Heirs of Earth

Rating:
Summary: An Unsatisifying Ending
Review: When an author uses phrases like "unspeakably evil" or "more then you can imagine" or "beyond your comprehension", they are failing to express any content. That is the problem with this book, the last of the series. After reading the book, you are left with an ending that concludes nothing. The characters are interesting, the plot complex, and the action well written. All of this makes it terribly disappointing the the conclusion never really occurs. The author's painted themselves into a corner that they couldn't think themselves out of and it shows.

Rating:
Summary: Painfully Disappointing Conclusion
Review: When I wrote my review of "Orphans of Earth" (a great, if slightly flawed, read), I finished it up by stating: "Finally, I thought the pair has always been a bit weak on endings (and the conclusion of EVERGENCE provided clear evidence for that) which makes me fear how they wrap up this trilogy."

I wish I played the lottery with such a sure hand.

"Heirs of Earth" is terribly, terribly flawed, in so many aspects that 10,000 words would not be enough to list them all. Let's put aside the multitude of spelling and grammatical mistakes that already plagued the second book, but really 'shine' in the third; let's ignore that our heroes learn something important in one chapter, and promptly (and completely) forget about it for the rest of the story, leaving a plot hole that an eighteen-wheeler could drive through sideway; let's forget the out-of-character behaviours, the uneven rhythm, the tossing aside of quite a few scientific principles that were portrayed so deliciously real in the first two volumes... let's just focus on the conclusion.

As a writer, you can only achieve two objectives with your work: communicate an important, unique, insightful message (and create art) - or tell a gripping, exciting story (and create entertainment). At best, you get both.

At worst, you get "Heirs of Earth". Its message is neither particularly unique nor especially profound, but then, it is genre literature, so you do not necessarily expect art. But its conclusion turns the entire trilogy into an utterly pointless, meaningless, disappointing exercise in English. We do not get a resolution (merely an ending), we do not get a satisfactory explanation, and we do not even get a sense of fundamental, self-questioning wonder. What we get is an intentionally obfuscating exercise in writing technique - very skilled, to be sure - that is desperately trying to mask an emptiness, a lack of ideas and interest, and a final stroke of 'cleverness' that is so vacuous and lacking internal logic that one cannot help but feel their trust violated.

Mr. Williams and Mr. Dix are clearly very talented, very skilled authors. Regrettably, every one of their trilogies I have ever read were born in a spectacularly Big Bang - and died in a pitiful whimper - much like the Universe they write about, but without its grandeur. Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me. I am not certain I will trust them a third time.

Rating:
Summary: Painfully Disappointing Conclusion
Review: When I wrote my review of "Orphans of Earth" (a great, if slightly flawed, read), I finished it up by stating: "Finally, I thought the pair has always been a bit weak on endings (and the conclusion of EVERGENCE provided clear evidence for that) which makes me fear how they wrap up this trilogy."

I wish I played the lottery with such a sure hand.

"Heirs of Earth" is terribly, terribly flawed, in so many aspects that 10,000 words would not be enough to list them all. Let's put aside the multitude of spelling and grammatical mistakes that already plagued the second book, but really 'shine' in the third; let's ignore that our heroes learn something important in one chapter, and promptly (and completely) forget about it for the rest of the story, leaving a plot hole that an eighteen-wheeler could drive through sideway; let's forget the out-of-character behaviours, the uneven rhythm, the tossing aside of quite a few scientific principles that were portrayed so deliciously real in the first two volumes... let's just focus on the conclusion.

As a writer, you can only achieve two objectives with your work: communicate an important, unique, insightful message (and create art) - or tell a gripping, exciting story (and create entertainment). At best, you get both.

At worst, you get "Heirs of Earth". Its message is neither particularly unique nor especially profound, but then, it is genre literature, so you do not necessarily expect art. But its conclusion turns the entire trilogy into an utterly pointless, meaningless, disappointing exercise in English. We do not get a resolution (merely an ending), we do not get a satisfactory explanation, and we do not even get a sense of fundamental, self-questioning wonder. What we get is an intentionally obfuscating exercise in writing technique - very skilled, to be sure - that is desperately trying to mask an emptiness, a lack of ideas and interest, and a final stroke of 'cleverness' that is so vacuous and lacking internal logic that one cannot help but feel their trust violated.

Mr. Williams and Mr. Dix are clearly very talented, very skilled authors. Regrettably, every one of their trilogies I have ever read were born in a spectacularly Big Bang - and died in a pitiful whimper - much like the Universe they write about, but without its grandeur. Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me. I am not certain I will trust them a third time.

Rating:
Summary: Vast Sense of Wonder
Review: With volume 3 of the series arriving just in time, after I got the first two for Xmas, I was able to read the trilogy back to back. Therefore my review reflects the entire saga.

And a saga it was. The authors have managed to instill in me a sense of wonder not felt since I read Startide Rising by David Brin.

Alien lifeforms are truly alien, incomprehensible to humans. If the protagonists themselves can be called human. Broken engrams, nanotech-modified humans, which then get re-designed by a variety of aliens themselves. It raises the question, just what defines "human".

The authors do provide the answer: the sense of racial self, a refusal to NOT be something special in an uncaring cosmos, never accepting defeat - and in the end "I think, therefore I am ... HUMAN".

As another reviewer has commented on one of the previous books, the characters tend not to be very likeable. But, I found that it is possible to identify with them as their reactions to events and their environments and to each other are believable, even understandable as being the result of extreme stress.

The action in the books moves along at a brisk pace, with frequent surprising turns of events. The climax of the saga is a breathtaking ride...

... which then drops off to a quite unsatisfying denouement. I must agree with the previous reviewer who beat me to being the first one to write a review for this book: somehow the authors managed to paint themselves into a corner and they couldn't write themselves out of it. I suppose it's better than the many deus-ex-machina endings found only too often, but not by much.

In the end I couldn't help but think "oh, I guess there will be a book 4 then, eh?" Or I wondered if the authors lost interest in wrapping up things, after the cosmic rollercoaster ride they had taken the readers along before.

My scores would be 4 for Echoes, 5 for Orphans and 3 for Heirs, with an average of 4 stars. 3 stars for Heirs may be a bit harsh, but the ending takes away from an otherwise 5 star story.