Yet I'm rating this only three stars and putting it in the box of books to sell, give away or throw out. It's well-written too, even if hardly literary fiction-all the science, for instance, is conveyed without of feeling of infodump.

And from that hard physics foundation, Hogan spins a lot of implications biological, political and spiritual. I can't recall ever reading a more lucid explanation of the paradoxes that inspired quantum physics. This novel really does deal with a lot of fascinating and big ideas, and it isn't hand-waving Bat-science either in this book about the concept of the Multiverse. Clarke or Larry Niven better fits the title, but reading the book, even if he doesn't head the department, he definitely works there. The quote on the cover proclaims Hogan the 'Dean of hard SF.' I'd think Arthur C. It makes for an annoying read, one that would have been better is there had been less of Hogan's political views and more focus on the characters and some of the interesting implications of his premise. Some of it is laughable (as in how Britain manages to have socialized medicine without government), much of it demonstrates a poor understanding of human history, and all of it gets in the way of the suspense Hogan attempts to build throughout the novel. Yet character development is lost amid the considerable political commentating the author continually engages in, as he uses his premise to both offer his theory on the failings of our world (too much government) and construct an idyllic alternative that in which everything is perfect (thanks to limited government). Like his earlier novel, Hogan provides a plot of considerable interest, one well grounded in scientific theory as befitting an author of hard SF. As the scientists begin to explore the possibilities, though, the military prepares to move in and use the device for their own ends.

But then the scientists discover a means of transporting a person's consciousness into their counterpart in another universe. As an increasingly likely conflict with Japan and China looms, scientists develop a device that heralds the prospect of improving decision-making by allowing users to tap into the infinite number of decisions made by their multitude of counterparts in alternate worlds, thus discovering the wisest course of action. In a not-too-distant future, the United States is slowly rotting from within, with revolutionaries and gangs forcing an authoritarian reaction from the government. Hogan's novel starts out in a world heading towards crisis.

Paths to Otherwhere by James P. Hogan