Entoverse

This latest entry in Hogan's popular Giants series ( Inherit the Stars , etc.) begins a year after humans on earth first make contact with the peaceful, advanced, nonhuman Ganymeans, who exerted a hitherto unknown but momentous influence on the development of Homo sapiens. Following the discovery that the humans of Jevlen had been tampering deleteriously with earth history, the Ganymeans turned off the Jevlenese super - computer JEVEX. When the Ganymean supervisor of Jevlen finds violence and irrationality increasing, with leaders of exotic cults demanding the return of JEVEX, he calls on physicist Victor Hunt to discover the cause. Meanwhile, on the world of Waroth, where science is unknown, famine reigns as the magic that once created plentitude now ebbs away. Hunt and his assistants find a mysterious link among the cult leaders, JEVEX and Waroth that partially explains the Jevlenese's hostility toward earth. While Hogan's scientific material can be of interest, his one-dimensional characters and sketchy portrayal of nonhuman society make the novel rather dull overall. (Nov.)