Hope of Earth

I grew up a huge Piers Anthony fan, and I keep trying to remain one as an adult. I still do consider myself a fan, even though I'm always vastly disappointed when I read one of his books.

This is the 3rd book in the geodyssey saga. I've read all of them before, and this one is a reread. You can read the books in order or as a stand alone.

The premise sounds cool on paper - follow one family through history and see what happens. Anthony picks various events in history, explains a bit of back story and reveals his thoughts behind why he writes each chapter the way he does. The first half of the book I found quite enjoyable, but the latter half I was simply bored with. Not sure if it was because the characters were just not evolving, or show more because I was bored with the historical events he was talking about, or a combination of other things, but the second half simply dragged. I ended up skipping most of one chapter completely because I could not get interested in the story, at all.

So, what's good about the book? Well, it's an Anthony book and as I already explained, he's got a built in fan in me. I love history, and I enjoy what he's trying to do in this book. I like the fact that the characters all have flaws, though he places way too much emphasis on physical flaws and repeats that emphasis in each and every chapter. I like the fact that the book spans such a huge span of history - including the future (though it's way too Romeo & Juliet for me). I like the fact that it's part of a series.

But I just never get behind any of the characters, though I didn't dislike any of them, either. I think because there are six major characters in the book (all being a major character in a few individual chapters and being a minor character in others), plus husbands, wives, kids, and various enemies, there are just too many people to keep track of.

So all in all, I have mixed feelings about the book. I like it enough that I have to give it 3 stars, but I dislike it enough that I can't rate it any better.

I borrowed this book from my dad, who introduced me to Piers Anthony in the first place. show less

Great reading, another one to make me feel "cultured", with it's focus on making actual history come alive. I had always skipped over Anthony's books, remembering him as a witty light-fantasy author, & I got tired of his plays on words. But for this series he has done some real research & attempted to get it right, based on what we know (or anthropologists assume). I especially liked his chapters on early man, because of the speculation on how we evolved.
I did feel like some of the chapters read more like hot & heavy romance novels, & by the end of the book I was just rushing to finish. Or maybe the end wasn't as good as the beginning because he was also rushing to finish. Actually the last 2 chapters were intriguing, since they were show more dealing w/an imagined future, tho too much cramming in of environmental background facts.
I'm sure I'll be reading the others in the series--after a break, to make his writing fresh to me again.
2011 review show less

Rating - 3.5/5 stars.

Fans of Geodyssey in general should have no problem enjoying this book, at least parts of it. Like with the first two volumes of Geodyssey, this book features people being reincarnated over and over, their story happening multiple times across the ages.

I'll admit, I do have a bit of an issue with that. Reincarnation simply means a soul being reborn, it doesn't mean they experience the same kind of life over and over, right down to speficic circumstances/events (readers of Geodyssey will know exactly what I mean) and even giving birth to the same exact children multiple times.

Then again, I suppose, for the purpose of the Geodyssey series, these repeated circumstances give cohesion to the book, because it's basically show more like reading a 'normal' novel of one family - storyy-wise, no events are repeated, simply inferred to, so the story moves along as the main characters age, and it is only the time setting/location that actually changes.

The formula here is changed - in the previous 2 Geodyssey books, we mainly focused on a few characters and more time passed for the families (i.e. we see Ember as a child, then as a woman, then mother, then even grandmother) but in Hope of Earth the family unit is larger and focuses on siblings rather than parents/children, the time frame is tighter, so there's not a huge difference in ages of the family from the first chapter, to the final chapter. (I'd say less than 15 years?)

I already have the fourth book in this series and will start that soon. Definitely looking forward to it. show less

"Hope of Earth" is the third volume in Anthony's sweeping and exciting Geodyssey series, a powerful and passionate epic of human history in the tradition of Jean Auel and James Michener. In a stirring, captivating saga that ranges from our ancient beginnings in Africa's Great Rift Valley to the windswept Andes a century from now, "Hope of Earth" tells the inspiring story of a group of heroic men and women, bound by ties of passion, honor, and blood, who struggle to transcend our violent past to make a new and shining future. Through their eyes we meet some of history's most colorful figures - the mysterious "Ice Man" of the Swiss Alps, the decadent King Herod, the British Warrior Queen Boudica, the Mongol Chieftain Tamurlane, and King show more Louis XIV of France. And we meet again some of the most memorable characters from the two earlier volumes - Blaze and Ember, Hugh and Anne, and their remarkable descendants. But "Hope of Earth" is more than a gripping tale of tragedy and triumph. It is also Piers Anthony's heartfelt plea for us to change our ways - to break the cycle of violence, avarice, and despair that threatens our future, and transform it into a legacy of compassion and hope for our descendants. show less

A family chronicles the story of the human triumph and tragedy as its members are reborn again and again throughout Earth's history, from Africa's Great Rift Valley to the Andes a century from now.