Alien earth is one of the coolest SF books I have read in a while. It certainly has one of the coolest aliens ever. Evangeline is a Beastship. Beastships are capable of travelling through space and as such are used as spaceships by the Arthroplana. At first, Evangeline is more in the background, as we get to know the world. The Arthroplana see that humans are about to destroy their world and offer to bring them to a different planet where they must learn not to affect their environment. This part is certainly interesting, as it explores a different way of life and the effects this has on society. Good world and goodstory. But what makes the book truly cool is Evangeline. We get to know her on a mission to earth, long after it's been abandoned. Through one of the humans aboard, she starts to develop, and if she is cool to begin with, she ends being completely awesome. It's lovely to see how she has a really outlook on life from ours. Her development is very well described. At the same time, all the humans aboard her develop as well. One of the very old humans who is still relatively similar to us changes his life drastically. The younger humans who have become very unlike us rediscover earth and their origins. I'm tempted to call this a backdrop to the story, just because I like Evangeline so much, but to be truthful, the humans are a big part of the story too. This book really has a lot going for it. The new society humans have formed, the concept of the Beastships and Arthroplana, the rediscovery of Earth and humanity's roots, the blooming of an introverted person (well, two actually) and best of all, the amazing growth of Evangeline. I absolutely loved it.
It's always interesting to read Robin Hobb's work as Megan Lindholm. Alien Earth is especially interesting because I haven't read any other sci-fi by her, and this is an interesting way about approaching the issue of how we treat the earth. I tend to think about her work as Megan Lindholm related to how it contributed to her growth as a writer and the good things about the Farseers trilogy (or the bad -- in my opinion -- things about the Liveships trilogy). Compared to the Ki and Vandien quartet, the writing style in this book has definitely matured. Hobb is good with original ideas, even in Ki and Vandien, but the ideas for me are really the strong point of Alien Earth -- not the characters, so much, which I usually cite as Hobb's strength. I can't recognise any of the characters as being like ones she wrote later, really -- that could be down to experimenting with characters, but I didn't really find the characters in this book that memorable.In terms of the book on its own, if I didn't know the author's other work already... it's an interesting enough little sci-fi thing, perhaps not that different to everything else on the market already. It's definitely interesting to read a sci-fi fan and a fan of Robin Hobb, but... in both cases, there's better stuff around. It's certainly not "hard" SF, if that's what you're looking for.
What do You think about Alien Earth (2015)?
A thrilling piece of science fiction that follows the future of humans as they leave their desolate planet, "rescued" by an alien race, as one surviving human tries to return humans to their own home. A very good read, "Alien Earth" manages to create a powerful narrative about humans slowly losing their humanity at the hands of their alien saviors. Instead of using the idea of humans conquering another planet, or an alien race coming to Earth and fighting humans, Lindholm creates the epic story of humanity's escape from a failing Earth, their adaptation to another planet and new niches, and their eventual return to their original planet many years later, being changed in ways that may not allow new humans to return to their home. In her novel, Lindholm not only creates an alien race, she necessarily recreates humans as they evolve in ways to fit niches on their new planet of order, or as they learn to live in space. With marked ecological undertones, Lindholm successfully creates a commentary of our world today through using scenes of an alien world in a fictional future.
—Matthew
Earth is dying. Authoritarian greenies take control of the human race with the acquiescence of curious insect like creatures who want to both save and study it. Fast forward a thousand years or so. Will the inhabitants of the big sentient space beast Evangeline succeed or the ecofascists destroy us, untentionally of course? This is a big simplification. A story with a beginning, a middle and an end with a believable premise and lots of good characters. An absorbing read, well worth the $5.00 I spent in a second hand bookshop. I will look for other books by this author.
—Alan Norrie
Generations ago, an altruistic alien race, the Arthroplana, rescuedhumanity from the ecological disaster of earth, and resettled them ina new system, with dire warnings on the necessity of fitting in to thelocal ecology. Since then, this desire to "leave no mark" has becomean obsession - possibly to the extreme detriment of the human race.The result of generation of selective breeding has been a race of tinypeople who do not reach puberty until late middle age, who are indanger of soon not being able to naturally reproduce at all.But there is a radical element of humans that believe it has all beena big lie - that Earth is really fine, and that the powers-that-bedon't want people to know about it. They blackmail a man, John, tosign on to one of the alien Beastships to survey earth, and arrange to bring back data that hasn't been filtered.But on the way, an ancient stowaway makes contact with the Beastship, which, shockingly, is no dumb beast but yet another sentient species fallen under the dominion of the Arthroplana. Her awakening could change everything.An entertaining sci-fi book, but I did feel that in pointing out someof the ridiculousness of ecological concerns gone overboard, some of the message of the seriousness of those concerns, and the importance of balance, goes astray.
—Althea Ann
