Rating: 
Summary: I knew how it would end, and I STILL couldn't put it down!
Review: Some of the reviews have compared this to the Bruce Willis movie "Armageddon." I have to admit I didn't see the movie, but I think the comparisons are very superficial. If I had to compare it to a movie, it would probably be "When Worlds Collide." Speaking of movies, I doubt that Hollywood will make one of this book, and if they did they would probably butcher it, but it might be worth it just for the special-effects spectacular that would be needed for the ending. The basic idea of a large object colliding with Earth is not new, but it was handled very well in this book. There were also some echoes of the first Hogan novel, "Inherit the Stars." Hogan doesn't do as many sequels as some writers, but it would be interesting to see what he could follow this up with. It sure wouldn't be set on Earth, unless it was much further in the future. I made the mistake of picking this up to read a little bit before going to sleep, when I was about 150 pages from the end. I ended up finishing it, and was really dragging the next day. As I said above, the way it ends is not too big a surprise, except perhaps for the extent of the disaster, and you knew the hero would survive, but it still keeps you going. I have read a lot of science fiction that was exciting, and a lot that was intellectually stimulating, especially by James Hogan. This book combines both and does it very well.
Rating: 
Summary: good application of a story to real events
Review: This book really did make me think on a few of the things that "could" actually happen in the universe. It also gives a good presentation of what Immanuel Velikovsky tried to tell about in his book, "worlds in collision". Hogan goes as far as to show how stagnate and closed-minded our scientific community has become. Hogan's characters, while relativly flat to begin with, begome very developed towards the end. This is a good book for the sci-fi theorist.
Rating: 
Summary: Just kidding, I give it 0 Stars
Review: This book, I closed it and put it down today for the last time. I managed to get through 70-80% of the book read. Why is this where it ends for me? This book, it is an absolute BORE. Through all of the chapters I read, I felt that there was no real threat. No main character seemed to regard it as such emotionely. I don't by it, that anyone would be that cool when they know that genocide is upon us. They weren't even shaken. The characters were boring, they didn't really seem to be all too personal or worked up about the end of an entire planet beging forseen as they folly from state to state talking about droll theoris that really, in a few weeks of the story's time, isn't going to much matter in the first place. You think that the important thing would to be A- find some way to either divert it's ETA if you will, or decide finaly whether or not to get off of Earth. Through over 300Pgs I had no idea what they were tryingto do.And if in this story there was no way to stop it, the only exciting thing left to write about is the drama of the obvious inevitable death of an entire population. Where were the thoughts of, Where do I want to be when it hits?, Am I going to die slowly or be nailed from some impact blast? Where was the goodbyes and farewells that could make even the toughest cry. There is 0-drama in this book wich naturaly leads to lousy characters that have about as much personality as a brick.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent Story, Decent Writing
Review: Though the formulas used in the story were transparent, the concept of the story was unique and refreshing. At first, I thought that Mr. Hogan was a "new" writer because his character and situation development wasn't that good at times. But he has published several novels. I did learn that he is Brittish, and I think this accounts for my initial perception. I have noticed that Amaricans tend to have a warmer writing style than the Brittish. This is not a bad thing, just a minor cultural difference. The book was interesting from the first chapter and stayed that way pretty steadily until about the last fifth of the story, when the climax began to build and continued to do so through the end of the story. Though the Sci-Fi in this book is solid, I would classify it as a cross-genre story. What the other genre is would be hard to say though. In short, I think that people who don't normally read Sci-Fi would enjoy this book just as true Sci-Fi fans will.
Rating: 
Summary: A Scientific Embarassment
Review: You know, I really enjoyed "Inherit the Stars", and the sequel "..Gentle Giants.." was okay. Both had a scientific authenticity that made the stories ever so much more enjoyable. But apparently Hogan has fallen off the wagon, and fallen in with the Crystal Healers in this improbable tale that debunks practically every major accepted scientific theory, from astrophysics and orbital mechanics to evolution and isotopic geology. Clearly motivated by previous nutcase Velikovsky, Hogan literally villifies institutional science, as he scrapes together every half-baked, anecdotal pseudo-scientific story he can find. At times, I would swear this story was being written by a Biblical Creationist - they are so good at ignoring the intricate web of interconnected and supporting scientific evidence. Ironically, this is just the argument that Hogan uses to trash the world's scientific institutions. Predictably, I got pretty mad. I won't bore you with the details, but the astronomical aspect of this story involves a protoplanet spewed out from Jupiter that just happens to be destined for a close encounter with Earth, after going around the Sun. According to the story, this has happened before in Earth's recent history, and all the "real" evidence points to this bizarre conclusion, but none of the powerful figures in the scientific community believe it. I can safely say that the odds of a single ocurrence on such a scale is, quite literally, astronomically low. And two such events in a six thousand year timeframe is ridiculous! (And that's assuming that Jupiter actually does hock up these planetary spitwads!) Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote of a mysterious and unknown island called Caprona, somewhere in the Southern Ocean, and the story was fine for its time. If written today, in the current era of multiple orbiting observation platforms, the author would be laughed right out of the publishing houses. And that's exactly what should be done with this piece of literary junk. Admittedly, the action in the second and third parts was riveting at times. But every spare moment our heros had, they'd be patting themselves on the back for being right. Despite the obvious conclusion the book was headed for, I found myself rooting for the meteors, hoping for a miraculous dead-on strike. Hogan seems so good at that. If you want to read something by Hogan, read "Inherit the Stars". Don't bother with this one.
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