Seeds of Earth - Review

Title: Seeds of Earth  

Author: Michael Cobley

Series: Humanity’s Fire #1  

Synopsis: “The first intelligent species to encounter mankind attacked without warning.  With little hope of halting the invasion, Earth’s last roll of the dice was to dispatch three colony ships, seeds of earth, to different parts of the galaxy.  The human race would live on … somewhere.

          “150 years later, the planet Darien hosts a thriving human settlement, which enjoys a peaceful relationship with an indigenous race the scholarly Uvovo.  But there are secrets buried on Darien’s forest moon.  Secrets that go back to an apocalyptic battle fought between ancient races at the dawn of galactic civilization.  Unknown to its colonists, Darien is about to become the focus of an intergalactic power struggle where the true stakes are beyond their comprehension.  And what choices will the Uvovo make when their true nature is revealed and the skies grow dark with the enemy?”

Review: I have made no secret of the fact that Science Fiction is my favorite genre.  It is also the genre about which I am the pickiest.  I like a certain type of Science Fiction.  Julie E. Czerneda, David Brin, and Elizabeth Bear are my favorites, and I’ve generally been really pleased with everything I’ve read from Orbit Publishing.  Strong characters and a well developed world are vital; the actual science is secondary to me.  If you tell a strong story with an emphasis on character and world building I won’t even notice if your science is a little weak or even unrealistic.  (I was an English literature major, science is not my strong suit.) 

          That said.  I liked Seeds of Earth.  I didn’t love it, but I didn’t hate it either.  Cobley obviously put a lot of thought into his world building, and character development.  I love the Uvovo and wish that I could go live with them for a time.  I love the back story of the three ships leaving earth, the “seeds of earth” and how the colonists on Darien hate AI tech because of the betrayal by their AI.  The worlds of Darien and its forest moon are complex and I love it.  However, I feel as if Cobley tried to do too much with Seeds of Earth.  There is too much crammed into this novel and it began to get a bit tedious.  The storyline jumps around between many different characters which got a bit confusing, and there are several different stories being told within this one novel.  It made my brain hurt and I had to keep taking reading breaks because I was getting jolted out of the story and had to think too hard to keep track of everything that was going on.

          Overall I recommend Seeds of Earth, and I will be reading the rest of the Humanity's Fire series, but be prepared because this isn’t a relaxing, lose yourself in another world kind of read.

Publisher: Orbit

ISBN: 978- 0316213981

If you like this book you may want to read:

Leviathan Wakes (The Expanse #1) by James S. A. Corey

Survival (Species Imperative #1) Julie E. Czerneda