Earthblood

I've always been a fan of Keith Laumer but I'm not familiar with the co-author, Rosel George Brown. There are a couple of novels written by her.

This book is from the classic SF period of the 1960s. It's a well done space opera that slowly pulled me in as it progressed. I was bored at the beginning but I had no trouble finishing it. I really expected to give this book the usual 3 stars as "decent SF story but nothing special". By the time I finished it I had to add a star for "above average".

I will continue to seek Laumer books and I will have to try a couple by R. G. Brown

The Nill have destroyed the Terran Empire 5000 years ago and the current galaxy is filled with hybrids of humans and other aliens. A full blood human embryo is illegally purchased and raised as a low plebeian and finally searches for his inheritance through the galaxy until he ultimately returns to Earth and learns that the Terran-Nill war ended a long time ago. I've always been a sucker for the "human vs the universe" theme....and this isn't bad--as they go. It's one of the better examples of the treatment of the low-life types (of whatever race) as not being altogether stupid. And it would certainly qualify as a pretty good 4.5* YA novel. But it's dragged down by its simplicity of the bad guys becoming the good guys and the good guys show more becoming the bad guys. show less

The Nill have destroyed the Terran Empire 5000 years ago and the current galaxy is filled with hybrids of humans with other aliens. A full blood human embryo is illegally purchased and raised as a low plebeian and finally searches for his inheritance through the galaxy until he ultimately returns to Earth and learns that the Terran-Nill war ended a long time ago. I've always been a sucker for the "human vs the universe" theme....and this isn't bad--as they go. It's one of the better examples of the treatment of the low-life types (of whatever race) as not being altogether stupid. And it would certainly qualify as a pretty good 4.5* YA novel. But it's dragged down by its simplicity of the bad guys becoming the good guys and the good guys show more becoming the bad guys. show less

I bought this hoping for more of Rosel George Brown's sparky "Sibyl Sue Blue" style, but it turned out to be just another dull hero's journey, with a dim male protagonist who has an undeserved sense of racial superiority and a propensity for violence when he doesn't get his way. There are lots of weird aliens, but no world-building to give them context. DNF about half-way through.

If I had read this book at 13, I'd probably have a much more positive opinion of it. Not that I think it was a bad book, but it had some flaws. The protagonist Roan is an intriguing fish-out-of-water character, but I felt that his personality seemed to change unreasonably towards the end of the book. I'm not sure where it happened, but somewhere in the story, he began acting like an asshole... It was like someone flipped a switch.

The ending was very good though. Overall, this was a satisfying read, but I think the idea could have been executed so much better.

Typical fast Laumer romp, a little darker than usual, but somehow this time it comes across thin and flat. Not his best work by a wide margin.

This probably doesn't deserve 4 stars, but at least 3. It was one of my favorite books as a teenager. I liked the whole Campbellian theme behind it, at the time. I still like the book & read it every few years, but the 'earthmen are the best' idea doesn't quite ring as true. Still, if you like heroic space fantasy, this is for you. It's one of the best ever written.