The Earthborn [Hardcover]

Earthborn is one of the more disappointing reads I've had in years. I was attracted to it by the cover art by Jon Foster and by the synopsis written inside the jacket. Unfortunately, the jacket synopsis turned out to be better written than the book.

The premise was intruiging enough: a multi-generation interstellar colony ship destined for Tau Ceti ends up instead torn by internal conflict and returning to a post-apocalyptic Earth, and conflict ensues between the imperialist/fascist high-tech Skyborn and the survivalist low-tech Earthborn, with all of the main characters kids due to vaguely described afflictions affecting both societies. But the novel itself is plagued with even worse afflictions: (1) The characters never rise above anything but sketches, with so little description you never have any clear idea of their appearance and with so little identity you don't feel anything when bad things happen to them. In most of the novel they seldom come across as anything but talking heads. (2) The setting is generic throughout, from the generic colony ship to the generic post-apocalyptic cityscape. For a story that's supposed to be set in a post-apocalypic Melbourne, Australia, the details are so sketchy and generic that it could be any low-budget sci-fi movie set anywhere in the world. And worst of all (3) The prose style is passive and distancing, with the author always telling instead of showing, making for a very dull read. The following excerpt is typical:

"Sarah swung down with a piece of timber and drove another stake into the ground. She knew that the ninety-yard-high mountain ash forests with the understory of blackwood and tree ferns provided decent cover from Colony craft, but even at this early stage, she was planning to outmaneuver Colony. She had no delusions about ever conquering the Skyborn, but maybe, just maybe, she could discourage them. Even now she realized that time was her enemy."

This is pretty much how the whole novel reads, and the further it goes, the worse it gets. After about halfway through I has having to force myself to keep reading, and I was even more annoyed at the end (after a confusing strung-out fight where half the characters die but you don't feel anything because they were never more than sketches) to find that the story is not complete at the end because this is only the first book in a series, a series I have no interest whatsoever in continuing.

If you're looking for something good in similar veins, I would recommend Heinlein's Orphans in the Sky (for the divided multi-gen colony ship), Wyndham's The Chrysalids (for the post-apocalyptic society) or even the "Miri" episode of the original Star Trek TV series (for the kids plague that kills you when you reach adulthood). As for Earthborn, I could only recommend it to younger readers who haven't read much science-fiction and who aren't very demanding about what they read in general. For anyone else, don't waste your time or your money.

Three hundred years ago, the Colony starship was launched to colonize the world of Tau Celi but when they arrived, there was no habitable world to colonize. Some of the passengers felt they should continue but those who wanted to return home took command of the ship. They land on what used to be Melbourne and plan to commit genocide on the genetically inferior humans that survived.

Welkin Quinn is one of the first groups of Skyborn sent out to reconnoiter the area and he falls in with a clan of Earthborn who want to unite the people into a cohesive group so they can do more than survive. Welkin learns that the Skyborn have fed him misinformation and throws in his lot with Sarah and her group. Enemies surround them from the Skyborn to the barely human ferals to the roaming gangs of jabbers who work with the Skyborn to destroy the Earthborn.

This is Paul Collin's first book published in the United States and it is easy to see why this Australian author is a hit back home. The story line is fast paced but does not skimp on character development. The hero learns that his ship's elders had an agenda to stay in power when they got to earth. He inserts himself into a group of Earthborn survivors that have a chance of uniting the various disease free factions on Earth if they can figure out a way of appropiating technology only available on the Colony. This is the first installment in what looks to be a great new series

Harriet Klausner

Earthborn is the story the desendents of those left behind when Colony, the giant mother ship went searching for a new place for mankind 300 years ago. It is a companion book to Skyborn....the story of those raised on the ship before it crashed back to Earth. The charactors and stories intertwine. I read Skyborn first. There are some nice elements of leadership, primate anthropology and civilization gone bad. The Australian setting was interesting. They are simple good reading...bedtime stuff.