The Ships of Earth

The conflict between the two groups of people - those who chose exile and those who had it thrust upon them - is interesting. Every time things get difficult, the fires of hatred erupt from smoldering embers. Makes me think about similar situations I might be in. Instead of letting those emotions smolder, how do you just put out the flames all together? Is it possible?

With the continuing failure of the Oversoul, the artificially intelligent guardian computer of the planet Harmony, the human colonists have begun to repeat the devastations of war and conquest wrought on Earth.
To repair itself and avert disaster, the Oversoul has called a group of 16 refugees from the fallen city of Basilica to a hidden, abandoned spaceport where the ancient starships lie. Now Wetchik, Nafai, and all their family must brave the desert wastes and cross the wide continents, guided by the voice of the Oversoul, to await the command to prepare the great interstellar ships for flight again. But among this group, not all have chosen their exile, and the angry resentment of those who were forced to join will make the difficult show more journey harder. show less

The family of Volemak and Rasa have come to rest in a fertile valley and are raising their children in relative peace and comfort. Unfortunately, the Oversoul still plans to bring them back to earth. Elemak still resents his brother Nafai, who is about to get a lot more powerful, once the ships are found and brought back to working order.
The plot advances and the younger generation is full of interesting characters. Though this could work well as a "bridge" book, it does a good job of keeping tension and suspense. Just when you think Elemak might not turn out to be such a bad guy, he goes and does something evil again.

Having acquired the Index to the Oversoul and their wives, Volemak and his family begin their long journey to home of the Oversoul. And a long journey it is, with regular extended stops to accommodate pregnancies and births and the need to restock and refuel. Eventually, however, the party reaches their version of Eden where some of the old hurts can rest. But Nafai senses that something is wrong. The Oversoul is delaying too long. The group is ready to go, but the Oversoul either cannot or will not lead them to the Ships that will take them to Earth. So Nafai takes it upon himself to find the ships and kick group into the next phase of the journey.

As much as I appreciate seeing Nafai grow into the role of the leader, I don't believe show more that his reluctance is believable. He claims that all he wants in Ellemak's love and respect, but someone as perceptive as he is shown to be must, at some point, come to the realization that what he wants will not come. But he continues to subject himself to punishment and torture in the hopes that Ellemak will eventually stop hating him. And for his part, Ellemak seems to be smart enough to realize that he is well down the path of personifying pure evil. I cannot envision a person so consumed with a desire for power that he would allow himself to be corrupted by his own hatred. At some point, he's got to give it up and reconcile.

The one thing, though, that really caught my imagination was the recognition of the amount of time that it took for the Oversoul to breed the 16 people that started the journey. The entire population of the Harmony was evaluated and those that exhibited the desired traits were brought together by the Oversoul for the purpose of creating these 16. How long would that have taken? Thousands of years? Was the city of Basilica created as the creche for the Oversoul's breeding program? Was the culture of Basilica (year long marriages, female dominated society, center of arts and learning) constructed purely to facilitate this breeding program? What about the 'Holy Women'? Were *ALL* of them brought to Basilica the way Thirsty was; simply to take part in this very unnatural selection? Very interesting questions...

And, oh by the way... While I understand the need for the Starmaster's Cloak given Ellemak's escalation of violence, it still seems like a cop out... show less

OSC rocks the character world, but the seemingly never-ending travel was a bit too much for me. I understand that it was the middle of a series, and he needed to solidify the paths of the character development, but there wasn't enough of a mix for me in this.

However, the concept of a computer/God/human relationship trinity is enough to keep me going.

It's a bit rare for me to feel only "eh" about a OSC book. I didn't hate it. I didn't love it. I'm glad I'm reading the series, but I wonder how necessary it was for this to be a full book.

I still enjoy the series, but once again there were moments in this book that felt weird to me because it is a scripture story that I grew up with. Most of the time I don't think about the correlation between the two, but there were moments where I felt it was being flung in my face.

I guess I should explain that I love the scripture story so I'm not sure that I am comfortable with the tweaks and changes that make it good science fiction. Does that make sense. For example, when I read the scriptures I don't sit and think about who was sleeping with who and whether or not it was good.

Still a good story though.

I still enjoy the series, but once again there were moments in this book that felt weird to me because it is a scripture story that I grew up with. Most of the time I don't think about the correlation between the two, but there were moments where I felt it was being flung in my face.

I guess I should explain that I love the scripture story so I'm not sure that I am comfortable with the tweaks and changes that make it good science fiction. Does that make sense. For example, when I read the scriptures I don't sit and think about who was sleeping with who and whether or not it was good.

Still a good story though.