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Rating: 
Summary: The final two volumes in Card's "Homecoming" series
Review: "Homecoming: Earth" presents volumes 4 and 5 in Orson Scott Hard's "Homecoming" series, with the first three volumes collected in "Homecoming: Harmony." The first three volumes take place on the planet Harmony, where young Nafai heeds the inner voice of the Oversoul, the benevolent computer that has been watching over humanity for 40 million years since Earth was abandoned. The Oversoul is breaking down and needs to get back to Earth for repairs and leads Nafai and the Wetchik family through the desert to the place where the ancient starships dwell. In "Earthfall," the fourth volume, the travelers return back to Earth to see what has happened to humanity's home. But the conflict between Nafai, who wears the Cloak of the Starmaster, and his jealous older brother Ellemak, still has to reach a final resolution. On the one hand I find "Earthfall" somewhat anticlimactic; it reminds me of "Apocalypse Now," where the journey raised expectations so high that whatever we found at the final destination was going to be disappointing. I think that if there had been a trilogy set on Earth then the series would have worked out better, because I was really expecting there to be more of payoff to the series beyond the idea of Earth being the promised land. There is nothing on Earth to compare with the rich world created on Harmony with Basillica. The two races that have evolved on earth in humanity's long absence, the bats ("angels" and rats ("diggers"), strike me as being a bit reminiscent of the pequinions ("piggies") that we met on Lusitania in "Speaker for the Dead." Beyond the obvious allegory I wanted there to be more. However, while overall I found this volume to be a bit disappointing in terms of my expectations, I did appreciate the way in which Card finally resolves the conflict between Ellemak and Nafai. It certainly ran against my inclinations in that regard, but there is a theme about not giving into your basic instincts running throughout the series. Originally it was the Oversoul that was maintaining mental blocks that precluded humanity from engaging in wars on Harmony. But you now how big humans can be about free choice. Because of that element I thought the end of "Earthfall" sufficiently redeemed the novel. In a sense, "Earthfall" completes the "Homecoming" story, because the fifth and final volume, "Earthborn," being more of a epilogue because it takes place generations later with an entirely new cast of characters (except for the wearer of the Cloak of the Starmaster). I know of some people who have failed to get through that final volume and I can certainly understand the impulse. Apparently the more you know about Card's Mormon faith the more you can appreciate what Uncle Orson is trying to do in these last two books, but that would not be me so any sense of allegory is lost on me. However, this is not only because I am ignorant of the specifics of Mormonism but also because from the start of the "Homecoming" series I discounted the various parallels between the narrative and the Bible. I still think that Card is dealing much more with the psychology of the "prophets," if you want to use that word, more than he is engaging in allegory.
Rating:
Summary: The final two volumes in Card's "Homecoming" series
Review: "Homecoming: Earth" presents volumes 4 and 5 in Orson Scott Hard's "Homecoming" series, with the first three volumes collected in "Homecoming: Harmony." The first three volumes take place on the planet Harmony, where young Nafai heeds the inner voice of the Oversoul, the benevolent computer that has been watching over humanity for 40 million years since Earth was abandoned. The Oversoul is breaking down and needs to get back to Earth for repairs and leads Nafai and the Wetchik family through the desert to the place where the ancient starships dwell. In "Earthfall," the fourth volume, the travelers return back to Earth to see what has happened to humanity's home. But the conflict between Nafai, who wears the Cloak of the Starmaster, and his jealous older brother Ellemak, still has to reach a final resolution. On the one hand I find "Earthfall" somewhat anticlimactic; it reminds me of "Apocalypse Now," where the journey raised expectations so high that whatever we found at the final destination was going to be disappointing. I think that if there had been a trilogy set on Earth then the series would have worked out better, because I was really expecting there to be more of payoff to the series beyond the idea of Earth being the promised land. There is nothing on Earth to compare with the rich world created on Harmony with Basillica. The two races that have evolved on earth in humanity's long absence, the bats ("angels" and rats ("diggers"), strike me as being a bit reminiscent of the pequinions ("piggies") that we met on Lusitania in "Speaker for the Dead." Beyond the obvious allegory I wanted there to be more. However, while overall I found this volume to be a bit disappointing in terms of my expectations, I did appreciate the way in which Card finally resolves the conflict between Ellemak and Nafai. It certainly ran against my inclinations in that regard, but there is a theme about not giving into your basic instincts running throughout the series. Originally it was the Oversoul that was maintaining mental blocks that precluded humanity from engaging in wars on Harmony. But you now how big humans can be about free choice. Because of that element I thought the end of "Earthfall" sufficiently redeemed the novel. In a sense, "Earthfall" completes the "Homecoming" story, because the fifth and final volume, "Earthborn," being more of a epilogue because it takes place generations later with an entirely new cast of characters (except for the wearer of the Cloak of the Starmaster). I know of some people who have failed to get through that final volume and I can certainly understand the impulse. Apparently the more you know about Card's Mormon faith the more you can appreciate what Uncle Orson is trying to do in these last two books, but that would not be me so any sense of allegory is lost on me. However, this is not only because I am ignorant of the specifics of Mormonism but also because from the start of the "Homecoming" series I discounted the various parallels between the narrative and the Bible. I still think that Card is dealing much more with the psychology of the "prophets," if you want to use that word, more than he is engaging in allegory.
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