Rating: 
Summary: Amongst the best SF novels.
Review: I read these awhile ago. I plan to reread these again now. These books are amongst my MUST have and READ SF books. I treasure this set of books in the same manner as Lord of the Rings, Dune, and Heinlein's classics. Throw in a few Greg Bear books, a few Ben Bova books, Asimov, A C Clarke and some Simak books and you have ALL the best of SF (I know Lord of the Rings is Fantasy). Get these and read these!!!
Rating: 
Summary: forced myself to finish
Review: I recently bought (and read) a few dozen science-fiction books off Amazon purely on net recommendations and reviews. This is one of the few that disappointed me. The characters feel phony (to the extent that I actually grew to loathe them), dialogue is mainly used for explaining things to the reader (almost as bad as Chrichton) and the story, third book excepted, consists mainly of boring characters solving scientific riddles thanks to fortuitous discoveries. The premise is interesting at first, but the development is so drawn out that what should be intriguing ideas feel obvious when they're finally "discovered" by the characters. I suppose this might be perfect for a reader who is somewhat slow on the uptake.
Rating:
Summary: forced myself to finish
Review: I recently bought (and read) a few dozen science-fiction books off Amazon purely on net recommendations and reviews. This is one of the few that disappointed me. The characters feel phony (to the extent that I actually grew to loathe them), dialogue is mainly used for explaining things to the reader (almost as bad as Chrichton) and the story, third book excepted, consists mainly of boring characters solving scientific riddles thanks to fortuitous discoveries. The premise is interesting at first, but the development is so drawn out that what should be intriguing ideas feel obvious when they're finally "discovered" by the characters. I suppose this might be perfect for a reader who is somewhat slow on the uptake.
Rating:
Summary: No doubt, the best sci-fi Contact novel set written
Review: I'd love to just babble on about this 3 book set. Hogan is a good to excellent writer, but these books were simply fabulous. Incredible characterizations for a sci-fi book, where usually future technology blankets the story. Hogan's greatest ability is creating believeable future technologies. I'd agree with some of the other reviewers, I remember the first novel of this set coming out, and what grabbed me was the haunting figure of a skeleton in a rwed space suit on the moon. I've been a Hogan fan ever since.
Bottom line: Hey, Amazon, given that every reviewer has given this series a "10", this book better be somewhere in your "best of" list!
Rating: 
Summary: Desperately dull
Review: I've finished the first two books in this collection and am grimly plowing my way through the third, but I may not finish it. There is nothing in these stories but hard science. There certainly aren't any plots, characterizations, or tension worth reading about--nothing but "ooh, we have a mystery, here's the process of how we solve it." Snore. (And like other reviewers here, I figured out the big revelations right off the bat, and then I got impatient with the characters for taking so bloody long to come to the same conclusions.) The Ganymeans might as well be humans for all the "alien behavior" they display. Big Moments are met with so little emotion by all the characters that one wonders if these people are really androids. ...
Rating:
Summary: Great Deal.
Review: Inherit the Stars is a classic and the series is fun to read. Mr. Hogan loves his plot twists and also enjoys making real characters, with all the flaws and merits that are linked to man. It is a mystery and a sci-fi novel, but also a novel of men and women trying to understand their place within the great unknown called history. They not only have to fight the old views, but in some cases their own pride and closed minds.
Rating:
Summary: Three Great Books In One
Review: Inherit the Stars starts on the moon sometime in the near future when astronauts find a dead body human body 1000's of years old. How did it get there? How could it be there? No one knows. The writer then procedes, step by step, to explain how this could have happened. His science is so strong that, if I read this a few years in the future, I might believe it was actually happening. While the end of the book takes a few leaps of faith, (pun is intended), it all seems amazing real. It is a fun adventure written in the best traditions of science fiction. The second book here, there are three in one combined in this book, is also great. It is a story about our first contact with creatures from another planet. Because these creatures had such a different evolutionary path from us, they are as much different, intellectually, as in their appearance. The big difference in this story, as opposed to most science fiction, is how nice these aliens are. Earth falls in love with them and you will too. The writing, extremely optimistic about human nature, was a nice change of pace from most books of the genre. Since the violence here is at a minimum, the author uses a few interesting mysteries, unresolved from the first book, to maintain the series pace and tension. The final installment in this series was fun too, but it took a different tact. The optimism expressed so nicely in the first two books is lost here. This world has government conspiracies and aggressive alien races. Violence, or its threat, is finally found in the series. The science, as well, is a little closer to fantasy then science fiction. The first book "could" happen, at least it seems that way. The second story is a fantasy, but its discussions about evolution was great. The last book would be good anywhere, it jsut didn't fit in very well with the series. All are good though. All of them are worth reading.
Rating:
Summary: Was the best mind twisting Sci Fi I have read.
Review: Inherit the Stars will make you think and wonder until the end. I enjoyed all the facts and how you could believe that
this could be the way might things have happened.
Rating:
Summary: The true science fiction-one and only "Hard SF"
Review: J.P.Hogan has been well reputed in Japan since his 1977 first novel "Inherit the Star". Especially this giants' trilogy is, still yet, by far the best of all Hogan novels! You may be astonished at his incredible insights and imagination that will lead you to the deepest roots of human odessey. It is also highly recommended to those who adore detective mysteries since riddle solving plays the biggest role in this novel. It is indeed highly competent to any of Agatha Christie novels!
Rating:
Summary: Smashing Disappointment
Review: James P. Hogan has some excellent stories, such as Bug Park and Thrice Upon a Time. The Giants trilogy starts out just as fast and furious: A spacesuit-clad human is found entombed on the moon. The mystery-- How did a human get there more than 50,000 years ago? Inherit the Stars is a page turning mystery that rapidly degenerates into another "alien influence on early man" cliche. That would be okay, except for the obvious straws Hogan must grasp to make the story even marginally believable. The second book, Gentle Giants, is a waste of time. Anthropoid aliens meet Earth. The last book, Giants' Star, is horrible. Not only did those aliens interfere in our history, but they unleashed an evil influence that conspired to change it, right up to the present day. This would have made entertaining fiction for a 1950s era kid, but to a modern audience the complete trivialization of human history is, well, sophomoric. I enjoyed the mystery in the first novel, and was willing to finish it with the hope of something better. Hogan did not deliver. Save your money, and get Bug Park or Thrice Upon a Time.
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