Earth is Ours

I love a good science fiction story, but most of the time it seems that they are written with the male audience in mind. "Earth Is Ours" is an exception. Mr. Babb has done a superb job writing a book that will appeal to both male and female! It is full of alien monsters, survival, battles and lots of suspense to appeal to the male, while at the same time, there are friendships and relationships that will appeal to the female. He has created characters with depth and personalities that are believable, lovable and sometimes downright playful, making them very realistic.

The two main characters, Levi and Amy, are an interesting "pair". Levi is an 80 year old Native American who wants revenge. Amy is a computer who has become self-aware. She show more finds a way to connect with a human, who happens to be Levi, and gives him the abilities to repay the aliens that have inhabited the earth. During this time, Amy and Levi become very fond of each other, and then fall in love. That love can never be real, as she is only a computer essence, and he is flesh and blood, or can it? The book is written from both Levi and Amy's point of view, and masterfully done, I might add.

The story also contains some sexual content, although not overly done, nor too graphic. In this story, it enhances the believability of Amy and Levi's relationship and how they both handle Amy being and essence instead of a "real woman". Because of the content, I would recommend this book for older teens and adults.

"Earth Is Ours" is an excellent read full of action, suspense, friendships and relationships where the most unlikely join together to work towards the common good. I had a hard time putting this one down, and look forward to reading book two of the four book series. show less

The Earth is Ours is the first book in Gary Babb's post-apocalyptic trilogy. My copy was a first run and Gary said that the second edition was cleaned up quite a bit, so make sure you get a second edition.

Levi is an Native American Octogenarian wandering the American Southwest 50 years after an Alien invasion that left the planet's technology at the level of hunter gatherers. The Aliens are large (7'-9' tall) bipeds that have a passing resemblance to Apes and have been nicknamed Simians. They also have a preferred taste for humans second only to horses. After a long and hard life and the loss of 2 mates and a child Levi is preparing himself for death. When he makes contact with a 'spirit' (telepathically) and begins a quest for the show more voice with the promise of revenge on the Simians for all their heinous sins.

I really enjoyed reading Earth is Ours and have the second book on my wish list already. Now is this a great piece of 'literature'? I don't think so, I think it fits more into trashy sci-fi. The science isn't very hard, but everything is 'explained' well enough to keep the story going. The big thing that irritated me was the relationship between the main characters. It was important and needed to be kept in the foreground, but I felt like I was being hit over the head with it all the time. The other big thing others might find fault with is the two main protagonists combined are very 'Mary Sueish', but not overly so. Overall, a fun fast easy read, a good book to relax with. show less

I wasn't quite so sure I'd like this book when I first picked it up. I quickly flipped through it and saw that it seemed to alternate between two people's impressions...how each of them told the story. And that is exactly what the book was, with an occasional third character interjecting their thoughts. It may have been my initial judgment on that that colored my perceptions as I tried to read through the story, and it was slow going at first. I picked the book up many times and tried reading it, only to put it back down again. I'm glad that I kept trying to read it though, because as it got going, it was a very interesting and compelling story that I thoroughly enjoyed.

That being said, I will say that I'm not so sure about the science show more involved in the book--a weapon that can change the very laws of physics--and do those laws only change on planet Earth? Or the changes that the main character undergoes are a bit far fetched as well. I know that it's science fiction, and I can accept a sentient computer and aliens and the fact that in the future, we may not have the technology we do today. In essence, the world was changed at the whims of the author to enable him to tell the story, and things kept changing to keep the story going. If you can get past those things, I think you'll enjoy the book (and since I'm not a scientist, maybe these things are that far fetched at all, just my narrow view of the world).

Since one of the main two characters is a computer, that sort of limits the types of interactions she can have with people, and the actions that she can perform. In one aspect, you may think the author painted himself in a corner with that choice, but one that he makes realistic. However, with limited action, the story does focus on more thought-related devices and less action-type, though a war with an invading species provides for enough action to make that less of a concern. One draw back, though, is that it is drawn out longer than the story probably needs to be. Another drawback is that with the two main characters, you sometimes read about the same event twice, each from the other character's perspective, or similar thoughts between the two characters.

All in all, this is a book I would recommend to someone looking to read a book that is perhaps a little bit different from other sci-fi related books. show less

The book is part of a trilogy, and this is book no. 1. It took me a while to read the book, the language was very lyrical/sensitive, quasi-poetical at times (when it is Amy), but I found that I couldn't get into the story, because I felt that the narrative was not fluid, since it goes from Levi's inner narrative to Amy's consciousness, with general plot/narrative interludes. What's more, the format of the whole text did not make for an easy reading, as I am used to reading in a 'justified' format (i.e. the whole line should be taken by the text, rather than being aligned on the left). In any case, the idea behind the merging of man and machine reminded me of the 'Alien' artist, Giger, who drew a set of tarot cards with morphed show more men/machines beings (although I perceived ASONE as being less dark than Giger's beings). Maybe Babb could have gone further with this, going beyond Man as a man and the machine as Woman. I do not know what happens next, because I haven't read the other two books. show less

First, let me say that I enjoyed this book. The characters and the storyline were interesting, if not as complex as some. There were some good ideas, and overall it was entertaining.

Second, let me say that Gary needs to seek professional help - with his proofreading. There were numerous errors throughout the manuscript, ranging from the wrong "then/than" and other incorrect word substitutions (disburse for disperse, anachronism for acronym, to name the worst two) to issues of tense and person (particularly in what was apparently supposed to be spoken dialogue). It read like a draft, not a finalized manuscript, which made it difficult to read, at least for me.

*** SPOILER ALERT ***

One plot point that I have a major problem with is the show more alien males' rape to death of human females. He never established why this occurred, but it occurred with some frequency. I assume this was to emphasize how horrible these aliens were, but it struck a false note with me, and didn't accomplish his (assumed) intention. show less