Paths to Otherwhere

by James P. Hogan

Book Overview

In the face of planet-wide economic disaster, two totalitarian empires rise in China and Japan, threatening the world with a devastating war, and the police states of the U.S. and Europe place their... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0671877674
• ISBN13: 9780671877675
• Release Date: January 1997
• Publisher: Baen Books
• Length: 10 Pages
• Weight: 0.48 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 4.2" x 6.8"

Customer Reviews

A Satisfying Tale That Overcomes it's Faults

This is the first novel I've read by Hogan. I was immediately hooked by the premise, and pleasantly surprised that the science held up so well after a decade. Can't really argue with many of the complaints voiced by other readers, and the book did drag on more than few times. Yes, there were some poorly fleshed-out characters and some vague plot points. I felt the central characters and main plot line were quite intriguing and very well done. I don't run across many novels that I wish hadn't ended--this was one of them. There doesn't seem to be a sequel, but I'd welcome one gladly.

Mind-blowingly cool SF

I've been reading James P. Hogan's SF since the late 1970s, when I picked up a copy of his second novel, _The Genesis Machine_. I still haven't read the "Giants" novels, but I've read quite a bit of his other stuff.He's got a nice range, from hard SF like this book to espionage thrillers like _The Infinity Gambit_ to nonfiction essays on various controversial subjects. (You can read a lot of his nonfiction on his website...)The emphasis in his science fiction is on "science"; he knows his stuff and the physical theories on which he founds his novels are pretty plausible. He's also got a keen eye for the absolutely mind-blowingingly cool detail: some event that seems entirely ordinary but has such profound implications about the nature of reality that you just put the book down for a moment and go "Wow."...Since he's one of my two favorite living SF writers and the only one of the two who writes "hard" SF (the other is Spider Robinson), I've lately been trying to figure out where to start reviewing his books. I picked this one because it registers so high on the Mind-Blowing Coolness Meter, but I could really have started anywhere.No spoilers here: all the details I'm about to divulge appear within the first few pages of the book. Here's the underlying premise: the Many-Worlds Interpretation of quantum mechanics is correct; it's possible for quanta to interfere with their own counterparts along other branches of events; it's also possible for _information_ to be passed from one branch to another, and even from the future to the past, with devices that detect such interference.One of those mind-blowing details occurs during a test of just such a device: a woman deliberately mistypes a word on a computer keyboard, but it appears correctly on the screen -- _because the quantum interference detector is determining the output by averaging all the possible futures_. Similarly, the woman finds it amazingly easy to draw a perfect circle on the computer screen, because the device averages _out_ the random errors introduced by her and all her counterparts along the other branches of the Multiverse.That's just a taste of what this novel has in store for you, and it's just background; the plot is even cooler, and I won't spoil it for you. Let it suffice to say that you'll get your mind blown at least once every forty or fifty pages; every time you think Hogan has run out of tricks, he manages to pull out another one. His characters are, if not altogether gripping, at least interesting enough to keep the plot moving (Theo Jantowitz, for example, is a charming academic curmudgeon) and his standard theme -- "good science getting screwed up by government and corporate interests" -- is treated with Hogan's usual realism and flair.In general it's a well-written and hopeful book that explores a fascinating "rational mysticism" that I sort of hope turns out to be true. (And I'm not sure why a couple of the other reviewers are dissatisfied with Hogan's handling of a c

Another great addition to my library!

I found this one a bit difficult to read compared to Hogan's other novels, but as always the story is great as is the scientific theory behind it.

Mind boggling!

It was the twenty - first century. The nations of the world headed toward war, and this time it looked as though there was no chance of avoiding a mutually geneocidal cataclysm. However, a small group of scientists had made QUADAR. QUADAR was a machine. Selected scientists worked quietly on the project, unknown that they were watched by the government. Theory is that anything that COULD happen HAS happened in some universe, some where. There are thousands of universes though. QUADAR sent the selected few to their counter parts in other universes to see what the differences were. Every universe had the same people, but historical events had happened differently. The current world was different. Then there was a world where they never happened at all! Traveling this way was soon called going to otherwheres. Now the government is ready to steal the whole project for political reasons. ***Mind boggling! A roller coaster of possibilities. Made me stop and think about several "What ifs?"***

Paths to Otherwhere is excellent hard sci-fi

I sat down yesterday afternoon to start in on _Paths to Otherwhere_, and ended up finishing it hours later. I couldn't put it down. Hogan uses ideas on multiple universes (alternate realities) plausibly to create a intriguing story. The main stream of the story lies in the characters desire (and conflict in trying) to get away from the political conspiring and social stratification that they must work in. Simple research in evolution turns into complex cross universe scheming to find something close to utopia.