| Author: | James P. Hogan |
| Copyright: | 1991 |
| Date Reviewed: | 12/1/92 |
| Rating: | 7.0 |
"Entoverse" began very well but I lost some interest towards the end. At the close of the third Giants novel, "Giant's Star", the Ganymeans from 25 million years ago were placed in charge of the Jevleneese worlds after it was discovered that they where interfering with Earth's history. As "Entoverse" begins, the Ganymeans commander, Garuth, asks Hunt to join him on Jevlen. The situation their is deteriorating quickly and Garuth fears that the JPC will replace him with a human military occupation.
VISAR is the Thurien (Ganymean descendents) super computer. When VISAR shut down most of JEVEX at the end of the psuedowar, it was hoped that the Jevleneese would pull themselves up by their own bootstraps and once again join the Thurien empire. This has not happened. Instead, the Jevleneese infrastructure is deteriorating and Hunt must find out why.
Hunt puts together a small team including Gina, a journalist. The team boards the 20 mile long Vishnu for the two day journey to Jevlen. On the way, Gina and Sandy experiences VISAR's version of virtual reality. VISAR is able to probe into the subconscious human mind and use information to let the participant live out any dream they might have, whether they know it or not. VISAR can also take participants to other worlds via sensor devises. The dream fulfillment was a bad experience for Gina and Sandy.
On Jevlen the team witnesses first hand the state of affairs. Pseudo-religious cults are springing up everywhere demanding that JEVEX be returned. The leaders of the cults all appear to have one thing in common - a total lack of understanding of physical cause and effect. The team spends some time trying to verify that the cause of the Jevlen breakdown is the sudden withdrawal of the virtual reality provided by JEVEX. It was like a drug. However, their investigation reveals two unusual facts. First, there is still a core remnant of JEVEX that the privileged few can access for their own habits. Second, the remaining core functions are not powerful enough to support even the limited virtual reality. The team eventually finds that the JEVEX nodes on Jevlen are simply dummy computers. JEVEX really resides on the planet Uttan and occupies most of its core. After the Pseudowar, it was thought that this planet simply supported the Jevlen military industry.
Throughout the book there are descriptions of an alternate universe where physical cause does not product expected effects. Physicals constants are not -- they may change with the rising Sun or direction of travel. Hunt's team eventually learns that the planet is really a 150 mile core of quantum information in the center of JEVEX. When all but the core JEVEX functions were turned off, much of the magic left, resulting in bad tidings for all.
Some inhabitants, called Ents for the Entoverse they live in, have the ability to rise up to the real universe, replacing the soul of the person whose bodies they have taken over. It is these people who are the cult leaders and who were responsible for the Earth's non-logical history. One cult leader is planning a great Exodus. Having taken over control of Uttan, this Ayatolla plans to turn JEVEX back on. With so many Jevleneese hooked up and waiting for their virtual reality fix, there will be plenty of bodies for the Ents to take over.
In an attempt to stop him, some members of the team travel down to the Entoverse, via VISAR, to explain what the far reality really is. However, they are cut off from VISAR and must make their own way until rescued. In the end, JEVEX is left running but cut off from Jevlen so the Ents will have a home but will not be able to replace any humans until the Thuriens can guarantee safe passage. The Jevleneese will be encouraged to build their own supercomputer from scratch to give them some purpose again.
"Entoverse" began as an excellent read and kept my interests peaked for most of the way through the book. However, it eventually became absurd. I found it difficult and unrewarding to make the transition from hard science to near fantasy. The sections on virtual reality were new and thought provoking. I did not mind so much the magic realm of Entoverse but could not buy into how it could exist in this universe. Quantum information is simply too different from quantum mechanics to produce a universe so similar to our own. I also had a problem with the cult leaders. It is inconsistent to expect to transfer an Ent to the real world where his magic is gone and he can not comprehend the simplest devices and then expect him to become a leader. Throughout the Giant's, novels there was one surprise after another as each book tried to explain the previous one with new information. This usually worked well but here the new explanation, that Ents where responsible for Earth's history, is not as believable as the Jevleneese being responsible. Despite its many faults, I did enjoy "Entoverse" overall and will probably read the next sequel if there is one.