Rating: 
Summary: Fantastic. Complex. Fascinating.
Review: This book is one of my top 10 favorite SF books ever. It has several interwoven plots; each of which is great. The new "modality" (as Brin calls it) of gravometrics is wonderfully detailed and interesting. Though the gravitometrics are fantasy, every other detail is well though out and completely beleivable. Brin's writting will make it difficult to put down once you've started. His education and intelligence contribute greatly to the book's quality. I strongly recomend this book.
Rating:
Summary: Earth is at least two stories, and one of them is very good.
Review: In Earth, David Brin has managed to place me in a juxtaposition, as a reader. In half of the near-future portrayed in Earth, life is dismal, and the characters are resigned each to a diminished existence amidst a humanity submissive to Gaia. On the other hand, there happen to be situations and characters that drew me in, that I wanted to be part of. This book seems to be Brin's answer to Gore's Earth in the Balance. All of our worst nightmares about humankind's destruction of the planet have come true, and it is this grim outlook that hangs like smog over an excellent science fiction tale that seems like slim pickings during the reading, but shines in retrospect.
In desirable morsels between the dreary passages, Brin explores the possibility of a black hole being accidentally released on the surface of the Earth. Initially, it is a microscopic "singularity", and slips through the crust to eventually orbit our planet's core. Theoretically, it would consume the Earth's mantle for years until this 3rd rock from the sun implodes--over 80% of the Earth's mass being consumed in the final few minutes. Of course, David Brin is too brilliant for it to be left so simple a problem, which is why Earth is as intriguing a mystery as it is science fiction.
In typical Brin style, all the stops are pulled out for the climax. That includes the wildly unexpected. Regular readers of Brin won't be surprised at the feeling that they've stepped into a completely different tale when the lengthy, exciting climax erupts
Rating:
Summary: One of Brin's best!
Review: This is a great book, set in the near future. David Brin paints a believable picture of what life might be like in 50 years...some things better, some worse. For those of us who love our home planet, and are concerned with it's future health, this is an invaluable book. The action takes place planet wide, with a huge cast of characters, but is so well written that it's easy to keep track of everyone and everything. And the involvement of the internet to save the earth...well, WOW! Wouldn't that be cool?!
This novel will leave you with renewed hope for the future.
Rating:
Summary: Important book for those who are fans of their planet.
Review: This obviously well-researched novel about our world carries an important and optimistic message. It's nice to feel good about ourselves as a race when all you hear is how humans have messed up the planet. It's not a pat on the back, however. It's a stern warning and a hopeful promise.
I hesitate to give it a "10" because parts of the ending tend to stretch the limits of believability.
Rating:
Summary: My favorite of Brin's books, but then I like the message.
Review: I thought this was a fabulous book. It took me a while to get into it as I was overwhelmed by its size; but like all of his novels, it only takes a little while to be totally hooked. I love the details: taking the name of Jane Goodall in vain, obscure physics phenomena creating chaos, characters with good intentions and better reflexes. This novel gets across the environmental message in a way that makes it accessible and entertaining as well as informative. (In my opinion, its greatest parallel is O.S. Card's "Speaker for the Dead." Both works evoke a similar response in my consciousness.)
In response to a couple other reviews (I agree with "poptart" read that one!): Yes, the message is strong, but I don't think that it makes the story weak. That the book is fiction extrapolated from fact and yet still has a current feel years after being written attests to the vision of the author and the relevance of the message. It does not come across as the typical shoot-em up sci-fi we all know and love so well, but more as fantasy with a strong background in science.
I didn't get the message that the world could only be saved by the omnipresent computer being, but rather that she would help the process. I also liked the fact that an intelligent, well-meaning, irreverent character did not die. It's one of the benefits of fantasy, that not-dying option.
Rating:
Summary: Earth; The Orwellian Equivalent for the mid 21st century..
Review: Many a man has traced his fingers in the smooth sands of the future, foretelling stories of glory or grisly reality. Few (none I have read) have held up to time's test for accuracy and foresight like Mr Brin's work in Earth. Written over 7 years ago, I (yesterday) finished the experience and turned on the television, checked my email, and, like a whispering fortuneteller, the television news described the probable mental effects of today's solar flares, the flooding in the great plains, greenhouse gases, and Greenpeace activists misguided efforts to save the arctic wastelands and getting frozen in the act, so to speak.
I gave this book to my girlfriend, with encouragement to keep a dictionary close by and "just get through the first fifty pages". The purpose was to create considerable fodder for discussion for many eves to come. It seems to me this rigorous and scientific work has a wisdom and coherence that can be appreciated only by those willing to put down all preconceptions about human limits, and capable of ingesting the depths and implications of modern science. I am convinced two years of university schooling could be substituted for a thorough study of just this book.
Multifaceted, multilevel, and, best of all, multi- perspective. I admit some of the detail could have been left out to avoid losing the interest of the scientifically literate, and simplifying the daunting task of the reader whose mind has yet to consider the implications of who and what we are, and what the future holds for humanity.
Rating:
Summary: Pretty Good
Review: This book had a great plot with many a message. There were, however, several parts that could have been edited out, adding little to the story. If it weren't do long, I might have given it a ten
Rating:
Summary: Mind Expanding
Review: Wow! After finishing the book, that's the only thing that comes to mind.
I read this a few years ago and it has still left an impression on me. I can
see society wrestling with the themes in this book and wonder how close his
guess of our future will be. Not being familiar with other Brin books, I can't make comparisons. But this book stands alone as an important work that should
make every reader stop and look around and think for a moment. I think of this book
as one of the most important books I've read in my life.
Rating:
Summary: A great book with an important message.
Review: I must admit, I have a hard time envisioning the futures of
several other sci-fi worlds. Often, the future is shown as
wonderful and all we have to do to get there is sit around
on our butts. Never is the price of progress and technology
explored in these worlds (take a hint Star Trek fans). Brin
has taken these problems into account and crafted a wonderful
story. Here is a book the world needs to read: a vision of
a ruined future in which hope still exists. Real people deal
overwhelming odds and come out on top. More important than the characters is the message: we are destroying ourselves.
Often it is argued that environmentalism is only trying to
save a few little frogs in the rainforest. Anyone who knows
anything about it knows it is more than that: we're trying to save ourselves. That is the message we all need to learn.
Now, if we would only mail several dozen copies of the book
to Republican Congressman.....
Rating: 
Summary: I like how it puts in the message about the envirment
Review: An great book well worth reading. One of Brins best. I would Enchourage you to read many more of Brins novel
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