Seeds of Earth: Book One of Humanity's Fire [Kindle Edition]

Renowned for his Shadowkings trilogy, its with a completely different tale that he now returns to the fold with this strange blend of sci-fi along with space opera with a touch of star wars built in. Mankind faces extermination from an alien species whose insectoid tendancies focus with their hive mind on the single goal. Interesting in concept, creative in scale however I was left feeling that it didn't quite deliver on the promise of the cover along with allowing me to feel that theres a lot more development that could have gone into the tale. That said, the sheer scope is not only ambitious but will allow the author to continue the tale in such a way that the tale could take any direction which hopefully the author will exploit along with the continual development of characters, I await the second novel with interest but its not going to be top of my reading pile.

I picked this up on the basis the blurb on the back said it was 'space opera' and I quite fancied something to get my teeth into. I was hoping for Peter Hamilton but I feel a bit like I got Kevin J Anderson instead.

* Plot: Although the premise is good, I feel the author reveals too much too early. The reader knows all the factions and (seemingly) their agendas quite quickly. I think one of the things I enjoy about epic stories is that the reader cannot tell where it's going to end up, or necessarily even the direction it's going. A lot of hints have been dropped and I rarely felt gripped enough to continue reading (so it lasted longer than a similarly sized small novel).

* Characters: Each chapter follows a different character, about half of whom know each other. However, I don't feel I've really got to know them in the course of this first book, perhaps because the chapters are so short there is not much time for each of them to develop.

* Composition: The author is painting on rather a large canvas. The world of Darien sits centre stage and some effort has gone into developing its background as a frontier world, but more could be done - I don't feel it compares well to contemporary authors' takes on a similar theme (e.g. Alan Steele's Coyote or Peter Hamilton's Lalonde). Its forest moon of Nyvesta is more interesting, but some of its mystery is taken away too early (as above). Meanwhile the political machinations of the wider alien societies - revealed by one of the characters careering across the galaxy to get to Darien - reminded me of the TV show "Babylon 5", which certainly brings in some needed colour.

Overall I think the author is trying to develop a rich tapestry, but the pacing is spoiling the tension. Admittedly that's subjective and some readers might enjoy events progressing quickly, but I don't associate this with 'space opera' which should be more of a slow burn. I'll probably buy the next book, but I'll definitely be keeping my guard up to avoid getting roped in to buying another "Saga of Seven Suns", which is what this most closely reminded me of.

I like Michael Cobley a lot - his Shadowkings trilogy was an interesting deconstruction of the fantasy trilogy, and sadly overlooked IMHO.

Seeds of Earth is more conventional space opera. Gutsy, outnumbered humanity - check. A multitude of vaguely humanoid aliens with all too familiar (ie human) motives and politics - check. AIs running amok - check. Early ancient aliens with forgotten technology left over from the War at the Beginning of Time (TM) - check.

But it reads well, is funny and has some excellent action scenes. It very much reminds me of David Brin's superb Uplift series, right down to the assortment of aliens and client species. All it needs is a bunch of dolphins and a really bad pun about guerilla warfare.... Which is by no means a criticism. If you like Brin, or Hamilton at a pinch, you will like this.