Rating: 
Summary: Epic work
Review: Epic work on the fate of our planet in the year 2038. Brin sets a compelling story against a highly believeable and realistic backdrop of issues such as overpopulation, the scarcity of natural resources, universal environmental degradation and pollution, the information super-highway, and so on. The book is 700 pages long but it is such a good story you hardly notice the length. An excellent, possibly great, Sci-Fi book which will probably become an enduring classic, despite my having a little problem with the...ending.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant
Review: As near future fiction goes this is one of the best books in that category. Some of Brin's projections are almost here by now, some "errors" due to unforseen turns of events, like the total collapse of the Warsaw Pact socialist states, are forgivable, and the impact on the overall story is rather minor. Overpopulation, rising sea levels, depletion of the Ozone Layer and other calamities we will experience now and in the near future are all probed for their repercussions on our planet and its ecosphere. Some possible ways to tackle these problems both psychologically and in its roots are also depicted. To be honest nothing in the book is really new or unheard of. But the successful combination of the themes creates the brilliance of David Brin's "Earth". It would be unfair to dub the book "Hard SF", because it offers reading value beyond mere good projections and speculations into the near future. What makes it stand out in this category of science fiction books is the depth of character we readers are offered in the antagonists and the colorfull and informative insights into our possible future we are given through invaluable snippets of Net-News or Newsgroup posts. Any user of the internet and its news-services and discussion-groups should feel at home, reading this book.
Rating:
Summary: HEAVY
Review: I know that a book has affected me when its ideas keep popping up in my conversations. Earth is one of those books, because it covers so many issues that I consider to be hot topics: privacy, the information super-highway, restrictions in scientific research, evolution of consciousness and the future of the entire human race. I read a couple of reviews here criticizing the shallow characterizations, but all of the characters seemed like real people to me. It has a great villain you'll love to hate, and loads of intelligent people having intelligent conversations. If you don't like books that jump back and forth between several sets of characters and plots, then you won't like Earth. I happen to enjoy this format, to see how the various people and situations merge in a grand finale; and believe me, this book has a heck of a grand finale!
Rating:
Summary: Prophetic
Review: The fact that David Brin wrote this book 10 years ago amazed me. Although he may call it differently he predicted the impact the internet has on society. Brin touches on global warming, universal access to information, extinction of species, and overpopulation. The list goes on. One of the most prophetic sci-fi novels I've read. He takes our hopes and fears of our planet and wraps them into compelling characters.
Rating:
Summary: Magisterial
Review: As Brin himself writes in his unusual, and interesting, afterword, 50-year extrapolations are a difficult business; the future has to be identifiable, but also sufficiently different in understandable ways to be worthy of the genre. Earth is not only a spectacularly readable novel. It gets things "right," in the sense that the extrapolations are plausible (some might say "conservative"), the science (even the fictional "cavitronics") seems, to this layman, sound, the social milieux are eminently reasonable and closely observed. Importantly for this work, Brin more than a decade ago had a clear picture of the internet's potential power, and the web is here a central character. So too is Earth itself, in many guises--in fact, the novel can double as a delightful tutorial on various "green" topics. Moreover, Brin's theme of "competition and cooperation" as the engine of evolution and of complex emergent behaviors, human and otherwise, is brilliantly worked throughout the narrative. (And I've said nothing about the lucidly wrought, believable characters that thickly inhabit this long, ambitious, and carefully plotted work.) Some readers may complain the climax contains a touch of deus ex machina, but, in the story's context, it all works. Indeed, at the conclusion, you feel "everything fits, everything matters, everything affects everything else." Bravo, bravo, bravo.
Rating:
Summary: A great read for the serious SF buff
Review: In 'Earth,' Brin manages to project one possible future based upon the ecological and sociopolitical problems facing us at the end of the twentieth century. I think some of his predicted technological advances -- including the one key to the entire book -- are on shaky scientific ground, but it's a good thought-provoking book if you can suspend disbelief. And who knows? Maybe it's not so shaky as I believe. Your forehead should be furrowed when you finish reading it. Warning: I consider this to be a 'PG' rated book. Not because of any sexual situations (what there are of such are handled tastefully and obliquely), but because I think some of the sociopolitical predictions and depictions could be a little disturbing.
Rating: 
Summary: Makes You Wonder!
Review: This book was entertaining and thought provoking. The premise was unusual. The sci fi elements were pretty well explained and seemed believable for the most part. Mostly though, I liked the morality issues which seemed to weave their way throughout the story. The different shades of right and wrong in all the hues of gray! The author provided 'food for thought' and made me re-examine some of my own basic beliefs in the process. While enjoying an entertaining and scarey story I was also able to flex my imagination regarding our planet and some of the social aspects of our existence as a species. Recommended!
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic, exteremely entertaining, and thought provoking
Review: Brin keeps you reading, constantly introducing new plot twists and a host of richly developed characters, all projected against a fascinating backdrop of a very probable earth as it might be in 2038. Judging from the fact that Brin wrote "Earth" back in 1990, his predicitions have rung true in many places, most notably our modern day internet, in comparison with his world data net. The fates of all his characters slowly intertwine as the book reaches its final and surprising climax. Very staisfying with every chapter, and then the epilogue just brings it all home. I couldn't sleep at all the night after I finished it. Simply brilliant.
Rating:
Summary: Earth
Review: This book has an incredible depth of thought, plot, and characters. It somehow melds it all into an entertaining cohesive whole. If you want a brainless read or candy coated pseudo-sci-fi, look elsewhere. If you want uterly fantastic high quality science fiction, buy this book!
Rating:
Summary: -
Review: i read this when i was fiveteen or so. Thinking back, i still love it. While i'm currently not likely to read much else of Brin's work, I would gladly read this book again. I love the characters' realness (i'm a sucker for that) and of course the quite inventive story; and I still remember a few quotes from it.
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