Echoes of an Alien \t\t Sky

Pulp stalwart Hogan (The Two Moons) \t\t falls down on the job with this lackluster tale of spacefaring Venusians \t\t exploring the ancient ruins of Earth's civilization. A political schism has \t\t arisen between the old-fashioned Venus natives, who passively and politely take \t\t what universe-creator Vizek hands them, and hot-headed Progressives, who feel \t\t their society is stagnating and needs some order and discipline. Meanwhile, \t\t scientist Kyal Reen is trying to figure out whether Terrans managed to develop \t\t electrogravitic propulsion in time for some of them to escape Earth's death \t\t throes. The plot—a mix of exposition, polemics and pseudoscience—follows a \t\t predictable path to its predictable conclusion. (Feb.)