Tag: Tor Books

Books

Book 17: The Ships of Earth – Orson Scott Card

Geoff W

Of the three novels so far, this was my least favorite. It dealt mostly with the journey from Basilica to the original ships that brought humans to the planet of Harmony. It was bogged down in details of the travel and the minor arguments between the main characters.

Although it was interesting to learn more about each of the characters we met in the other novels, but to be completely honest it became trite and somewhat annoying. I think that Card has a great writing style, but when it gets to personal intrigue and politics it gets a bit annoying and incredibly tedious, but in the end it adds plenty of new dynamics even if they are slightly wonky most of the time. Between the last book and this book I’m getting tired of what amounts to pure whiny-ness of most of the main characters, they’re honestly annoying and have very little room for growth as characters.

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Books

Book 16: The Call of Earth – Orson Scott Card

Geoff W

In the second installment of Orson Scott Card’s five book series Homecoming we pick up right where The Memory of Earth left off. This time however we are not solely focused on the Wetchik clan, instead we learn about a new character Moohz, a great Gorayni general. Although the Gorayni worship differently, they still worship the Oversoul, but call it God. As we delve more into his story we learn his people were conquered and annihilated by the Gorayni and he is biding his time until he is able to strike a death-blow to the Gorayni empire and their leader, a self-titled human manifestation of god.

In contrast to this we delve more deeply into the Wetchik family and Lady Rasa’s family and ties. Her two idiot daughters Svet and Kokor and their husbands, Wetchik’s sons from the previous book, and Rasa’s nieces become focal points of this novel. Wetchik’s sons return to the city on the command of the Oversoul to find wives and to bring them out to the desert in order to then complete the journey back to Earth which has waited some 40 million years.

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Books

Book 15: The Memory of Earth – Orson Scott Card

Geoff W

Personal politics aside, I actually enjoyed this novel. It was fantasy enough that the science-fiction didn’t beat me over the head, similar to some of the Irene Radford I’ve read in the past (The Stargods) but less of a struggle. It must come naturally to Card to blend these similar yet distinct genres

I decided to check out Orson Scott Card because he’s a legend in the science-fiction world. Everyone always talks about Ender’s Game and how it’s one of the best novels they’ve ever read. Well I couldn’t afford to buy any new books and I found three of the Homecoming series on sale at the used book sale at the Denver Public Library so I bought them.

The book jumps right in to things. Card tries to give a bit of background about who is related and what their relations are, but honestly it’s a bit much to take in especially as you don’t know anything about the characters. As the story progresses we learn more about the planet Harmony and how it came to be. We primarily follow the youngest son of an influential family, Nafai and his internal struggles of growing up and coming to terms with the world and the people around him.

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