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Title: Earthborn (Homecoming Saga)
Score:
Author: Orson Scott Card
Rating: Not available
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Review of Earthborn (Homecoming Saga)

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Comments for Earthborn (Homecoming Saga)

• Posted on 2009-07-27
  Not very engaging; slow; a tad too much proselytizing
  
  I have to admit that this is one of the worse Orson Scott Card works I've read to date...and I've read a LOT of his stuff. Perhaps he's proselytized in some of the other works I've read from him but it was subtle enough or the story was engaging enough that I didn't care. The problem with this book is that I had a very hard time staying interested in the story. All but one of the characters from the rest of the series are gone and it's hard to try to re-engage with a completely different set of characters that aren't all that interesting to begin with.
  
  There's no attempt at much "science fiction" in the book. How is it that the characters completely forgot about the technology the Ancient Ones knew about and didn't try replicating any of it on Earth again? The book become a big socio-political story and it just didn't really move.
  
  Since it's the last of the series, I guess you might feel compelled to buy it. Quite frankly, you could end with Book 4 and feel just as satisfied if not more so.
  
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• Posted on 2009-07-21
  pretty good
  
  I did not find this volume as big of a departure as some of the other reviewers. Just when you were getting really tired of Elemak you are introduced to another character who cannot let go of a childhood grudge and wants to kill everyone. Another new character is the only one who can hear the Oversoul and so on. It does finally wrap up the story line about what the Keeper intends even though the resolution is kind of weak and does not offer any real surprises.
  I have to mention that I was able to enjoy the series even though I am an atheist. Some reviewers raged about its supposed Mormon propaganda. So what? Dune has messianic elements and it is one of the finest sci-fi books ever written. Anyway I thought it was pretty funny that for 50 million years a power that could move mountains, fly people to other planets heal or kill at will can only influence people with barely understood hints or through riddles sent in dreams. Like people who believe that the only way the supposed creator of heaven and earth has communicated with us in the last 2,000 years is by painting a picture of his mother under leaky bridges and on pieces of moldy bread.
  
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• Posted on 2009-01-05
  Not Part Of The Home Coming Series
  
  The Homecoming series should have stopped after Earth Fall. This book takes place many many years after the end of Earth Fall. None of the original characters have anything to do with this book. The characters that are in, are poorly developed. The plot is very hard to follow and what I could follow, was uninteresting. I admit, that I did not finish this book. It was just to bad to keep reading. However, it may have had an excellent ending but I doubt it. The first four books of this series were some of the best that I have ever been blessed enough to read. However this book is not included in that list. I am typically a huge Orson Card fan, but he disappointed me with this book. I do think that if you were a die hard fan of the Home Coming series, you should at least attempt this book. It may be good to you. However, do not be shocked when it turns out to be horrible.
  
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• Posted on 2008-08-16
  Worst of the series
  
  So you've read books one through four. You were impressed by Card's fascinating premise in book one, started to get really turned on to his idea of "god as a machine" in book two, loved the fantastic revelations and conflict in book three, and were intrigued by the first-hand narratives of diggers and angels in book four. I guess I should see how it ends, you say to yourself.
  
  Don't be a fool. This book is utter dreck.
  
  In retrospect, I can see how the series suffered a gradual, inexorable decline as Card kept writing, how the wonderful premises with which he began (far-future human evolution, god as a machine) were slowly subsumed by his frankly simplistic mysticism and allegorical Mormon proselytizing. But I only recognized this trend about halfway through book five, the one you're thinking about buying. Like you, after reading book four, although I wasn't that impressed with the strength of that volume I wanted to see how it all turned out.
  
  Let me save you the trouble: angels and humans and diggers get along after all, and God loves you.
  
  All the careful characterization of books one through four is thrown away, and we start fresh with all new characters and a "fun" new naming scheme we have to stumble around. Not only that, but the oversoul is practically a no-show, being completely replaced by the keeper of earth. I won't insert a "spoiler" by telling you about the keeper's true nature, but believe me you'll be disappointed with the explanation when it's revealed around 50 pages from the end. Oh, and he never explains the faster-than-light dream-sending mechanism. He never even mentions it.
  
  Leading up to that tiny piece of plot resolution three volumes in the making, we're treated to a protracted morality / religion play where our protagonists learn to put their lives in God's hands and respect the literal truth of a set of golden plates written by their ancestors. For 400 christ-thumping pages. It's not all that well written, it's not very interesting, and most importantly, it's not what you signed on for after the first four books.
  
  I can't for the life of me understand why Card didn't end the series with book four. This is a boring, barely-related addendum to an otherwise decent series. I was literally gnashing my teeth and straining to get through the last 80 pages.
  
  Don't make my mistake. Pretend book four was a reasonable resolution and pretend this one was never written.
  
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• Posted on 2006-11-23
  Ending the series with different characters....eh...
  
  It's the final book in the Earthbound series by Orson Scott Card. Shedemei is the sole living character from the earlier story of the journey from Harmony. Her life is being extended by her status as the Starmaster of the Basilica and by help of being in stasis for long periods of time. She awakens occasionally to check in on civilization and to tend her gardens. Meanwhile, on Earth below, the peoples descending from Nafai and Elemak are warring. Some cling to their belief in the Keeper of Earth and some do not.
  
  The story begins with slavery...the slavery of Akma and his family and his people. As a result of their miraculous escape, Akma has developed a deep disrespect for his father, who essentially converts their captives and leads them out of slavery. As the story progresses, racial hatred crescendos and the angels and diggers are discriminated against by some of the humans. It is the Keepers wish that all species be able to live together in peace, but those who deny the existence of the Keeper take a very modern "politically correct" stance against those who are not human.
  
  In this book, the author tackles quite a few modern issues in his development of his Earth. The attempt to prove God's existence. Rationalizing church/state issues. Racial tensions. Much time is spent in Earthborn on religious themes like baptism, faith, prayer, visions and even some theology. (The author is a Mormon and has an interest in Biblical history.)
  
  One disjointing issue that I can't quite understand is that the previous four books have focused on one set of characters, Nafai and the band of travelers. In Earthborn, the final book in the series, all but one of the original characters is already dead. The setting is several hundred years after Earthfall. I found it hard to get into this book at first due to the fact that the author made us start over right at the end of the story with new characters, naming conventions and cultures. I suppose there wasn't any other way to do it, but it was quite a jump.
  
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