Earth (Hardcover)

The characters in the book are realistic enough, but in some cases entirely too sane and well adjusted to be interesting. The three most interesting characters are a trio of teenagers who only appear in short blurbs in between major sections, while the ostensibly main characters have predictable, reasonable, plausible emotional reactions to the craziness going on around them.

The reach of the story is impressive, but it relies on several gimmicks for resolution that leave one feeling a little disappointed. Although this book was obviously meant to have several parallel storylines all but one of them is somewhat neglected. When one of these side stories turns out to be key in the resolution of the book the reader can be forgiven for wondering why it wasn't given more focus, or at least a more convincing lead-up and explanation.

Despite all this, David Brin is a very talented author, and this book is an enjoyable read. Coming from anyone other than the author of the Uplift books I would have expected less and been more pleased. If you've never read a book by Brin before start out with Startide Rising or The Uplift War first.

It's not that David Brin's goals are indecent. They're quite noble. And I think that's the downfall. I can imagine Brin tapping away with lofty expectations, expecting his novel to be a catalyst. Every sentence preaches.

Brin uses a lot of "guess what I'm writing about" hat tricks. He sprinkles his novel with a heavy hand. It can be a really entertaining style, but less is better. Obscure cultural and science references abound, based I suppose on modern day extrapolations, but tweaked enough to make the windup painful, fleeting enough to make it vanish once the setting is accepted. Easy come easy go.

Each day was a new short story when Earth was being written. I get that feeling reading it. The result is a mess of ramblings meandering all over the place, each its own work of intense art but not one a shelter from the intense preaching.