Mass Market, 216 pages
English language
Published May 1, 1977 by Del Rey.
The man on the moon was dead. They called him Charlie. He had big eyes, abundant body hair and fairly long nostrils. His skeletal body was found clad in a bright red spacesuit, hidden in a rocky grave. They didn't know who he was, how he got there, or what had killed him. All they knew was that his corpse was 50,000 years old -- and that meant that this man had somehow lived long before he ever could have existed!
I have loved this book for years, and finally stole it from my mother's bookshelf to read again. Just as good as I remember, and the tech it envisions is pretty good for having been written in 1977.
While the idea behind this novel tickled my imagination to no end, Inherit the Stars does not stand the test of time.
Even for 1978 it's dreadfully outdated. Not in the technobabble which is of course terribly out of date, but in its setting. Basically we are treated to one long series of scientists sitting around discussing their theories.
It's all tell, with nary a glimpse of the actual show.
I really enjoyed this book. It was semi-hard science fiction. The story was a very interesting one even if the characters were a little wooden.
In many areas the story holds up well, but there are some areas that it did not age so well. For one thing, there's no mention of DNA testing and much of the testing that takes place would be easily answered with a single DNA test. The prevalence of smoking in the story was distracting as well, especially in those situations where it would obviously not be allowed due to common sense (e.g. spaceships).
