Scotched Fusion

Reprint:  9 May 2013 at 2:39 am

James P. Hogan's Thrice Upon a Time is a subtly dramatic view of very real people in a very unreal and, at this point, alternative reality.I read this book when it first came out and had lost my copy over the years. Rereading it with older and more jaundiced eyes, I expected to fine it dated and a bit trite. Amazingly, it has held up extremely well. My purchase was a used first edition mass market, so the text was as pristine as available, yet it read like it might have been written last year. Hogan was careful to accommodate emerging trends in popular technology and produce a surprisingly coherent and *accurate* view of life in the 21st century.

By focusing on character and events rather than lengthy lectures on the underlying mytho-physica (pardon the coinage), he leads the reader to care enough to over looked the stilted narrative, produced by revisions in the timeline. While his concept of linear "universes" is a bit untenable, his realistic portrayal of scientists and engineers at work is seductive and leads one to suspend disbelief far more readily than for works that are better grounded in high energy physics and quantum mechanics.
Even there however he excels at predicting the trend in theory. His "closed system" and dark energy "leakage" as tau particles is as charming as Star Trek yet not entirely dismissible as "real" science.
In summary, if you haven't read it, read it. If you have read it, read it again. You'll likely find it as charming and fun as I did.