Homeward Bound

Rating:
Summary: The best since the world war series
Review: A vast improvement over the dismal Colonization series even if it is still not prefect. There are still the obvious problems with the writing style each of the characters have to let each other(and the reader) the same information over and over even repeating the same lines of dialog like

It's a good thing that Kassipait isn't more crazy then she is
Or
Its kind of like looking down on the promised land.

The other problem I can see apart from the dialog is a continuity issue. When the expedition of humans actually makes it to the surface of home several members of the race approach them an proclaim that they have friends that went with the conquest fleet. What the heck? Do members of the race live 900 years? That part of the story does not make any kind of sense.

The story has many good points in its favor particularly the fact that the cast this time around is significantly narrowed down. Less people to keep track of.

Overall-A solid, if not wholly perfect installment.



Rating:
Summary: Love Turtledove, Sorry this stinks
Review: For the record, I REALLY like Harry Turtledove's work. I buy them all in hardcover. This one was not up to par. Homeward Bound was insultingly repititious and boring. It seemed to be a 20 to 30 page novellette that was drudgingly expanded due to a book deal contract. Of the 597 pages I would expect that less than 30 were actually Harry's work. If it weren't for my dedication to the series and the author I would never have finished it. Frankly, it was painfull. I hope there isn't a similar 'wrap up' to the American Empire, et al series....... Sorry Harry, with all due respect and at least a 3.6 average overall, this one was a dog.

Rating:
Summary: Great ending (and left some space for maybe more?)
Review: I am a big fan of Dr. Turttledove, having heard about the Guns of the South from Dick Decastell reader, and being hooked on the World War series from the beginning. Unlike his recent "Japanese invade Hawaii novel", which I found full of holes, Homeward Bound is his kind of Science Fiction/Alternate history at its best. For those of us who know the characters, it was excellent to "visit" with them again.

In addition, his delving into "deep freezing" and the effects of the "big" human leap in the book (won't ruin the surprise) really show the magic of novels in exploring change. The meetings in home, and the ultimate realization that mankind is really a pesky little species are really a treasure.

Excellent, please keep them coming.

Rating:
Summary: Harry Turtledove bowled a 300, he shot an 18
Review: I have just read this book, and I am awestruck. I have nothing bad to say about it.

***SPOILERS BELOW***

Sam Yeager is arm-twisted by the American government to go to Home in Earth's first sublight, transgalactic ship. His job is supposedly to assist the US ambassador to Home, "the Doctor" (Henry Kissinger). When the Doctor dies during Cold Sleep, Sam Yeager becomes US Ambassador to Home. His job: to get Emperor Risson XXXVII to acknowledge the USA as the diplomatic equal of the Empire.

Back on Tosev 3, Felless, who is a psychologist and not a physicist, figures out that the American physicists may have discovered something extraordinary. She sends a message to the only Lizard she can think of who maybe can do something -- Ttomalss, also a physics-ignorant psychologist, now back on Home. Tosev 3 and Home are so far apart, it takes Ttomalss ten years to get the message. Then he can't get any Home physicists to even look at Felless's message, for they "know" the Tosevites are ignorant savages. He finally gets one female physicist, Pesskrag, to try to replicate the Earthling research. She runs a few experiments, almost as an afterthought -- and gets results that 50 million years of Lizard physics theory says couldn't happen. Eventually Pesskrag, Ttomalss, and Emperor Risson figure out that America has made some kind of groundbreaking physics discovery, and is secretly trying to engineer something of military use from their new knowledge.

Ironically, the Americans on Home are the people least aware of what's going on. The US military still considers Sam Yeager a security risk, so the Americans on Home are told nothing. It's only when the Americans tap a phone call between Fleetlord Atvar and the Emperor do they learn why the Lizards suddenly are acting so strange.

Emperor Risson XXXVII doesn't need to know precisely what America's big discovery is, in order to be frightened for his Empire. Before, the Emperor made policy presuming that Tosevites were ignorant and backward. With the American-built ship orbiting Home, Earth has proved it can be the technological equal of Home. And if Earth has pulled ahead of the Empire in science and technology, then that lead will only increase with time. The Emperor, and his advisor Fleetlord Atvar, seriously consider a pre-emptive attack on the USA, before the Empire's inferior status gets even worse.

And that's when Ttomalss, Atvar, the Emperor, Pesskrag, and Sam Yeager all learn what the USA has discovered: A second American starship arrives at Home, having traveled from Earth to Home at 96 times the speed of light. (For 50 million years, Lizard scientists were sure that FTL travel was impossible.) Atvar realizes what the FTL American ship means: the Lizards snoozed, and they lost. To attack America now would destroy the entire Empire.

Why I loved this book: Almost every time a novel has FTL (faster-than-light space travel), the technology is treated as a given. I loved how Turtledove turns FTL into a major plot point, and an uncovered mystery. Many series characters get deeper characterizations in this book: Jonathan Yeager, Karen Yeager, Ttomalss, and Kassquit. Kassquit finds romance, with the only black man on the American diplomatic team.

I also loved Turtledove's humor -- Matt Damon as an old and desperate actor, and Lt. Peter Columbo as a Lizard cop. Glen Johnson and another pilot, Mickey Flynn, speak to each other only in hilarious friendly insults. Donald, one of the two Lizards raised as human, grows up to be a game-show host, a cross between Richard Dawson and Groucho Marx. Rats are brought to Home as Tosevite food tasters, and then things don't go as planned.

Rating:
Summary: A "Not-Ending" emphatic cough....
Review: I would not recommend this book to anyone who liked the first two series, it accomplishes little...and contains as much information as a travel brochure entitled..."A Tosevites guide to home" and nothing else.

I just finished this book, and had to comment, I am afraid. This book has the exact feeling and formula that "In The Presence Of Mine Enemies" enemies had. You inevitably keep reading the book hoping that something intersting may be coming up when you turn that next page. Unfortunately, you have to turn 400+ pages in this book to get there. In the first series and some in the second series, the psychologists/human aspect was present, but so also was the military and espionage and intrique of what was going on. In this book, its just the psychologist and thats just not enough... Seriously the reader doesnt need to read 20 pages of dialogue between the Race where they never name what the USA is working on, but verbally dance about it...That is just filler, and this was not done in previous books.

In a nutshell this book can be summed up by:

"The USA sends some humans including the Yeagers to the Races' homeworld to negotiate some type of formal recognition. Things threaten to become heated untill a FTL ship arrives from the US and scares the lizards and the humans who then return to Tosev, nothing is finished or even negotiated from that point, it just hangs there"....

So much more could have been done with this that wasnt, Turtledove didnt even finalize the one remaing thread between the Race and the USA at all, nor was any real questions or people finalized. I guess my real problem was, there was no closure or ending.

Things I was looking for in this last book:

What is to be the disposition of the USA now in relation to the race? (How could this question not be answered?)

What is the disposition of the rest of Tosev? Russia, Germany, China, Japan, the Races' colonies on Tosev? (Nothing of this even was touched on)

Unfortunately this book has the feeling that it was written by Ttomalss, and in a hurry, becuase all that was truly hashed out was more feelings and emotions. That is all good and fine, but the other aspects of the race, as well as the other individuals showed more about their species than a lizard psychologist ever did.

Rating:
Summary: Turtledove embarrasses himself again!
Review: I've read the book and read all the customer reviews of this book, and all I want to say is "Harry, please, stop writing these books. They're an embarrassment!"



Rating:
Summary: Monumentally Bad
Review: It started out as a grand, fun idea: "what if an alien invasion just happened to interrupt World War II." And it was entertaining, for a while.

But as it dragged on and on, book after book, trilogy after trilogy, it became clear that Turtledove had no real plan for wrapping it up.

The present book is no less frustrating than its immediate predecessors, and the unbelievably bad writing makes it painful. I have never encountered this much repetetiveness, or plowed through so many scenes where nothing happens, before.

We read a scene where a human awakens from cold sleep, and learn that he's weak and uncoordinated at first. OK, we get it. It is not necessary to repeat this information every time a new POV character awakens from cold sleep.

Lizards lower their eyes when they mention the Emperor. OK, we get it. It's not necessary to describe them doing so *every single time a Lizard says the word 'Emperor'*!

We get that humans are more creative and develop technology faster. We get that Lizard society is hide-bound and stratified. We get that it's hot on Home. We don't need scene after scene re-emphasizing these point without expanding on them or relating them to something else in the plot.

The actual story told in this book could have been handled in 50 pages.

But that's not the worst of it. The characters are the same templates they've been since the series began, with little or no change and little or no dimensionality. They don't do or say new things, they just do and say the same things as they get older.

The Lizards are just scaly humans with a mating season and a superiority complex. Nothing alien about them, really.

Ultimately, the entire exercise becomes unbelievable, boring, dull, and a complete waste of time.

Don't bother. Even if you've managed to struggle your way through the whole series up to this point, this book is still going to make you regret the time you spend on it. I know I do.

RichC

Rating:
Summary: Umm, not to be repetitive (like Turtledove) but.......
Review: Ok, its been said. Homeward Bound does what almost all other of Turtledove's recent works do - incessantly repeat themselves. Previously I thought this was just bad writing, but now I realize its a scheme to stall the series in the hopes of wringing out another book or two, and the sales that go with them. Unfortunately for many of us, we cannot break the Turtledove series habit. We should, or at the very least, pick his books up secondhand, deeply discounted.

SPOILERS




There are none. Nothing happens in this book that is of any import. There is one development at the end of the book (Perhaps last 50 pages or so), bit it isn't developed and frankly did not leaving me thirsting for more. The books is so incredibly dull and uneventful that the only thing I can say is that I'm thankful that only about 4 hours of my life were wasted. You find yourself skimming a lot when you realize that you can complete the content of the paragraphs.

I wish Turtledove would wrap this series up with a bang but I think I'm whistling Dixie.

Rating:
Summary: Good, but ending left to the reader's imagination
Review: Read it through enjoying it when sudenly the words stopped not quite at the end of the story. [Emphatic cough]

Does the race attempt to attack the humans again? What is that USSR ship on route going to do when they arrive there 10 years later? Is the US going to assume a protectrate role over the Race empire to protect them from the Germans in exchange for more favorable trading conditions than the race with the other not-empires?

Most males would love it if the clothing fashion of the young ladies described in this book caught on here. [Emphatic cough]

On the complaint about running into friends of the conquest fleet, the race does live longer than humans even adjusting for differences in the length of years, and for that matter, the last I heard there is still one widow of a Confederate Civil War Vetran left alive. (Winter-Spring relationship)


Rating:
Summary: Strong warning message--weakened by clunky writing
Review: Years before, humans barely staved off complete defeat at the hands of 'the Race,' an alien civilization that had decided to make Earth its next colony. In the years since then, humans had been stealing technology, innovating as quickly as they could, and generally trying to catch up with the tremendous technological advantages the Race held. Now, they are finally ready. The United States sends its first interstellar ship to the Race's native planet--Home.

The relatively stagnant civilization of the Race doesn't know how to deal with the humans. Humans change so quickly, they could sign a treaty now, then decide to go back on it when they gained a military advantage. Perhaps striking immediately, turning Earth into a vast radioactive wasteland, is the only option. Danger mounts when the Race's scientists learn that humans have been discovering new paths in physics. If they are ever to strike, they need to do so immediately.

To prevent disaster, the United States has Sam Yeager, his son and daughter-in-law, and a small group of diplomats and scientists--sent in suspended animation at sublight speeds. Sam tries to explain that the United States wants peace--and to be recognized as an equal. But the Race knows human history--and how easily treaties can be ignored and rewritten once power shifts. While it too is desperate for peace, its Emperor and its leaders wonder if the long-term peace it would achieve would be that of defeat.

Author Harry Turtledove uses his novel to ask questions and posit answers that are frighteningly relevant in today's world where the United States is the stumbling giant and where it wonders how long it can remain supreme. His overall message is one of cautious hope--and a warning against the type of arrogant superiority that too many politicians and military leaders claim.

Unfortunately, Turtledove's strong message and fascinating world-building are weakened by clunky and repetitive dialogue and by the lack of a story goal that really motivates action. Because Sam's goal is peace, and because the enemies of peace can't really be isolated and dealt with, HOMEWARD BOUND lacks a strong story drive. Interesting secondary characters like Race-raised human Kassquit and spaceship pilot Glenn Johnson don't really play into the main story goal and end up losing much of the impact they could get.

Although HOMEWARD BOUND is thematically strong and sends a message I think lots of Americans (and others) would do well to heed, the clunky writing makes it hard to recommend this novel.