"[Hogan] once again demonstrates his mastery"-Publisher's Weekly ****
"...on the cutting edge of technology...Hogan's talent carries the reader from peak to peak in the story"-Booklist ****
"In the grand tradition of the classic super-science stories, but with more exciting science and with better writing too. What more can anyone want?"-Isaac Asimov ****
In this spectacular sequel to the acclaimed Code of the Lifemaker, James Hogan returns to the strange world of Titan, inhabited by bizarre self-conscious robots. ****
Little is known about the civilization that gave birth to these machine intelligences until scientists discover blocks of embedded computer code that appear to be strangely out of place. ****
Reactivating the computer codes results in the re-awakening of ancient alien beings, creators of the strange robot culture, totally alien and immensely powerful. And they are unhappy at being restrained within the narrow confines of the machines they find themselves in. They would much rather be the masters of all. * But while the scientists are helpless against these mighty beings, Karl Zambendord, the media-star 'Psychic' and his support team prepares to meet the challenge. *
The alien intelligences might be intellectually superior and super rational, but this also makes them hyper-materialistic and mechanistic in their outlook and hence, totally unprepared for such "higher" concepts as the spiritual, the mystical, and the transcendental. And selling such notions is precisely Zambendorf's stock in trade
**
From Publishers Weekly
In this somewhat humdrum sequel to Code of the Lifemaker, Hogan traces efforts of professional psychic/con man Karl Zambendorf and crew to protect the Taloids, a civilization of robots that has developed on Saturn's moon, Titan. The robots were sent to Titan over a million years ago by the Borijans, quarrelsome avians from the nova-threatened planet of Turle, who programmed the robots to find a world and build new bodies for their creators, who had stored their personalities electronically. Because of contaminated data in their computer system, the robots evolved and, by the time they were discovered by an exploratory mission from Earth, had developed a culture resembling much of Europe during the Renaissance. Meddling by Earth's political interests, however, brings the Borijans to life, prompting Zambendorf's crew to battle both to protect the Taloid nations from exploitation by Earth forces and to fend off the Borijan attempt to take over Titan and Earth. The dynamics here suggest Robin Hood-type adventures; the most interesting material describes how the Taloids became self-aware and developed their civilization.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Hogan's acclaimed Code of the Lifemaker (1983) introduced the Taloids, aliens who had settled their culture of self-replicating machines on Saturn's moon, Titan, and recently been discovered by earthlings. This book finds that the General Space Enterprises Corporation (GSEC), the Titan mission's overseer, has failed so far in its campaign to gain the Taloids' cooperation and technology for GSEC's own greater profit and glory but has unwittingly inspired the Taloids to substitute a new religion of brotherhood for their native creed of worship of their mythical creator, the Lifemaker. Then, when a Titan-based crew member is killed, GSEC, vowing to secure Taloid technology by force, sends in its military. What none of Earth's leaders or scientists suspects is that the Lifemakers (note the plural) are still present, watching the conflict through machine-based eyes. Although Hogan commits the literary transgression of making the subplot concerning the Lifemakers' origins more interesting than the main story line, his dazzling hard-science speculations on the seemingly endless possibilities of machine intelligence lift this sequel above the level of its predecessor. Carl Hays
Description:
"[Hogan] once again demonstrates his mastery"-Publisher's Weekly ****
"...on the cutting edge of technology...Hogan's talent carries the reader from peak to peak in the story"-Booklist ****
"In the grand tradition of the classic super-science stories, but with more exciting science and with better writing too. What more can anyone want?"-Isaac Asimov ****
In this spectacular sequel to the acclaimed Code of the Lifemaker, James Hogan returns to the strange world of Titan, inhabited by bizarre self-conscious robots. ****
Little is known about the civilization that gave birth to these machine intelligences until scientists discover blocks of embedded computer code that appear to be strangely out of place. ****
Reactivating the computer codes results in the re-awakening of ancient alien beings, creators of the strange robot culture, totally alien and immensely powerful. And they are unhappy at being restrained within the narrow confines of the machines they find themselves in. They would much rather be the masters of all. * But while the scientists are helpless against these mighty beings, Karl Zambendord, the media-star 'Psychic' and his support team prepares to meet the challenge. *
The alien intelligences might be intellectually superior and super rational, but this also makes them hyper-materialistic and mechanistic in their outlook and hence, totally unprepared for such "higher" concepts as the spiritual, the mystical, and the transcendental. And selling such notions is precisely Zambendorf's stock in trade
**
From Publishers Weekly
In this somewhat humdrum sequel to Code of the Lifemaker, Hogan traces efforts of professional psychic/con man Karl Zambendorf and crew to protect the Taloids, a civilization of robots that has developed on Saturn's moon, Titan. The robots were sent to Titan over a million years ago by the Borijans, quarrelsome avians from the nova-threatened planet of Turle, who programmed the robots to find a world and build new bodies for their creators, who had stored their personalities electronically. Because of contaminated data in their computer system, the robots evolved and, by the time they were discovered by an exploratory mission from Earth, had developed a culture resembling much of Europe during the Renaissance. Meddling by Earth's political interests, however, brings the Borijans to life, prompting Zambendorf's crew to battle both to protect the Taloid nations from exploitation by Earth forces and to fend off the Borijan attempt to take over Titan and Earth. The dynamics here suggest Robin Hood-type adventures; the most interesting material describes how the Taloids became self-aware and developed their civilization.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Hogan's acclaimed Code of the Lifemaker (1983) introduced the Taloids, aliens who had settled their culture of self-replicating machines on Saturn's moon, Titan, and recently been discovered by earthlings. This book finds that the General Space Enterprises Corporation (GSEC), the Titan mission's overseer, has failed so far in its campaign to gain the Taloids' cooperation and technology for GSEC's own greater profit and glory but has unwittingly inspired the Taloids to substitute a new religion of brotherhood for their native creed of worship of their mythical creator, the Lifemaker. Then, when a Titan-based crew member is killed, GSEC, vowing to secure Taloid technology by force, sends in its military. What none of Earth's leaders or scientists suspects is that the Lifemakers (note the plural) are still present, watching the conflict through machine-based eyes. Although Hogan commits the literary transgression of making the subplot concerning the Lifemakers' origins more interesting than the main story line, his dazzling hard-science speculations on the seemingly endless possibilities of machine intelligence lift this sequel above the level of its predecessor. Carl Hays