Saturday, December 17, 2011
Homeward Bound
by Harry Turtledove
This last book of the Tosev timeline series is quite a disappointment. The timeline starts with an alien invasion of Earth in 1942. Known as the Race, these aliens plan to easily subdue the planet and it's native inhabitants. What they didn't anticipate is that human technology and society progresses (or at least changes) at a lot faster rate than theirs. So the attempted subjugation is anything but easy. Anyway, fast forward to the 1990s. Human technology has "borrowed" a bit from the invaders and the United States sends off their own starship, the Admiral Peary, to visit the homeworld of the race. What follows os a relatively dull tale. After seven volumes of life threatening conflict and intrigue, Mr. Turtledove finishes with a story of diplomacy and sightseeing. The whole book seems awkward, almost as if he (or his publisher) decided to cut the saga off short and jump to the final resolution. Or maybe he was giving his best efforts to his Settling Accounts series, which was also being published at the time. (Of course, I must confess that I was also reading under a handicap, having read a synopsis of Homeward Bound beforehand. Knowing the big plot development tends to diminish the suspense. But if you do want to know the ending of the series, I suppose reading the book itself is more enjoyable than skimming the Wikipedia entry.
Only waiting room material. (Emphatic cough)
LibraryThing link
This last book of the Tosev timeline series is quite a disappointment. The timeline starts with an alien invasion of Earth in 1942. Known as the Race, these aliens plan to easily subdue the planet and it's native inhabitants. What they didn't anticipate is that human technology and society progresses (or at least changes) at a lot faster rate than theirs. So the attempted subjugation is anything but easy. Anyway, fast forward to the 1990s. Human technology has "borrowed" a bit from the invaders and the United States sends off their own starship, the Admiral Peary, to visit the homeworld of the race. What follows os a relatively dull tale. After seven volumes of life threatening conflict and intrigue, Mr. Turtledove finishes with a story of diplomacy and sightseeing. The whole book seems awkward, almost as if he (or his publisher) decided to cut the saga off short and jump to the final resolution. Or maybe he was giving his best efforts to his Settling Accounts series, which was also being published at the time. (Of course, I must confess that I was also reading under a handicap, having read a synopsis of Homeward Bound beforehand. Knowing the big plot development tends to diminish the suspense. But if you do want to know the ending of the series, I suppose reading the book itself is more enjoyable than skimming the Wikipedia entry.
Only waiting room material. (Emphatic cough)
LibraryThing link
Labels: HarryTurtledove, TosevTimeline, WaitingRoomMaterial
// posted by John @ 9:58 AM 
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