Conference noted::sf

I read Hogan's CODE OF THE LIFEMAKER a couple of weeks ago.  As is my habit,
I read the prologue as soon as I took it out if its SFBC carton, to decide
how high in my stack of unread SF it was going to go.

The prologue to CofL is one of the best pieces of hard science fiction I
have ever read.  It concerns the evolution of an intelligent machine
culture; to say any more would constitute a spoiler.  I immediately sat down
and read the whole book in one (very long) night, and was slightly
disappointed. 

The body of CofL is good.  It might even be said to be among Hogan's best
work (very good indeed).  But it is not as good as that prologue.  I found
most of the book pretty predictable, and the ending somewhat implausible.

On a scale of 1 to 10:  7.

					-- Roger

Is anyone still in communication with Jim? (He used to be a Digit, for those of
you who never heard of him). He was going to put out a Mainstream novel, and
I kept looking for it, and looking...

He's a good author, in the Clarke style, but he lacks the ability to "get
informal" with his characters. Ask Nigel, Englishmen are all like that.

Yeah, his characterization leaves more than something to be desired.  On the
other hand, his attention to (pseudo-)scientific detail usually verges on the
brilliant.  As a result, most of his novels remain enjoyable to SF types (I
was really bowled over by Inherit The Stars, largely because it intertwined
so many disciplines so well; while that kind of tour de force has not quite
been repeated, most of his others are still very satisfying in this regard).

However, for the mainstream you won't make it without characters...

		- Bill

to complete my diatribe against Code...

I've never seen such an un-subtle work that was not obviuosly a parody
of something better.  I just could not suspend my disbelief.  Hogan seems
to have gone out of his way (and the story's way) to anthropomorphize
the robot culture.  Why the distraction of the pseudo-middle english dialect?
"Which art," "wert", "thee" and "thou" indeed!  Was that supposed to enhance
the theocratic atmosphere?  Even the humans were rendered with a blunt 
instrument.  The only thing this book has going for it is its prologue,
and that was only where the excesses begin.

- tom]

I liked Lifemaker, but I must agree that the excellent prologue had me expecting
much more than I got.  The society beginning to form in the prologue was an
extremely logical development, given the (somewhat preposterous) initial
assumptions.  Whereas when we next visit our robotic friends, everything
is totally unrecognizable, nor is it very clear how the changes came about.

I was willing to grant that it COULD have happened -- at least enough to
enjoy the story anyway -- but I would have been much happier and more satisfied
if he had explored the possibilities of the prologue.

	/dave

I am in the middle of reading _Code_of_the_Lifemaker_.  The prologue lead
me to anticipate an inspired novel, even better than his earlier works.
Alas, this wasn't to be.

Once the story got going, I couldn't believe that it was written by the
same person.  There seem to be only four flavors of character :

		1) Pro-confusion - Pro-religion, pro-mysticism
		2) Anti-confusion - scientific
		3) Power grabbing
		4) Dupe

He sets the first two types up to argue their points often, and with the
subtlety of a sledgehammer.  He is obviously preaching.  

There is very little new in the human society, even though it takes place
almost thirty years in the future.  Women are still second class citizens,
telecasts are still the main source of news and entertainment (notesfiles
must have taken over by then :-) ), the Russians are still the bad guys,
etc.  He does make a concession with the Comnet, which seems to be some
sort of video phone with a computer hook-up.  There are certainly no
startling revelations about the effects of the Information age.

The robeing society which started out so promising, took a sudden leap
from parallel evolution to medieval times replete with the Spanish 
Inquisition.  No nice scientific reasoning to back this up, it just 
suddenly happens.  I would feel a little better about it if the robeings
had at least some interesting quirks and weren't so obviously human
(right down to shrugging the shoulders).   The robeing society has
got to be the most disappointing part of the story.

There are glimpses of the old Hogan style when he explains something
technical, but these are short and relatively few and far between.
If only I could put things the way he does when I'm producing documentation!

I hope that he does not continue writing in this new style, but revives
his old one for his next novel.

			Barbara