Earthweb

I'm old enough to remember life before internet and the World Wide Web. I think the first time I accessed the internet was when I went back to school in 1993. I know I didn't have a personal computer that could access the internet until 1998 or 1999. This book was written in 1999 when many of us could hardly understand what a World Wide Web could do. But, obviously, Marc Stiegler could.

Extraterrestrials have been attacking Earth every 5 years without being able to completely annihilate it although they did destroy a number of large cities. Their ships, dubbed SHIIVA I, SHIVA II, SHIVA III etc., can only be destroyed by a small force of humans getting inside them. These forces are called Angel. So far, even the Angel troops that have show more managed to destroy the SHIVA ships, have all been killed. That's a tremendous burden for the man who trains and advises them, Morgan MacBride. Now he is about to send another force onto SHIVA VI but this group is different. The Angel Leader is CJ Kinsman and she is a female. Somehow, CJ has made MacBride fall in love with her but he still has to send her into danger. Millions of people connected to the web are ready to help the small group by posting predictions about what they will encounter. Good predictions earn the people making them fortunes but, more importantly, they will ensure SHIVA VI is destroyed. Is it possible that they can also find a way for CJ to survive? It's a nail-biter.

Despite being a quarter of a century old, this book has held up pretty well. In fact, I read a newspaper article recently that postulated just this kind of prediction software helping to solve large problems. People who write science fiction can't see into the future but sometimes it seems like they can. show less

It's an interesting world, with some really weird aspects. I actually find the new internet less odd than the careful ramping up of the Shivas - I kept expecting someone (human or alien) to stand up and say, OK, we've trained you to handle problems as one united people, now apply it to things other than alien spacecraft. The Dealer was neat - I liked the way he discovered playing it straight is better on multiple levels. The Predictor was less so - a little too controlling (though always with good reason). And the romances ranged from distracting to nonsensical - worse than usual, for me. The brief scene with the biker gang resonated more with me and with the story. Reggie could have been the frame for the whole thing, and he did play a show more part in bringing us to various of the characters, but not all - that was nicely done, realistically chaotic (and again, the Dealer linked to Reggie less directly but more deeply). A fun book, wish there was a sequel, and I'll be looking for more by this author. show less

I thought this was an interesting and enjoyable book, although it fell short in a few areas for me. The story is set on Earth, in the future. Every five years, an alien race sends a ship to Earth to attack the planet. Each time this happens, a small team of people intercept the ship, board it, and attempt to destroy it in order to save Earth. The story is set during the final month before the fifth such event. There are several point-of-view characters ranging from those directly involved in the defense of Earth to those who have a less direct but equally important impact on events.

The story was pretty straight-forward. There were no real twists and turns and I found events to be generally predictable. The story itself, however, was show more interesting and so were several of the characters. But there were a lot of characters in proportion to the rather short length of the book, so there wasn’t as much page time as I would have liked to allow me to get to know all of the characters better. There were also a couple of romance side-stories in the book which I found to be jarring. In one case, it was between two characters who had very little “page time”. I had no investment in their relationship, so I felt like it detracted from the story rather than added to it. In the other case the romance was more important to the story, but I had trouble buying into it. At least, it needed more build-up to make it believable for me. I also think the story would have worked just as well with a strong but non-romantic relationship.

The ending was reasonably good, if predictable. We were given a decent wrap-up for each character, with an idea of what the future held for them. I wasn’t entirely happy with how everything turned out, but it was far better than having an abrupt ending with open questions and no closure. The one thing I really wanted to know, which was never covered in the book, was more information about the attacking aliens and their motivation. I suppose it wasn’t really the point of the story, and it probably wouldn’t have fit in very well without drastically changing the length and structure of the book, but I did find myself pretty curious. Although the book tells a complete story, my first reaction upon finishing it was to double check that it really didn’t have a sequel. There was definitely room for continuation of the story had the author chosen to do so. I liked the book well enough that I probably would have read it. show less

It wasn't a bad read but it hasn't lingered in my brain.

The most interesting parts of this book are the most ignored in the writing, which is a shame.

ZB5