Rating: 
Summary: wait a minute....
Review: I picked up this book with enthusiasm as I found it soon after
reading Ender's Game. I found it somewhat disappointing, sadly.
It just didn't engage the reader like Ender's Game did. It also
seemed mildly familiar.. as did the names. Then it occurred to
me that this wasn't Card's story really.. it was a sci-fi'd
version of parts of the Book of Morman! Names were lifted, etc.
(I'd read parts of the Book of Morman while being 'recruited'
at one point by this cute Morman lass.. but that's another story!)
Anyway, while the story is somewhat interesting, I was
disappointed by the fact that it seemed that Card probably spent
a lot of his time and energy trying to make a good story from
a weak one. It doesn't quite come off.
Rating: 
Summary: Overtones of the Oversoul
Review: This is the first OSC book that I ever read. I was hooked and waited as each successive volume came out. I happened to be living in another country at the time, helping to start a church and was struck by the continual allusions to God in the series. I applaud Card for being able to mold such vast and unwieldy ideas into a coherent and interesting story.Although I'm not mormon, or of the LDS persuasion, the parallels with the Book of Mormon are easy to see but do not in anyway affect the experience of the book, either for good or bad, in my opinion. Read the book, you'll like it.
Rating:
Summary: Fusion of fantasy and sci-fi...Good, not great...
Review: This series is good, not great. Definitely Card's B-material here. I'd recommend reading the Ender novels first, then Seventh Son and the Alvin Maker novels, with this last, even after some of his other novels. This series is based on an interesting idea -- that all of humanity has been relocated to the Planet Harmony -- with a computer overseeing human society for 40 million years. But the computer is breaking down, so she sends a small band back to Earth to recolonize it. Anyway, as with all Card novels, the characters are the fun part, and Nafai is yet another incarnation of the Ender character, only he's somewhat of a pale imitation, IMHO. These novels have more of a soap-opera-like, pulpy feel to them than your typical Card novels.
Rating: 
Summary: Mormonism with a delightful twist
Review: And I used to turn the missionaries away! I found this book delightfully funny and page turningly entertaining. Nope, it's not Ender's Game. Ender is not even remotely related. If you find this shocking and disconcerting, I suggest you white out Orson Scott Card and write in a name of your choosing. Perhaps then you will enjoy this book.
Rating:
Summary: A highly unique and thought provoking series
Review: First of all, in order to understand the merits of this book, you have to read the whole series as well. Sure, by itself it might seem boring and that nothing happens, but a lot of this book was just setting up for the rest of the series, so a lot of it is hard to "get" until you read the others. I personally loved this book, and found it fascinating, not at all your typical sci-fi book. Anyway, it takes place about forty million years in the future, when we, as humans have exhiled ourselves to the planet Harmony until we feel worthy to return to Earth. To make sure that we can never again build the mass weapons of destruction we put this giant computer (the Oversoul) in orbit around the planet to control the minds of people to a certain degree. Anyway by the time this story takes place, the people barely even remmember legends about Earth, and to them the Oversoul has become a kind of god. However, the Oversoul knows it's getting old and can't protect the people much longer, so it decides to start making the preperations to return to Earth, though it knows the people aren't ready yet. The main part of the story is basically about a fairly ordinary fourteen year old boy called Nafai, who, like most people in his age group, is somewhat confused by just about everything. Like I said, in order to really understand this instalment, you have to read the others, and I urge you to have patience and do so, because believe me, it's worth it! One thing that did bother me, was while even though this was a female dominated society, most of the men are still sexist jerks who look down on women and treat them like toys! Is this fair? What it is basically saying is that in a male dominated society women can be weak and silly and fade into the background like they're "supposed to", but in a female dominated society, men can still be strong! Grrrr Anyway, besides that it was a good book that I greatly enjoyed.
Rating: 
Summary: Mediocre Card
Review: As author of such excellent books as Ender's game and Speaker for the Dead, Orson Scott Card has made his mark in the often-dubious world of science fiction. With The Memory of Earth, Card has succeeded in imagining a world and a plot that is creative and striking in its originality. What he tries to make up for in creativity, however, he lacks in writing style, development and diction. I have only read this book, the first of the five novels in the series, but it has done little to urge me to continue. That does not mean I don't like Card's ideas; they are quite refreshing as he attempts to write a truly spiritual science fiction book. Yet the concept of the Oversoul soon wore on me...and once I reached the end of The Memory of Earth, I was surprised, because in almost 300 pages, very little seemed to have happened. For some books, this means that the author has taken his or her time to develop the plot; not in this case. A part of me feels I am being hard on Card; if I could give an extra half-star star, I would, but the fact is that I have to measure up Card against his own writing. And this book (I cannot speak yet of the series) just does not quite make the grade.
Rating:
Summary: Card does it again
Review: I am a big fan of all of Card's books. This is another one of his spectacular works which portrays his wonderful way with characters and emotions. It is a MUST READ. It brings Sci-Fi, Fantasy and Fiction together in a suspence filled paradisce.
Rating: 
Summary: Worst Card Book I've Read
Review: This is, by far, Card's least interesting book of the ones I've read, which include the Ender series, the Worthing Saga, and a few of his other novels. What really turned me off was that, throughout the book, it was blatantly obvious that the book had been conceived and written to serve solely as the introduction to a long series. The fact that the author had put so much thought into the world of the story, as evidenced by the maps and notes at the beginning, was promising, but it soon became apparent that most of the information given there was not going to be explored in the plot of the novel. The storyline isn't particularly interesting or creative in most points, and when I finished the book, I was left with the distinct impression of having burned through it very quickly with very little in the way of plot resolution. The writing is also far below Card's norm- in places, he uses the same unusual word multiple times within a paragraph- and the characters are rather flat and not at all compelling. I find nothing in the novel to make it worth reading.
Rating:
Summary: A Good Begining to a Great series
Review: Having just finished the entire Homecoming series, I can honestly say that it was the 2nd best (Tolkien will always be first) fantasy series I have ever read, and this book is a good start. I actually got to the final chapter and didn't want to finish it beacuse I didn't want it to be over with. The series gets better volume after volume and builds upon each earlier piece, sometimes in ways that you don't even notice until later. Some seemingly insignificant events at one point seem to become critical later on. I think that I'll be reading a great deal more of Mr. Card's work as soon as I get over this one being finished. Don't be fooled by the 4 star rating: if possible I would give this book 5 stars, and add 1 for each following volume.
Rating:
Summary: - Be warned -
Review: This is a great book, and the series is very good. If you read the first you will most likely go on to read the rest of the series. So be warned, this series ends up being very religious. So people who do not like to be preached at may want to stay away. Also, i found myself making parrallels with religous history that i found rather offensive. This applies only to the last book, but since this is the first you might as well know what you are getting into.
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