Deathday

Rating:
Summary: Armageddon from Space
Review: Deathday is the first novel in a duology about the invasion of Earth by the alien Saurons. It is followed by Earthrise.

The Saurons destroy New York, Paris, Moscow, and other major cities in the first few minutes of the attack, killing over 3 billion people. With the destruction of Washington, and the Pentagon, political leadership devolves to the highest ranked remaining cabinet officer, Michael Olmsworthy, Secretary of the Air Force. He is in the TOC below McChord AFB and, when the aliens want to talk, he goes to meet them. Unfortunately, the Saurons are irritated by the insult, kill Olmsworthy, and chastise Alexander Ajani Franklin, governor of the state of Washington, for wasting perfectly good servants on a useless gesture. It seems the Saurons have castes, with the black-skinned Zin at the top, the brown-skinned Kan below them, and the white-skinned Fon at the bottom. Franklin is black and the others were not, hence the insult.

The Saurons have a made a list of suitable candidates for leadership of their human slaves, of which Franklin is the leading survivor. After Franklin accepts, hoping to ameliorate slave conditions, he finds that the Saurons are using his simulated image to promote their program. The novel spends the first third of the book introducing the main characters: a UN security man Jack Manning, his sister Marta Manning, ex-ranger George Farley and his buddy Deacon Smith, the white supremacist Jonathan Ivory, the historian Boyer Blue, doctor Seekko Sool, ranger Velo Kell, the StarCom worshipper Sister Andromeda, and USN PO3 Darby Stokes.

It also acquaints us with some of the Ra'Na, who have been slaves of the Saurons for two hundred years: Fra Pas Pol, Dro Tog, and P'ere Has. Fra Pol eavesdrops on the Zin and discovers that the Saurons are due to die on Earth. When he reports the conversation to Dro Tog, he is told that Tog will handle it. Nevertheless, Fra Pol autopsies a dead Fon and finds it is pregnant and the nymph is still alive. He spreads the word, even to the Fon, who are not aware of their impending demise.

Meanwhile, the Free Taggers, kids with spray cans, start using their graffiti to teach the Fon to read and the Fon also begin to uncover details of the Zin plot. At this point, the reader starts to understand the significance of the chapter headings, i.e., Death Day Minus 155, within the book. A new sense of urgency begins to develop.

This novel starts slow, but begins to build momentum in the middle. Franklin acquires a security detail, headed by Manning, Doctor Sool sets up a clinic, Sister Andromeda collaborates with the Saurons, Darby Stokes joins an attack of the Sauron shuttles, and the white supremacists attempt an assassination of Franklin. Thus ends the first volume in the series.

While this novel was probably influenced by Independence Day, it is more of a rebuttal than an imitation of that plot; odds are that the invasion will have accomplished its major objectives before anyone on Earth realizes the destruction is coming from space. What are the chances that Washington wouldn't be a prime target and thus zapped in the first few minutes. Bye-bye Pentagon, White House, etc.

This isn't Battlefield Earth either; in Hubbard's book, the hero overcomes his enemies single-handedly. Franklin definitely is not alone in his resistance to the Saurons; the humans, the Ra'Na, and even the Fon are required to repel the invaders. Stay tuned for the sequel.

Rating:
Summary: Attack of the eight-legged freaks.
Review: Deathday takes place in 2020 where a racist alien race called Saurons come to Earth and destroy about 3 billion people in about 12 hours and enslave the remainder of the human race. Saurons are insect like creatures that have created a caste system based on the color of their chitin. The three groups consist of the Zin, which are the ruling caste with black chitin, the Fon, which are the middle class that oversee the tasks of slaves and have white chitin, and the Kan, which are the warriors of the race and have a chitin that changes colors according to their surroundings. Their leader, a Zin named Hak-Bin, decided to develop a sort of puppet "government" for the slave population to believe that they had at least some hope to hold onto. The Saurons selected a governor, Governor Alexander Franklin, to be their puppet president. They then forced the slaves to build an enormous citadel in preparation of Deathday. Like most insects on Earth the Saurons produce asexually but when they reproduce the original parent dies and only one nymph comes out of the creature. In other words, on Deathday the entire Sauron race will die and a new group of them will be born and kill all of the humans. The Saurons kept this a secret from the slaves but it was discovered by another race the Saurons had enslaved, the Ra-Na race. The Ra-Na then told Franklin of the plot. Franklin decided to stop being a puppet, escaped the Saurons, and joined the resistance movements into one organized movement. The only problem is that the resistance has just found that there is a second citadel that if not found and destroyed would allow the aliens to produce up to three new nymphs each. Enough to repopulate the race even if they manage to destroy the first citadel the enemy will still grow. Now the clock is ticking and the humans are losing valuable time. Can the humans find the citadel and if they do will they be able to destroy the Saurons for good?

I thought that this book was excellent. It showed great details throughout the story. I have read many sci-fi books in the past and this is by far the best I have read. The detail in which the author describes the different characters and their personalities is unbelievable and the way that he captures the strength of the human race and it's will to survive even against unimaginable odds is nothing short of astounding. None of the other stories have even come close to this one in terms of detail. The story line was unique all in it's self. The idea of such creatures and their attitude and culture is remarkable. I would recommend this story to all who enjoy a good science fiction novel with plenty of twists. Though probably unsuitable for some small children, I believe that most everyone will have a blast with this story.

Rating:
Summary: One star is overly generous
Review: Don't buy this book. Don't even think about it. The plot is a direct imitation of Independence Day, War of the Worlds, and any number of other SF titles that were MUCH better done. The book itself is the first in a series. It is not a "stand-alone" read. If you care to find out what happens, you won't, but if, you must buy at least the next book in the series.

We are asked to believe that the Sauron race descends upon Earth, laying waste to everything they see. They conquer all, with no reply from an emasculated military. But wait, while the military can't seem to make the weapons be effective, by God, some good old boys from the back country can get those aliens. But not enough to matter. By the end of the book I was hoping for some kind of finale. It wasn't there. In fact, the book endpapers tell you to look for the next book in the series, "Earthrise".

I'm here to tell you, don't bother. I don't mind series books, in fact Harry Turtledove has turned them into a cottage industry. But Mr. Turtledove's books can be read as a series or individually. You will pick up immediately what is happening. Mr. Dietz however seems to think that he can put some garbage together, publish the book and we will "need" to see how it comes out.

Again, don't bother. I won't go into what is supposed to be a morality tale about race relations, because to be honest, Mr. Dietz doesn't do it very well.

It could've been worse. I almost bought both books at the same time.

Don't bother. Save your money or go and rent Independence Day. You'll have a better time.

Rating:
Summary: Ludicrous and Pathetic
Review: I am a Sci-fi fanatic, having more than 600 books in my library.
I especially enjoy alien invasions/end of world type themes. The entire attack took a few pages (and even this is boring) and we learn that the REAL problem for the few humans left is NOT space invaders but racists whites in America.

The three types of aliens - confusing in the extreme - are so utterly unalien as to be laughable. They think and reason the same as humans. The humans were pure cardboard - white racists worshiping Hitler (in 2020!), the unwilling hero, brave women, bad politicians. The repeated references to S Africa, Native Americans, American slavery, Palestinians, MLK were a simplistic recourse to push-button topics and were more clumsily written that my 8th grader could do. Geopolitical aspects are absent. It appears the entire experience occurs on the US West Coast.

The action is rushed, plotlines unresolved, internal logic lacking...it is hard to describe how really bad this tale is. The absolute worst part is the sheer ludicrousness of the story -that the remaining humans are worried about skin shade when billions have perished and the rest are enslaved. As I said, just ludicrous. And when you get to the end it is not the end- you have to buy another book to find out how it all ends.
Thanks but no thanks.

Rating:
Summary: Bad book = bad feelings
Review: I am not sure whether I should feel angry, depressed, or foolish after reading this book. Angry because I am tired of constantly being assaulted by authors who inflate their since of self rightousness by casting whites as the font for all racial evils in the world. When the Earth is invaded leave it the whites to keep racial hatred alive while everybody else has the character to rise above it. As for being depressed, that is simply because I was hoping for an enjoyable story which was nowhere to be found. Cookie cutter characters (none of which I cared about) coasting through improbable and rushed plot lines aren't good combinations. Finally, as you can probably guess, my foolishness came from ever having bought this book in the first place.

Rating:
Summary: Keep your $. Get it from the library or a remainder sale.
Review: I confess that I love first contact and alien invasion stories. I thought I would enjoy this. I was wrong.

Harry Turtledove seems to be the current master of alien invasion series. Had he written this novel, it would have been at least three times as long. I like brevity, but only if it furthers the story.

When one sees paragraphs that read like "He did this and had an adventure there and escaped danger another place," one assumes that this would be a short, succinct novel. Unfortunately, the author seems to have ellipsed sections because he did not either have the skill to present them or the number of pages that the contract required prohibited such development.

What I thought would be a stand-alone novel turned out to be the first of an unknown number of sequels. Part 1 didn't involve me enough to buy parts 2 - nnn.

The aliens - all the aliens - could have been replaced by humans. There is simply no difference in their actions in this novel. And, any of the human characters could have been replaced by any of the others. Cardboard is cardboard, and that's what all the characters, human or alien, are here.

And much of the novel was not internally consistent. I'm not going to waste your time by enumerating the problems. I'll just say that they make this a waste of your time and dollars.

If you read this review and disagree, please post a rebuttal. Fiction is, in the end, in the eye of the beholder. On the other hand, if you feel the author has cheated you our of your time and money, please enter that comment, too.

Science Fiction is difficult to write, and all to often I think we affectionados get trapped into accepting the mediocre, when we should be demanding the best.

Deathday is certainly not one of the worst novels, but it is not one of the best. It is low-mediocre at best, and not deserving of your time.

Rick

Rating:
Summary: Don't waste your time
Review: I forced myself through the first "chapter", and those were the most painful 46 pages I've read in ages. I enjoy good science fiction, but this book isn't good anything. The technique of introducing multiple characters in differing situations whose paths through the plot will intertwine is poorly executed. The characters were flat, uninteresting, unengaging. The entire first section was rushed and boring, as if even the author didn't really care and just wanted to get the framework in place as quickly as possible. Mr. Dietz needs to read "Footfall" again, to see how this unoriginal approach to alien invasions can be written as an interesting novel.

Rating:
Summary: Could Have Been Much Better...But It Did Hold My Interest
Review: I just finished reading 'Deathday' because I saw 'Earthrise' in the bookstore and thought it best to read the first book in the series first. I've read most of the reviews of both of these books, and have seen how negative most of them are. The negative comments aren't without merit, though I think some people have been a little hard on these stories.

The story is about an alien invasion of earth by a technologically advanced race of giant bugs known as the Saurons. Their pattern is to travel across the galaxy, finding and enslaving the races they encounter. Their current plans involve defeating and enslaving the human race in order to have humans build them a series of 'temples' before continuing their journey across the galaxy. What the Saurons aren't telling is that the temples are actually giant hatching facilities for when their entire race gives birth to the next generation of Saurons. Part of this also involves the murder of 90% of the remaining humans (as well as the Sauron's other slave race called the Ra' Na).

The story seemed to me to really be more of a setup to the human resistance, with various resistance groups introduced, some limited combat taking place, the forging of alliances between the Ra' Na and the humans, etc. The book ends on a cliffhanger with the human leaders finally convinced that they must overthrow the Saurons.

First, the things that I didn't care much for in the story:

1. The racism elements were, in my mind, unneeded. The story makes it appear that racism is, to one degree or another, on everyone's mind to one degree or another. I don't know about other people, but the only time I really hear about racism anymore is on the news at night (and I live in the South!).
2. The limited scope of the invasion. I agree with the fact that, even though the invasion was global, it seemed that the only thing the aliens were interested in is in the Pacific Northwest. Given the nature of the story, I think it would have worked much better had there been multiple encampments
3. The absence of any military figures in the book was disturbing. Yes, the Saurons destroyed the majority of the military facilities, but I would have liked to see the remnants of the Marines, the Rangers, the Navy SEALS, etc. getting together and providing actual resistance. As it was, the only real resistance was a group of White Supremacists, a group of survivalists (some ex-military) called Deacon's Demons, and a group of African-American resistance fighters. Not really all that significant of a resistance in my mind, especially when the human leader named Franklin starts meeting with the various resistance leaders and trying to band them together, and these seem to be the only groups for him to meet with. It just seems that the rest of the world has been forgotten.

Now, for the things I did like:

1. I thought the sub-plots involving the Ra' Na were good, and I especially enjoyed when they began covertly aiding the humans. It seems to be setting things up for a nice conflict in 'Earthrise'.
2. I thought the story flowed fairly well. The dialog was good, and the scenes were vivid. Mr. Deitz knows how to write, and tells a good story. So I didn't find myself bogged down at all.
3. I loved the scenes involving Deacon's Demons because this was the only real combat in the first book. There were two particularly memorable scenes showing the resistance movement. One involved an ambush of a Sauron convoy, and the other involved a navy attack boat taking out a bunch of Sauron drop-ships. Both of these are the elements that should have been included in much greater quantity. in my opinion.
4. Jack Manning, the chief security guard for President Franklin, is perhaps the best character in the book. He's written with more depth than any other character, and his military experience and dedication to remove the Saurons is obviously going to make him one of the better characters in the next book.

Ultimately, I give this book 3 stars because it did keep my interest, and I cared enough about it to want to read the sequel. It could have been done much better with a more global conflict, battles ensuing between the occupying Saurons and the remaining military resistance. But, though the story was not all it could have been, it wasn't a bad read overall.

I know I'm interested to see how it turns out in 'Earthrise'. I hope I'll be pleasantly surprised.

Rating:
Summary: I Loved This Series
Review: I loved Deathday and the rest of the series. The characters were very well developed. I have read hundreds of Scifi novels and I hope you are not put off by all of the negative reviews! The series is a terrific read!

Rating:
Summary: people of depth
Review: I loved this story. I thought the people had some depth and it was nice to see minorities written as people not as "black people" or "Hispanic people". It boils down to color is an issue if you allow it and that we aren't the only ones with race issues. I hate so many people panned it. I loved it so much I gave it to a friend to read.