Mankind, through stupidity and misuse of science has destroyed the world. Hogan gives this hackneyed and, unfortunately, nearly ubiquitous science fiction premise only a slight spin by contriving a story in which Man wipes himself out not merely once but twice simultaneously.The "science" in this science fiction story is not true speculation but Star Trek style technobabble. The "characters" are wooden puppets carried along by annoying, cliche-filled naturalistic dialog. The "dramatization" appears to have been edited out and replaced by long-winded, repititious exposition. There is virtually no sign of a plot for at least the first 100 pages. The plot, such that it exists, would be nearly invisible were it not for the frequent diversions into totally irrelevant, meaningless patches of dialog that seem to go on for pages at a time.This story might have made a passable novelette or short-novella, but at novel length it is too much to bear.