Inherit the Stars

The Giants series

Cover of Inherit The Stars, the first book in the Series.
Author	James P. Hogan
Genre	Science fiction, space opera, hard science fiction
Publisher	Del Rey Books, Baen Books
Published	1977 – 2005
No. of books	5 (List of books)

The Giants series is a group of five science fiction novels by James P. Hogan, beginning with his first novel, 1977's Inherit the Stars.

Hogan revealed in the introduction to the omnibus edition The Two Moons, that Inherit the Stars was inspired by a viewing of the film 2001: A Space Odyssey which he enjoyed until the ending. Complaining about what he saw as the confusing, effects-heavy conclusion at work afterwards, each of his colleagues bet him five pounds that he couldn't write and publish a science-fiction novel. The result was Inherit the Stars, which was published by Del Rey Books in May 1977. He later asked Arthur C. Clarke about the meaning of the ending of 2001, to which Clarke reportedly replied that while the ending of Hogan's Inherit the Stars made more sense, the ending of 2001 made more money.

The series is notable for its creation of a substantial prehistory of the Solar System, stretching back millions of years. This was further expanded in later books to include an alternate universe version of the setting.

Events in this alternate chronology are identical up to 50,020 years ago. In this chronology, the Minerva Mission used timeline lensing generated by the Shapieron to cause the Jevlenese to disappear from the alternate timeline universe without a trace. Cerios and Lambia gave up the conflict and disarmed to concentrate on a space program for their mutual benefit. The Shapieron then returned to its own universe.

The series originally was planned as a trilogy published between 1977 and 1981 but was later expanded with Entoverse and Mission to Minerva.

Hogan remarked in his introduction to "The Two Worlds" that there was a possibility of a sixth book but added that there was "nothing definite in the works".

Several omnibus editions and collections of the novels were assembled during its run.

The reception of the series has been divided; the original trilogy is generally well received, while the later books have been seen as unnecessary additions, suffering from many of the faults of Hogan's later work. In John Clute's article on Hogan's work, he first considered Inherit the Stars, noting "the exhilarating sense it conveys of scientific minds at work on real problems and ... the genuinely exciting scope of the sf imagination it deploys." However, he described the magical aspects of the Entoverse as "nonsense" and complained that the attempted rescue of Minerva was unsatisfying, adding that there was a "willingness on Hogan's part to re-activate sequences that had come to a natural halt." However, he concluded that "the sequence as a whole remains his best work."