lmc@denelcor.UUCP (07/07/83)
I have just finished James Hogan's latest book, "Code of the
Lifemaker", and thought it was quite good. The parallels drawn between our
culture and that of the Taloids are very appropriate, and make for a lot of
puns and good satire. Unlike the rest of his books, the plot doesn't
involve any heavy science (more's the pitty), except for the alien culture
which starts the book out, and that's straight extrapolation, rather than
some kind of "new" theory.
The hero of the work is a charletan, modeled loosely after certain
well-known psychics currently at work. Hogan doesn't seem to have a whole
lot of patience with the psychic debunker in this story, as he is a minor
character, and is always being either the foil for the psychic, or the
cat's paw for the real villians. The villian-turned-hero theme of the
story, however, was well handled.
The picture drawn of modern society (about 50 years from now) is
depressing. Are we really headed for rule-by-psychics? I hope not, but I
can't really refute the possibility, either.
I pose a few questions: Could the screw-up pictured in the opening
pages really result in the society pictured? I realize that Hogan went out
of his way to create circumstances that mirror human evolution, but would
it necessarily result in the so-close parallel to medieval Europe? Could
emotions (the Taloids obviously have them) evolve from the situation? What
is the nature of the Taloids "vegetables"? Siliconeys, perhaps?
Lyle McElhaney
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