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Migration
After Armageddon Came a Renaissance Reaching for the Stars—but was It Only a False Rebirth? Real science fiction by a New York Times best-selling author.
The world of the past eventually died in the conflagration toward which it had been doggedly heading. A more fragmented and diversified order has emerged from the ruins and . technology has reappeared to a greater or lesser degree in some places and not at all in others.
Unique among them is the nation-state of Sofi, with an exceptional population that has rediscovered advanced science. However, as the old patterns that led to ruin before begin to reassert themselves across the rest of the world, a scientific-political movement within Sofi embarks on a years-long project to build a generation starship that will enable them to create their own world elsewhere.
The circumstances and thinking of future generations growing up in the totally unknown situation of a space environment cannot be known. Accordingly, the mission will include different groups of idealists, reformers, misfits, and dissidents who are not satisfied with the world-in-miniature that constitutes the original mother ship, to go out and build whatever they want. Hence, what arrives at the distant star generations hence will be a flotilla of variously run city states, frontier towns, religious monasteries, pleasure resorts, urban crushes, rural spreads, academic retreats, and who-knows what else.
The trouble began, of course, when all the old patterns that they thought they were getting away from started reappearing . . .
The world of the past eventually died in the conflagration toward which it had been doggedly heading. A more fragmented and diversified order has emerged from the ruins and . technology has reappeared to a greater or lesser degree in some places and not at all in others.
Unique among them is the nation-state of Sofi, with an exceptional population that has rediscovered advanced science. However, as the old patterns that led to ruin before begin to reassert themselves across the rest of the world, a scientific-political movement within Sofi embarks on a years-long project to build a generation starship that will enable them to create their own world elsewhere.
The circumstances and thinking of future generations growing up in the totally unknown situation of a space environment cannot be known. Accordingly, the mission will include different groups of idealists, reformers, misfits, and dissidents who are not satisfied with the world-in-miniature that constitutes the original mother ship, to go out and build whatever they want. Hence, what arrives at the distant star generations hence will be a flotilla of variously run city states, frontier towns, religious monasteries, pleasure resorts, urban crushes, rural spreads, academic retreats, and who-knows what else.
The trouble began, of course, when all the old patterns that they thought they were getting away from started reappearing . . .
- GenresScience FictionFiction
400 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2010
9 people are currently reading
83 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 - 8 of 8 reviews
July 23, 2014
While it's unclear that this is part of a series and the book works as a standalone the world of the ark ship Aurora, its satellite worlds and the superb society built there deserves more books
A return to the Hogan of the Giants saga combining didacticism with great world building and interesting characters, especially the stage magician Korshak and the robot Ket; the villains make a hilarious bunch with their subtle name "Dollarians" and the mystical symbol $, while their leaders go by titles like Banker and the like - though personally I thought that their ideology in the context of the book was much more suited to a Green movement since it's all about finite resources and conservation against the heroes "humanity as unlimited potential, no resource is scarce since humans can invent something else if needed"; I guess today is cool to have "Dollarians" as villains so let that be since the book is fun and a solid A from me
A return to the Hogan of the Giants saga combining didacticism with great world building and interesting characters, especially the stage magician Korshak and the robot Ket; the villains make a hilarious bunch with their subtle name "Dollarians" and the mystical symbol $, while their leaders go by titles like Banker and the like - though personally I thought that their ideology in the context of the book was much more suited to a Green movement since it's all about finite resources and conservation against the heroes "humanity as unlimited potential, no resource is scarce since humans can invent something else if needed"; I guess today is cool to have "Dollarians" as villains so let that be since the book is fun and a solid A from me
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March 18, 2014I am a big fan of Hogan's careful scientific peeling apart the layers of a puzzle. Like other readers, I was disappointed by this potboiler. It is an undigested amalgam of heavy dollops of Hogan's particular libertarian politics projected into a post-post-apocalyptic future, and an average adventure story. The main character is a traveling illusionist, snatched from a feudal state into the crew of a multi-generational colonization mission to another planet. He gets involved in intelligence gathering on a sect that threatens the mission. The adventure was just enough to keep me reading, but the disappointment at the lack of Hogan's forensic intelligence was severe. If this was the start of a multi-book series I won't be buying the sequels.
February 28, 2015
One of Hogan's better reads in my opinion, this was typical of his style, not too dolorous but equally with enough cleverness to make it worthwhile. I didn't realise he'd published a third volume of shorter fiction as well; I must pick that up sometime if it's been done electronically.
November 19, 2022
Hard to finish endless detail and description that has nothing to do with the plot just filler. Like most Hogan books all the excitement is in the last few chapters or pages. This book was somewhat of a let down.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 1, 2017
James Hogan is generally excellent. Hard sci-fi and interesting premises.
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November 20, 2019Note to self - Worm web serial continued
January 7, 2015
I love this book even though it's not his best work, because I'm a character in it!
Mr. Hogan was a great author and a great friend too, and he made me very happy when he agreed to name a character after me. I first appear in chapter 6.
This was the last book he wrote before he died. He told me he planned to write at least one sequel, so the story will sadly never be completed, but I think it's worth a read.
Mr. Hogan was a great author and a great friend too, and he made me very happy when he agreed to name a character after me. I first appear in chapter 6.
This was the last book he wrote before he died. He told me he planned to write at least one sequel, so the story will sadly never be completed, but I think it's worth a read.
July 8, 2010
I really like Hogan's stuff usually. This seems like one big tell. He doesn't take time to describe people, places and things. I found it very dry.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews