30 December 2014

Seeking Clarity of Mind: A Review of Seeds of Earth, Michael Cobley

On-line, and surprisingly even in person I have little to no difficulty in expressing my viewpoint regarding books. However place me firmly in a SF bookstore surrounded by shelves of SF goodness facing one very informed, very passionate clerk and I lose my shit. LOSE IT. I found myself only yesterday talking too loudly, hogging the clerk's attention, uttering incomplete utterance of garbage and insanity. I left 40 minutes later with four books, no fast friends and a grin the size of the Cheshire Cat. By the time I made it home with my bounty, I had convinced myself that my level of foolishness had dropped me further into the abyss of geek-doom. If a geek acts even more geeky does this equate to being a better or lesser geek?  

Honestly, what is up with that? Trying to take over the world, one science fiction book review at a time is greatly hindered by my inability to express clarity of mind. Bat shit crazy works for the majority of my life instances but with my 2015 resolution to expand my blog readership to 10, I may indeed have to pull myself together (slightly). 


Although my inability to advocate my opinions is of some relevance, the query today as we move into the new year is what is up with Seeds of Earth? Michael Cobley's Humanity's Fire trilogy has taken over my life; talking to family members was terminated yesterday with full book hibernation commencing by this evening. Seeds of Earth is a space operatic maddeningly addicting, roller-coaster of a novel. 200 pages in, I fool-heartedly attempted to explain the premise to the hubby who halted my predominately hand-gestured synopsis requesting words as I attempted to describe the multi-faceted chaos with squiggly lines about my head; our conversation seized quite succinctly at this point.

I stand in a long line of reviewers who have found difficulty in expressing this book without divulging spoilers. There exists a fine line between numbing our readership with minuscule references to seemingly unimportant events to offering a flippant expose leaving little expression to how fun a book is to read. And fun, this book is but how to go about this review without sounding like Mad King George? 

150 years ago three generational ships from a desperately planned 15, successfully took-off for parts unknown in the hope to save humanity from the looming genocide by the first intelligently advanced aliens to contact Earth.  The book opens to the reader introduced to the planet Darien, the Uvovo and the thriving human colony whose ancestors made the harrowing flight to safety in one of those three ships.  By chapter 4, I excitedly thought I had a Frank Herbert inspired ecologically slanted space adventure in my hands. The details around the planet Darien and the symbiotic relationship the Uvovo share with the forest had me instantly thinking of the spice and the Fremen. As the pace dramatically increased, I realized that what I was reading was a true space opera of epic proportions. By chapter 10, I realized I had no idea what I had and was loving every minute.

Seeds of Earth is not for the faint of heart, let's give SF a try, kinda read. This IS science fiction. It will slam you with detail, spin you around while throwing alien races at you faster than you can successfully imagine them, all to weave you into a political plot involving half the universe while keeping the story intimate. I can't wait to finish it and move onto book 2 and 3. 

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