Earthbound

This is the third book in the Marsbound series. The Others have just turned off all electronics on Earth, and now we need to survive. One problem with this book is that it jumps straight into the action -- I had to go back and re-read Marsbound and Starbound in order to understand what was happening in this book. That was ok because those two books are excellent, and I enjoyed re-reading them. In fact, those two are probably a little better than this one.

Overall Earthbound is pretty dark, and there isn't a lot of hope presented -- its just a series of scenes where the main characters attempt to deal with an all powerful adversary. Perhaps if the Others weren't so powerful this would be a better book, because you just know that everyone is doomed. I also respect authors who are willing to kill off lead characters, but that happens a lot in this book, which sort of bothered me. Perhaps that's what combat is really like though -- people you have an attachment to just stop being there. There's no warning or explanation.

The end of this book isn't very satisfying. There better be a sequel or I'm going to be annoyed.

http://www.stillhq.com/book/Joe_Haldeman/Earthbound.html ( )

I found this really boring and struggled to finish reading it. I didn't feel any connection with any of the characters and it feels like the narrator didn't either. It neatly ties up the story started in Marsbound and it does so in Joe Haldeman's usually abrupt style and that's all I can really say about it.
I would only recommend this for people who have read Marsbound and Earthbound and want to know how the story ends. Don't bother reading it if you haven't read the others as you will have no idea who the characters are and why you are suppose to care because I've read those two books and by the end of this, I didn't care what happened to the people. ( )

With Earthbound (a Marsbound Novel), Joe Haldeman, the Hugo and Nebula award-winning author, wraps up his fascinating three-book story that began with Marsbound and continued with Starbound. Carmen Dula, who voyaged to Mars with her family in Marsbound and discovered Martians is the main character, and first person narrator, of Earthbound. She and her husband, whom she met on Mars, are back on Earth after they had voyaged to a distant star system in Starbound to try to negotiate a truce with a strange and powerful race known as “The Others” who’s anger toward the human race in Marsbound had some very serious consequences on Earth. Namir a soldier and some others, including one Martian, who also made the trip to negotiate with “The Others” are back on Earth with Carmen, in this novel. Unfortunately, the negotiations did not go well and the people of Earth had angered “The Others” by building a fleet of warships to try to protect Earth from the aliens. “The Others” punish the population of Earth severely and Earthbound enables the reader to see the tragic consequences of angering “The Others”. The wrath of “The Others” creates global chaos and extreme hardship on Earth. Carmen and her group of space diplomats are caught in the violence created by frightened and desperate people trying to cope with the conditions imposed by “The Others”. It is a grim but interesting book that provides some closure for many of the characters, although not a desirable closure for some of them. Haldeman also displays his ability to depict the brutality and desperation of people fighting for their lives, which he has done very adeptly since he published The Forever War (1974). I am a big fan of Joe Haldeman’s work, and I have read (and own) 24 of his novels. In my opinion, Earthbound did not provide a very satisfactory resolution of the three-book story. It wasn’t a bad read, but it wasn’t consistent with the author’s usual standards. However, it is an interesting read and I certainly recommend this book to everyone who enjoyed Marsbound and Starbound. ( )