Earthblood & Other Stories [Mass Market Paperback]

Again, as with others, echoes of this book stay with me. The child Roan growing up among aliens and Terran hybrids and struggling to hold his own. His joining, of all things, an interstellar circus, and then a crew of interstellar pirates. Searching for Terra, the homeworld, and what he finds there. And all along the way, making mistakes, hurting those who love him the most, and suffering bittersweet loss.

A great read, and one that will stay with you, too.

Unusually for a science fiction novel, it starts before the main character is born. The book is wildly colorful and bathed in blood from the very beginning, as Roan Cornay's future parents are attacked shortly after purchasing him as an embryo. After birth, Roan begins to learn of his unique heritage as a Terran, member of a race which once ruled the galaxy until they were challenged by the powerful Niss. The war between the Terrans and Niss ended, seemingly, in mutual destruction 5,000 years earlier, and now Terrans are rare in the galaxy.

Roan grows up in poverty among many races of aliens on a dirty, backwater world. Logical problems manifest themselves immediately, as the book begins to play on its theme of human superiority by showing us species with limited abilities, primarily lacking the capacity for creative thought and relying instead on pre-programmed instinct. Unfortunately, the point is carried to ludicrous extremes with a species called Gracyls (actually, the name for a species of crow) who, despite an ability to fly, cling to trees in blind panic when attacked by lumbering saurians. Laumer and Brown obviously gave little thought to the process of Darwinian evolution. On our world, even the stupidest flying insects fly away when attacked. In the Laumer and Brown universe, winged beings with written language and technology have failed to manage this instinctive response. So much for the science in this science fiction novel.

Rosel George Brown was a female writer who came late to the field of letters. Keith Laumer was a devotee of Raymond Chandler novels and aped his style. However, the melding of the two writers produced a hyper-macho tale with zero feminine edge. The style is brash and the plot soon decomes drowned in a sea of brutality.

When Roan is a teenager, he's kidnapped by a traveling space circus. This is probably the best extended sequence in the book. The beings are colorful and credit must be given to Laumer and Brown for doing good work on the backstories of various characters. The character of Iron Robert is especially compelling.

Laumer's affinity for the Chandleresque tough-guy style gives this book a meaner edge than any other sf adventure I've read, and in many ways a more believable one. The novel is driven by the passions of even relatively minor characters such as the angry Itch. This gives the book a certain gut-level realism that's refreshing in the often plot-oriented world of sf.

Roan Cornay proves to be a tremendous brawler. Unlike most other sf heroes, Roan is willing to go to any length, however vicious, to win a fight. He doesn't merely beat his opponents, he mangles, disfigures and cripples them. Indeed, he's something of a sociopath.

We can commend the bravery Laumer and Brown showed in creating such a flawed character. Roan, driven by the anger and violence within him, makes many mistakes and senselessly kills several people.

Roan is captured by space pirates who raid the circus. This eventually leads to a scene on the planet Aldo Cerise which, in my view, is the single most beautiful passage in the book. However, it also has its share of logic flaws.

As the book rushes towards its conclusion, the level of violence and illogical plot twists rises. Death loses its dramatic impact. Situations and plot twists become more contrived and unbelievable, and almost always result in someone (often many someones) being killed. The violence, the macho posturing and platitudes, become wearying. Also wearying is all the lunkhead tough-guy dialog.

This is unfortunate. While it's true that "Earthblood" is entirely lacking in speculative rigor and instead intensifies the shopworn elements of space opera, it's also true that the scope of this book exceeds that of any other space opera I've encountered. This novel could have been a masterpiece if handled with more restraint, if it had been allowed greater length so as to avoid the rushed feeling of its conclusion, and if the characterization had been more nuanced. It would have been better without silly 'love at first sight' disease. It would have been better if...

There are too many ifs. In the end this is a very flawed book. In many ways it's a fairly dumb novel, a comic-book novel. The final scene is practically imbecilic. From my own experience, I'd say it's a great novel to read when you're a teenager. It would also make a fantastic movie. Older readers will want to think twice about this one.

Finally, I wanted to rate this book two-and-a-half stars, but that wasn't available, so for the sake of sentiment I went with a higher rating.