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Summary: Deeper characters & fascinating relationships
Review: I'm not quite done with it yet, but love it! Card continues the intriguing story of the 1st 2 books in the series, but adds new elements that challenge you to consider new ideas and entertain you in new ways. I've especially enjoyed the rotating Point of View - it seems hard for authors to pull this off even with 2 or 3 different narrators, but Card is successful using many without confusing the reader as to who the Main Characters are. It's incredibly interesting to see how people view each other and themselves; how often they're wrong!; and how the relationships develop.
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Summary: The third installment is just as good as the second.
Review: If you're wondering, I loved the second; I also liked the first one. I love the character, Nephai, and his wife, Luet. If you're into complex characters and can really get involved with them, AND you read the first two books, SHIPS is as good as they get.
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Summary: an excellent book, a must read!
Review: left me craving for the next book
Rating: 
Summary: Book of Mormon Ripoff
Review: Orson Scott Card is Mormon, and if we didn't know it before, now we do--he based the entire plot of the Homecoming series on the Book of Mormon. It's so pathetic that I am speechless.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Book
Review: OSC makes a great transition taking the charachters to the ships of Earth. It really brings out Elemak and Nafai's charachters.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Book
Review: OSC makes a great transition taking the charachters to the ships of Earth. It really brings out Elemak and Nafai's charachters.
Rating: 
Summary: A sense of interest arises
Review: Overall I enjoyed this series. Card has created an interesting potential future and draws it out in detail. Often too much detail. The first novel in the series was plagued with an over abundance of trivial data that did not ultimately reflect on the story. The plot drowned in atmosphere and character development. In fact the first two novels in the series felt like one larger book that had been broken in two. The story would have been more cohesive as a single novel.
In ships of Earth the characters of the adults have been developed and some attention is paid to the children. Overall however, more time seems to be spent on advancing the plot than in the previous to volumes. If not that, then perhaps the plot was merely more interesting in this novel. This book was probably my favorite of the five in the series.
Many people complain or admire Card's use of religeous symbolism. I myself have not read the book of Mormon so I could not attest to those claims. If he steeped this story in theology he did it in such a way to make it palatable to a larger market. The only real argument I could see for this story having a theological orientation is its poor science. Card seems to have little understanding of some of the biological sciences especially genetics. Such a small group of individuals does not represent a viable gene pool to colonize a planet. Thoughts of the results of all of that inbreeding makes me shudder. It also seems highly unlikely that Humans could be on Harmony for forty million years without experiencing any changes. Perhaps the oversoul was providing a genetic bottleneck to prevent evolution.
If you like the first two novels by all means read this one. If you did not, then let this book pass by. I would recommend the series to any person who has not read it as any ideas that feel new in science fiction are a rarity.
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Summary: Review of The Ships of Earth
Review: Review of The Ships of Earth This novel is brought to you by the award winning author Orson Scott Card who wrote Enders Game.
The Ships of Earth wastes no time getting into the action right away. The start of the book is set in the desert with a group of people that have been chosen by a computer that protects the planet Harmony to go and recolonize earth. The first part of the book had me draw in and really paying attention and I loved it. Card wastes no time getting to any kind of action either within the first third of the book you can already see conflict between members of the group mostly the males. The conflicts in the group were most often over power of the group. One very intense sense is were Elmac the leader of the caravan tries to kill Nafai but Nafai escapes death and continues on traveling with the caravan. Even thought the first part of the book was great most of the second third of the book is very slow and boring and it is the time in the book were the caravan stops for a year to allow the women who are pregnant to have their babies and it also allows them to grows crops and hunt for meat. There is a second part in the book were the action gets a little slow but that is fine because the rest of the book is great. Once the group starts moving again the action picks back up. In one very heated scene a member of the caravan named Vas convinces two people Obring and Sevet in the caravan to run away to the city of Dalotch. What Obring and Sevet did not now was that Vas had secretly planned to kill them but Luet and Elmac both got visions from the oversoul about how Vas was going to kill them and they both went and stopped Vas at the very last minute just before was about to kill them. In fact in the end the when Nafai almost wait a minute I can't tell you the end that would give the book away and you wouldn't read it them I guess that you will just have to read the book to find out what happens. Card did a great job on this book in fact I don't know why it didn't win an award like Enders Game did. The book may seem like it can't be real but who cares it's not supposed to be real and all factual that would make it boring so two thumbs up to Card for such a great novel. The only bad part about reading this book is that know I will have to read the first two novels before this one to get a full grip on what is going on but that isn't so bad.
Rating:
Summary: Strong continuation of Homecoming.
Review: Ships of Earth is a worthy continuation of the Homecoming story. The themematic and character elements remain strong. However, the plot--the characters' journey through the desert and family conflict--is a bit slower than the previous two books.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent as a religious story; decent as a work of fiction
Review: Taken in the context as a retelling of a religious story (from the book of Mormon, I believe), this and the first two books are fairly good. Some of the characters are clearly sympathetic, others not, and because it is a religious story, it is the "good", sympathetic characters who have the most faith, while the "bad" ones who lack it. Fortunatly, the "good" characters have their weaknesses and flaws, and the "bad" ones have redeeming characteristics, so it's not painfully moralistic. If it is not viewed as a retelling of a religious story, there are some elements that readers might find uncomfortable from our cultural context - for example, there are two thirteen-year-olds who are married, and soon expecting a baby. And again, because it is a religious story, many people might be upset by Card presenting his "solution" to homosexuality; while he seems compassionate, this part of the story underscores his somewhat arrogant and ultimatly hurtful attitudes towards homosexuals. The descriptive writing is top-notch, and his portrayal of the dynamics of an isolated group of people rings fairly true. If you enjoy reading religious story retellings or about small groups surviving in harsh climates, this would be well worth your time.
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