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roach's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Other generations perceived a plethora of swords hanging over their heads. But generally what they feared were shadows, for neither they nor their gods could actually end the world. Fate might reap an individual, or a family, or even a whole nation, but not the entire world. Not then.
We, in the mid-twenty-first century, are the first to look up at a sword we ourselves have forged, and know, with absolute certainty, it is real...
I didn't exactly have any specific expectations when I decided to pick up this lengthy hard-scifi novel simply called Earth but I ended up being drawn in by the fantastic near-future world-building with a focus on the environmental impact based on real-life facts.
The original premise about an artificial tiny black hole accidentally falling into the planet's core, threatening to eat our collective home from the inside out, is only a piece of this massive story that ultimately is about humanity's treatment of Earth as a whole. Brin clearly did a lot of thorough research and made for a lot of interesting speculations to create this version of the year 2038 where our footprint on nature is showing its effects, which in turn influences the general zeitgeist and the way we live.
From a prediction of the internet that aged quite well, over the effects of geological transformations due to climate change, to the development of naturalist religions and edgy sun-worshippers that celebrate the declining ozone layer... Also the acknowledged concept of a debt a generation leaves to the next.
There are so many captivating ideas, some of which probably hit a bit differently reading it now, at a time that's closer to the book's future year of 2038 than the early 90s, when this was first published. It certainly manages to fill the 700 pages of this global story pretty well.
It's an accomplishment in itself to be able to string along a coherent story that spans locations all across the planet, including the inner core and outside orbit, with changing focus on a whole bunch of different characters, without losing itself in tedium or confusion.
There are a couple of elements in the later part of the story that I didn't really see coming, which were interesting in their own regard but I was secretly hoping for a bit of a different path myself. And, of course, this book could probably have been shortened a bit here and there without losing too much. This is why my real rating of this would be more like 4.5 out of 5.
Nevertheless, this was a great read and I recommend this to anyone who is looking for eco-scifi.
What our grandchildren inherit is entirely up to us. And frankly, I'd rather they remember us as having left them a bit of hope.
- David Brin, August 1989
draeprice's review against another edition
5.0
This book was published in 1990 and makes some amazing predictions about the internet and climate change.
hawkeyegough's review against another edition
3.0
Wonderful concept, interesting vision of the future but suffered from wandering plot and too many unnecessary characters. I would've probably given it another star if it was about 25% shorter. Also really wanted the bad guy to have a more satisfying comeuppance.
ginnikin's review against another edition
Arg! I don't care about any of these people. Also, casual misogyny for the lose. You try to tell me this is a future on limited resources, but she has plants watered?! And orange juice from Oregon brought to her in Texas?! Give me a break.
mjfmjfmjf's review against another edition
4.0
Reread. But kind of exhausting. Too many ideas and in the end kind of fell over. But it had some details that stayed with me me for years. Looking for a rock in Kansas. Editing 80s sf movies to be 15 minutes long. The gnomes of zurich kind of. A black hole at the center of the Earth? And using [b:Shuttle Down|549127|Shuttle Down|G. Harry Stine|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1263175870s/549127.jpg|1917291] as a detail. And something about a manifestation of Gaia in some manner. And a floating country of environmental refugees. That's a lot for me to have remembered and rightly so. I also recalled being impressed at Brin's version of a worldwide computer network. And reading this now, he really didn't do all that badly. The details were just thin enough that it still worked in 2018 which is remarkable for something published only a year or so after www was invented. But the book also had too much fluff. The scientific dump also was too much. And too much characters. But it did have a real ending. A mixed bag but a pretty good one.
reasie's review against another edition
2.0
Not my cup of tea.
It's well-written, certainly. David Brin's no slouch. But I found it a story lacking STORY. It's an idea-book, filled with lots of pontification and thought-experimentation, and no real human interest.
It felt rather like a series of non-fiction essays, and terribly opinionated ones at that.
It's well-written, certainly. David Brin's no slouch. But I found it a story lacking STORY. It's an idea-book, filled with lots of pontification and thought-experimentation, and no real human interest.
It felt rather like a series of non-fiction essays, and terribly opinionated ones at that.
spencercross's review against another edition
4.0
Earth is almost frighteningly prescient. In fact, for all of the accolades heaped upon Gibson's Neuromancer, this is a far more accurate and real prediction of where we're headed. Next time you're wasting time customizing your Google home page or My Yahoo!, stop and think for just a second that Brin predicted exactly what you'd be doing almost 20 years ago. Even more interesting (or, possibly, unsettling) is that the more time passes the more eerily accurate Earth's vision of the future, and it's attendant global climate crisis, becomes.