EARTHBLOOD

Rating:
Summary: This story will STAY with you!
Review: A top notch story that should be made into a movie. If done right it could easily be a box office hit and make millions! Any good screen play writers out there looking for work?

I first read "Earthblood" in college back in the late 60's, I had borrowed it from a friend. A few years later, I was looking to get a copy for myself but it was out of print! Then, years later, while walking by a Library sale of old books I came across a hard copy edition of it and purchased it for $.25! This is a book that should always be around for teenagers to read and love. Let it stay in print forever!

Rating:
Summary: A book that keeps finding its way back into my Life
Review: A top notch story that should be made into a movie. If done right it could easily be a box office hit and make millions! Any good screen play writers out there looking for work?

I first read "Earthblood" in college back in the late 60's, I had borrowed it from a friend. A few years later, I was looking to get a copy for myself but it was out of print! Then, years later, while walking by a Library sale of old books I came across a hard copy edition of it and purchased it for $.25! This is a book that should always be around for teenagers to read and love. Let it stay in print forever!

Rating:
Summary: A book that keeps finding its way back into my Life
Review: A top notch story that should be made into a movie. If done right it could easily be a box office hit and make millions! Any good screen play writers out there looking for work?

I first read "Earthblood" in college back in the late 60's, I had borrowed it from a friend. A few years later, I was looking to get a copy for myself but it was out of print! Then, years later, while walking by a Library sale of old books I came across a hard copy edition of it and purchased it for $.25! This is a book that should always be around for teenagers to read and love. Let it stay in print forever!

Rating:
Summary: This story will STAY with you!
Review: Although I read this book over 30 years ago, the story has not been forgotten. I actually did a report on this story in grade school (Now I'm 47!) A really great adventure of imagery in true exotic science fiction fashion. Our hero is Roan Cornay, a very rare "pure blood Terran". Although a test tube baby born from an alien woman, his genes originate from the now mythic planet once known as Terra (Earth), a planet that at one time in the ancient past, ruled the galaxy. In the present ultra-future time, Roan learns of his legendary home world and then proceeds to dedicate his efforts to find his home world Terra, a planet most believe never existed. Many adventures along the way. The book is a true classic!

Rating:
Summary: The archetypical Space Opera novel
Review: As with many other reviewers, I first read this book when it came out (I still have my SF Book Club edition) and re-read it every few years. It is as perfect an example of the 'space opera' genre as you could ask for: a tragic and somewhat flawed main character with a mysterious origin, driven to find what happened to the now-vanished Terran empire. One reviewer here (Steve Duff) criticized it as brutal and violent; I suggest he go read some biographies of Alexander the Great.

Again, as with others, echoes of this book stay with me. The child Roan growing up among aliens and Terran hybrids and struggling to hold his own. His joining, of all things, an interstellar circus, and then a crew of interstellar pirates. Searching for Terra, the homeworld, and what he finds there. And all along the way, making mistakes, hurting those who love him the most, and suffering bittersweet loss.

A great read, and one that will stay with you, too.

Rating:
Summary: An absorbing saga of mankind's far future
Review: Earthblood is an absorbing saga of mankind's far future. The story centers on Roan Cornay, a child of pure human blood born to alien parents. He grows up feeling inferior to the aliens who populate his homeworld because they can fly. As he grows up, he begins to understand why mankind colonized and conquered the galaxy before the war with the Niss destroyed civilization. Roan is later abducted by a travaelling space circus, and then by the pirate Henry Dread. He fights across the galaxy for his birthright, and becomes the best hope for mankind to rebuild a civilization that once spanned the stars

Rating:
Summary: Great science fiction from my youth
Review: Fast paced and marvelously inventive, with a wealth of characters, settings, and events. You'll look at the last page number and wonder where the authors put all that great stuff in a book of such ordinary length. Unabashadly self-congratulatory in its theme of humanity's superiority over all other species, largely due to the average human's refusal to give up in the face of pain or adversity.

Rating:
Summary: A wonderful read!
Review: Fast paced and marvelously inventive, with a wealth of characters, settings, and events. You'll look at the last page number and wonder where the authors put all that great stuff in a book of such ordinary length. Unabashadly self-congratulatory in its theme of humanity's superiority over all other species, largely due to the average human's refusal to give up in the face of pain or adversity.

Rating:
Summary: Epic adventure drowned in senseless violence
Review: I first read this book at the age of 13. Before I was 20 I'd read it 14 times. Now, at 42, I've read it again, and my opinion has changed greatly. This novel has many things right with it but oh so many things wrong.

Unusually for a science fiction novel, it starts before the main character is born. The book is wildly colorful and bathed in blood from the very beginning, as Roan Cornay's future parents are attacked shortly after purchasing him as an embryo. After birth, Roan begins to learn of his unique heritage as a Terran, member of a race which once ruled the galaxy until they were challenged by the powerful Niss. The war between the Terrans and Niss ended, seemingly, in mutual destruction 5,000 years earlier, and now Terrans are rare in the galaxy.

Roan grows up in poverty among many races of aliens on a dirty, backwater world. Logical problems manifest themselves immediately, as the book begins to play on its theme of human superiority by showing us species with limited abilities, primarily lacking the capacity for creative thought and relying instead on pre-programmed instinct. Unfortunately, the point is carried to ludicrous extremes with a species called Gracyls (actually, the name for a species of crow) who, despite an ability to fly, cling to trees in blind panic when attacked by lumbering saurians. Laumer and Brown obviously gave little thought to the process of Darwinian evolution. On our world, even the stupidest flying insects fly away when attacked. In the Laumer and Brown universe, winged beings with written language and technology have failed to manage this instinctive response. So much for the science in this science fiction novel.

Rosel George Brown was a female writer who came late to the field of letters. Keith Laumer was a devotee of Raymond Chandler novels and aped his style. However, the melding of the two writers produced a hyper-macho tale with zero feminine edge. The style is brash and the plot soon decomes drowned in a sea of brutality.

When Roan is a teenager, he's kidnapped by a traveling space circus. This is probably the best extended sequence in the book. The beings are colorful and credit must be given to Laumer and Brown for doing good work on the backstories of various characters. The character of Iron Robert is especially compelling.

Laumer's affinity for the Chandleresque tough-guy style gives this book a meaner edge than any other sf adventure I've read, and in many ways a more believable one. The novel is driven by the passions of even relatively minor characters such as the angry Itch. This gives the book a certain gut-level realism that's refreshing in the often plot-oriented world of sf.

Roan Cornay proves to be a tremendous brawler. Unlike most other sf heroes, Roan is willing to go to any length, however vicious, to win a fight. He doesn't merely beat his opponents, he mangles, disfigures and cripples them. Indeed, he's something of a sociopath.

We can commend the bravery Laumer and Brown showed in creating such a flawed character. Roan, driven by the anger and violence within him, makes many mistakes and senselessly kills several people.

Roan is captured by space pirates who raid the circus. This eventually leads to a scene on the planet Aldo Cerise which, in my view, is the single most beautiful passage in the book. However, it also has its share of logic flaws.

As the book rushes towards its conclusion, the level of violence and illogical plot twists rises. Death loses its dramatic impact. Situations and plot twists become more contrived and unbelievable, and almost always result in someone (often many someones) being killed. The violence, the macho posturing and platitudes, become wearying. Also wearying is all the lunkhead tough-guy dialog.

This is unfortunate. While it's true that "Earthblood" is entirely lacking in speculative rigor and instead intensifies the shopworn elements of space opera, it's also true that the scope of this book exceeds that of any other space opera I've encountered. This novel could have been a masterpiece if handled with more restraint, if it had been allowed greater length so as to avoid the rushed feeling of its conclusion, and if the characterization had been more nuanced. It would have been better without silly 'love at first sight' disease. It would have been better if...

There are too many ifs. In the end this is a very flawed book. In many ways it's a fairly dumb novel, a comic-book novel. The final scene is practically imbecilic. From my own experience, I'd say it's a great novel to read when you're a teenager. It would also make a fantastic movie. Older readers will want to think twice about this one.

Finally, I wanted to rate this book two-and-a-half stars, but that wasn't available, so for the sake of sentiment I went with a higher rating.

Rating:
Summary: Epic adventure drowned in senseless violence
Review: I first read this book at the age of 13. Before I was 20 I'd read it 14 times. Now, at 42, I've read it again, and my opinion has changed greatly. This novel has many things right with it but oh so many things wrong.

Unusually for a science fiction novel, it starts before the main character is born. The book is wildly colorful and bathed in blood from the very beginning, as Roan Cornay's future parents are attacked shortly after purchasing him as an embryo. After birth, Roan begins to learn of his unique heritage as a Terran, member of a race which once ruled the galaxy until they were challenged by the powerful Niss. The war between the Terrans and Niss ended, seemingly, in mutual destruction 5,000 years earlier, and now Terrans are rare in the galaxy.

Roan grows up in poverty among many races of aliens on a dirty, backwater world. Logical problems manifest themselves immediately, as the book begins to play on its theme of human superiority by showing us species with limited abilities, primarily lacking the capacity for creative thought and relying instead on pre-programmed instinct. Unfortunately, the point is carried to ludicrous extremes with a species called Gracyls (actually, the name for a species of crow) who, despite an ability to fly, cling to trees in blind panic when attacked by lumbering saurians. Laumer and Brown obviously gave little thought to the process of Darwinian evolution. On our world, even the stupidest flying insects fly away when attacked. In the Laumer and Brown universe, winged beings with written language and technology have failed to manage this instinctive response. So much for the science in this science fiction novel.

Rosel George Brown was a female writer who came late to the field of letters. Keith Laumer was a devotee of Raymond Chandler novels and aped his style. However, the melding of the two writers produced a hyper-macho tale with zero feminine edge. The style is brash and the plot soon decomes drowned in a sea of brutality.

When Roan is a teenager, he's kidnapped by a traveling space circus. This is probably the best extended sequence in the book. The beings are colorful and credit must be given to Laumer and Brown for doing good work on the backstories of various characters. The character of Iron Robert is especially compelling.

Laumer's affinity for the Chandleresque tough-guy style gives this book a meaner edge than any other sf adventure I've read, and in many ways a more believable one. The novel is driven by the passions of even relatively minor characters such as the angry Itch. This gives the book a certain gut-level realism that's refreshing in the often plot-oriented world of sf.

Roan Cornay proves to be a tremendous brawler. Unlike most other sf heroes, Roan is willing to go to any length, however vicious, to win a fight. He doesn't merely beat his opponents, he mangles, disfigures and cripples them. Indeed, he's something of a sociopath.

We can commend the bravery Laumer and Brown showed in creating such a flawed character. Roan, driven by the anger and violence within him, makes many mistakes and senselessly kills several people.

Roan is captured by space pirates who raid the circus. This eventually leads to a scene on the planet Aldo Cerise which, in my view, is the single most beautiful passage in the book. However, it also has its share of logic flaws.

As the book rushes towards its conclusion, the level of violence and illogical plot twists rises. Death loses its dramatic impact. Situations and plot twists become more contrived and unbelievable, and almost always result in someone (often many someones) being killed. The violence, the macho posturing and platitudes, become wearying. Also wearying is all the lunkhead tough-guy dialog.

This is unfortunate. While it's true that "Earthblood" is entirely lacking in speculative rigor and instead intensifies the shopworn elements of space opera, it's also true that the scope of this book exceeds that of any other space opera I've encountered. This novel could have been a masterpiece if handled with more restraint, if it had been allowed greater length so as to avoid the rushed feeling of its conclusion, and if the characterization had been more nuanced. It would have been better without silly 'love at first sight' disease. It would have been better if...

There are too many ifs. In the end this is a very flawed book. In many ways it's a fairly dumb novel, a comic-book novel. The final scene is practically imbecilic. From my own experience, I'd say it's a great novel to read when you're a teenager. It would also make a fantastic movie. Older readers will want to think twice about this one.

Finally, I wanted to rate this book two-and-a-half stars, but that wasn't available, so for the sake of sentiment I went with a higher rating.