviven lo más fuertes y los débiles se derrumban".
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 16, 2025
An interesting story that provides a glimpse into one anticipated future where the Cold War continued into the century and technology proceeded apace. Brilliant scientists shackled to the government machine where only military applications are valued outcomes of scientific inquiry. Certainly a product of its time (published 1978) with certain views regarding women and people of color that don't sit particularly well, but if you can read with that in mind, and don't mind some handwaving physics that are similarly a product of our understanding of the science in the late 1970s, this one has some interesting ideas, and a finale I hadn't quite expected.
January 11, 2017
With the world on the brink of WW3, a scientist throws a temper tantrum because he doesn't get to do whatever he wants. He shows everyone just how great he is and how sucky they are by building some machine that prevents further war.
January 11, 2010
Super-science super-saves the super-day! The best parts of this book were the flagrant xenophobia and the incredibly light grasp of politics that Hogan seems to possess.
June 13, 2021
This book was the very first one of James P hogans that I ever read, and that was many years ago so I can't really tell why I was attracted to it in the first place, but it turned out to be an excellent story that I have read numerous times since then.
The tale revolves around a independent scientist, Bradley Clifford, who feels constrained by the rules and regulations that are being forced upon him by the government institution he is working at. The world at this time is on the brink of a major international conflict / World War III, which would essentially be an all out nuclear exchange.
Clifford is a theoretical physicist who develops/discovers a brand new branch of physics that has the potential to revolutionize virtually every facet of physics. He attempts to publish his findings but is prevented from doing so, so does an end run around his institution. This of course leads to major conflicts and the overall premise of the story which is that science should be allowed to pursue its own course of action for the sake of science. He teams up with another rogue scientist Aubrey Phillips and they go on to pursue science their way and shock the world.
Mr. Hogan is an excellent author, however he does have the habit of going into exorbitant detail, and subjecting the reader to large amounts of information / backstory. This is typically something that is discouraged in writing as many readers simply will not read it, and this therefore causes them to miss a lot of what the author is trying to get across. However the way it is written in this, and Hogan's other books is very well handled and you don't notice it as much as you do in others.
Mr. Hogan has written a number of other books, at present I've only ever reviewed one other which is a trilogy entitled "The Minervan Experiment".
I would recommend this book to any hard science fiction readers, even though it is out of date with current world events by a long way it is well worth reading
The tale revolves around a independent scientist, Bradley Clifford, who feels constrained by the rules and regulations that are being forced upon him by the government institution he is working at. The world at this time is on the brink of a major international conflict / World War III, which would essentially be an all out nuclear exchange.
Clifford is a theoretical physicist who develops/discovers a brand new branch of physics that has the potential to revolutionize virtually every facet of physics. He attempts to publish his findings but is prevented from doing so, so does an end run around his institution. This of course leads to major conflicts and the overall premise of the story which is that science should be allowed to pursue its own course of action for the sake of science. He teams up with another rogue scientist Aubrey Phillips and they go on to pursue science their way and shock the world.
Mr. Hogan is an excellent author, however he does have the habit of going into exorbitant detail, and subjecting the reader to large amounts of information / backstory. This is typically something that is discouraged in writing as many readers simply will not read it, and this therefore causes them to miss a lot of what the author is trying to get across. However the way it is written in this, and Hogan's other books is very well handled and you don't notice it as much as you do in others.
Mr. Hogan has written a number of other books, at present I've only ever reviewed one other which is a trilogy entitled "The Minervan Experiment".
I would recommend this book to any hard science fiction readers, even though it is out of date with current world events by a long way it is well worth reading
October 17, 2024
I read this shortly after it came out in 1978, and liked it. But not now. Studying particle annihilation they find K-space, which would lead to all sorts of fantasy science stuff. The world is becoming a rougher place in the 80's, 90's and 2000's and eventually WW3 is declared but the everything machine easily takes care of that, and the book ends with colonists doing the 8.7 light year jump to Sirius in a second.
December 28, 2019
Moves a bit slow, and predicts a future that is pretty far off and tinged with racism. But, still a fairly riveting story of the impact science can have on the world.
Also makes some insight into democracy, and the result where the scientists and brainiacs are needing to obey the bullies and charismatic bozos.
Also makes some insight into democracy, and the result where the scientists and brainiacs are needing to obey the bullies and charismatic bozos.
October 20, 2024
I did not think that a story about researchers trying to do research could be made compelling, but James Hogan did a pretty good job of doing that about abstract theory and its application.
The name drop of the title at the end seems shoehorned and completely unnecessary.
Overall, a decent read.
The name drop of the title at the end seems shoehorned and completely unnecessary.
Overall, a decent read.
May 13, 2019
While a bit outdated now, it is a fascinating book about the conflict between politics and science. Almost anything I could say about the story would be a spoiler. Suffice it to say, the characters are well developed, and the concept a bit mind-boggling.
January 18, 2024
Very dense, hard science fiction that spends as much time describing the science behind the fiction as it does advancing the plot line. It was an enjoyable read with an pleasant twist, but the waiting for the twist was a bit long.
March 3, 2019
A couple of scientists discover a new theory about how the world works. They build a machine that is used to disarm the world. Deals with bureaucracy and the government meddling with everything.
July 18, 2019
4 plus to 4 1/2 stars.
August 21, 2019
ideas are intriguing.
September 4, 2019
I have never read a book so thick with technobabble before. Damned impressive.
May 14, 2022
It was ok
I would call it hard thats double hard Sci-Fi with military politics
I liked the end twist reminded me of the circus elephant chained with the thin rop
I would call it hard thats double hard Sci-Fi with military politics
I liked the end twist reminded me of the circus elephant chained with the thin rop
October 15, 2023
Good and proper science fiction. Fascinating physics.
November 28, 2025
"The Genesis Machine" is another 30-something male super scientists save the world offering from James P. Hogan. Borrowing from Robert Heinlein's socio- political playbook, Hogan's libertarian views dominate this novel even more than usual.
The theoretical physics and quantum physics underlying the scientific breakthroughs are well done. Hogan deftly presents hard science in a clear manner. Subatomic particles are actually fascinating!
The weakest link in this 1978 science fiction novel is describing the world of 2010 as militarily & politically divided between white people nations and nations of people of color. Of course, Irish-Anglo Hogan depicts the white nations as morally superior and winning out.
Another weak link, perhaps taken from his mentor Robert Heinlein, is Hogan's ridiculously two dimensional depiction of females. There is an exceptionally crude reference to natural acceptance of sexual assault in chapter 23.
The theoretical physics and quantum physics underlying the scientific breakthroughs are well done. Hogan deftly presents hard science in a clear manner. Subatomic particles are actually fascinating!
The weakest link in this 1978 science fiction novel is describing the world of 2010 as militarily & politically divided between white people nations and nations of people of color. Of course, Irish-Anglo Hogan depicts the white nations as morally superior and winning out.
Another weak link, perhaps taken from his mentor Robert Heinlein, is Hogan's ridiculously two dimensional depiction of females. There is an exceptionally crude reference to natural acceptance of sexual assault in chapter 23.
April 8, 2015
The Genesis Machine (1978) 299 pages by James P. Hogan.
Bradley Clifford is a physicist who has come up with a theory of the fundamental nature of matter and energy involving extra dimensions which he terms k-space. He is trying to publish a paper, but he works at ACRE, which is run by the military, and they don't want any knowledge that could be used against them out there for the enemy to see. When his attempt is shot down he sends his paper to Zimmerman at a station on Luna, who is one of the few scientists not under military direction.
A few weeks later Aubrey Philipsz from Berkeley tracks him down and asks if he's the guy who came up with the k-space theory. It turns out that the upper management at ACRE have a problem with Clifford and are trying to keep him out of the loop.
This world of 2005 is on a downward spiral of conflicts and arms build up, with the balance of power shifting from West to East. This is why the army is trying to coerce scientists into making more weapons.
The first half of the book is mostly Clifford explaining k-space theory. Then there is a chapter thrown in about the wars and skirmishes going on around the world. A little after that there is a chapter thrown in about the BIAC, a computer that gets its input via a helmet that the user wheres so the BIAC can read the thoughts of the user. That seems like as big a stretch as the k-space theory and it's dumped on the reader two thirds the way through the book.
That is all used to set up the climax. It all works out somehow -- based on the way the leaders in Hogan's year 2007 act and react. Maybe in 1978, that's the way we thought the leaders would act, i.e. being a little to free with the nukes and other warmongering activities.
If you enjoy discussion on relativity and beyond, the first half of the book is fantastic, and in the second half the story is, let's say, satisfying. I think the segues could be better. Still the story didn't bog down, even with a hundred pages of talk of k-space, it was enjoyable. I'd recommend Thrice upon a Time over this one.
Bradley Clifford is a physicist who has come up with a theory of the fundamental nature of matter and energy involving extra dimensions which he terms k-space. He is trying to publish a paper, but he works at ACRE, which is run by the military, and they don't want any knowledge that could be used against them out there for the enemy to see. When his attempt is shot down he sends his paper to Zimmerman at a station on Luna, who is one of the few scientists not under military direction.
A few weeks later Aubrey Philipsz from Berkeley tracks him down and asks if he's the guy who came up with the k-space theory. It turns out that the upper management at ACRE have a problem with Clifford and are trying to keep him out of the loop.
This world of 2005 is on a downward spiral of conflicts and arms build up, with the balance of power shifting from West to East. This is why the army is trying to coerce scientists into making more weapons.
The first half of the book is mostly Clifford explaining k-space theory. Then there is a chapter thrown in about the wars and skirmishes going on around the world. A little after that there is a chapter thrown in about the BIAC, a computer that gets its input via a helmet that the user wheres so the BIAC can read the thoughts of the user. That seems like as big a stretch as the k-space theory and it's dumped on the reader two thirds the way through the book.
That is all used to set up the climax. It all works out somehow -- based on the way the leaders in Hogan's year 2007 act and react. Maybe in 1978, that's the way we thought the leaders would act, i.e. being a little to free with the nukes and other warmongering activities.
If you enjoy discussion on relativity and beyond, the first half of the book is fantastic, and in the second half the story is, let's say, satisfying. I think the segues could be better. Still the story didn't bog down, even with a hundred pages of talk of k-space, it was enjoyable. I'd recommend Thrice upon a Time over this one.
June 22, 2014
The made-up science behind Project Jericho was neat and its technological implications were well explored, in that regard this was actually a really good "hard" science fiction novel.
However, the story fell apart badly at the end when Hogan started delving deeper into the human aspect of it all. It winds up with a very Randian "heroic engineer imposes his will on the idiots around him and turns the world into a utopia" resolution. The ending depends on the protagonist being the cleverest person in the world for it to work out, with no reason to believe that he actually is the cleverest person in the world.
Fun read, flawed ending.
However, the story fell apart badly at the end when Hogan started delving deeper into the human aspect of it all. It winds up with a very Randian "heroic engineer imposes his will on the idiots around him and turns the world into a utopia" resolution. The ending depends on the protagonist being the cleverest person in the world for it to work out, with no reason to believe that he actually is the cleverest person in the world.
Fun read, flawed ending.
April 17, 2016
This is an "old-school", "hard" science type of science fiction book.
The story was good. Lots of science in it...maybe a bit too much for me....or different from what I normally enjoy. Much of it just had me a bit puzzled.
One thing that I really did like was that the characters were more "real" (developed?) than is often the case in "hard" science Sci-Fi (especially older tales)
The story was good. Lots of science in it...maybe a bit too much for me....or different from what I normally enjoy. Much of it just had me a bit puzzled.
One thing that I really did like was that the characters were more "real" (developed?) than is often the case in "hard" science Sci-Fi (especially older tales)
May 7, 2011
I like all the books of James P. Hogan that I've read. His science (or alternative science)-based sci-fi is exactly my favorite kind. I also enjoy his positing of alternative socio-political frameworks.
November 30, 2013
An excellent job of explaining theoretical physics, at least of the 70s. Interesting alternative future history and a strong Libertarian political philosophy in the lead character. The ending was a bit pat, but getting there was very fun. I'd recommend this if you are into theoretical physics.
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