Once More, Into The Plothole

What did you love best about Earth Alone?

It's a nice action novel. That's really about it.

Would you recommend Earth Alone to your friends? Why or why not?

Depends on the friend. Earth Alone (and the subsequent books) are ... okay. If you're into military science fiction, it's not awful. If you aren't -- well, I'd recommend people go check out exemplars of the genre first, like Starship Troopers and Old Man's War.

What does Jeffrey Kafer bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Jeffrey, I think, captured the author's intent in dramatizing the descriptions the author left in the story. It made an otherwise cheesy story more listenable.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

No extreme reactions. It just sort of was.

Any additional comments?

Some books are a fine, gourmet meal. Starship Trooper and Old Man's War are good examples of the genre, and it's exceedingly clear that the author is trying to channel those works. He tries to channel them so hard that it becomes derivative. This is more like fast food. It satiates some hunger, but it's not exactly nutritious.

It's evident that the author knows what he knows of the military from playing roleplaying games or watching bad Hollywood movies. It's in subtle things. Soldiers rarely refer to their weapons as "rifles" or "pistols," instead using the more catch-all, imprecise term of "gun." Boot camp as depicted is very much a caricature of the real thing, and the odd million-in-one chance pairings and meetings (serving in the same unit as your foster sister? Really?) of particular characters constantly war to break your suspension of disbelief. Deus ex machina and unlikely chances abound (especially the very forced timing and outcome of the book's conclusion).

Characters themselves are more caricatures. Each fits neatly into a careful trope. The angsty Leilani, the hot-headed Addy, the "old soul" main character Marco, the burly Russian "Beast," the fat kid. Each is a stereotype. The enemy is a black-and-white evil thing with zero there to lend sympathy to the reader. The "scum" are less nuanced than if the antagonist were a natural disaster like a hurricane or an earthquake. That'd likely be fine if the idea were to not distract from the characters and their own stories, but it's disingenuous in what is ostensibly a "war novel" (shades of grey with the enemy are always evident in wars, and scrubbing this reality here doesn't add any focus to the novel, as it perhaps did in Armor). Even human antagonists in later books are utterly two dimensional, like the uncreatively named Captain Petty.

The plot progresses along in a forced fashion. It doesn't change by the second book, by the way, which plays out pretty much exactly as the latter half of the Starship Troopers movie did, with extremely precious little variation.

It's a YA novel, at or slightly below the same quality level as the Hunger Games or Divergent -- at least those two had something of an original interpretation of older stories behind them. This is derivative. But I still read it, perhaps to punish myself for past sins.

The narrator provided by Audible is a tasty sauce on an otherwise bland dish.

5 people found this helpful

Welcome to the HDF ... the Human Defense League.

Set after a failed alien invasion which still managed to destroy more than half of the human population, Earth continues to battle on. All 18 year olds are drafted into the Human Defence League, put through a rigourous, if short, training session, then spat out to continue the battle against the insectoid-like Scum. The story basically follows the initiation of Marco, nicknamed Poet, a young man who only wishes to continue writing his book about a turtle, become a librarian and live peacefully with his girlfriend. Well, that's not going to happen.
The reader follows Marco and a small group of other conscripts, some there more willingly than others, through the rigours of boot camp to their first major encounter with the alien enemy, a battle which is both fierce and bloody action. Although nothing much is new, it is still an exciting read and the character of the main protagonist well drawn.

What does concern me, however, is the overall world picture: the aliens are capable of inflicting huge casualties. After fifty years of fighting, surely there would be too few survivors to be able to continue the defense in such organised number, especially when conscription of Earth's youth is for a five year period. Yet the central figures yearn for the peaceful home life left behind, daily and sports events as other social activities. Who would be left to enjoy them? And where? Cultural mentions also seem to reference the present day, or even our recent past, - like the recruit who is constantly singing Elvis songs - rather than introducing new: the story is supposed to be set a couple or more centuries into our future.

Jeffrey Kafer's narration, however, leaves the listener little time to ponder this. Reading at a fast pace, with good intonation and pleasantly voiced, his performance is slick, but not overemotional, allowing the author's words to tell the story. He draws the listener along with him, through the loves, fears and horrors confronted by the Poet.

I enjoyed this book. Certainly not without flaws and, as mentioned by others, very reminiscent of some earlier works, it nevertheless can stand on it's own as good entertainment. And if action is what is desired by the reader, the final chapters alone certainly provide that. And, yes, I have already purchased book II in the series.

4 people found this helpful

Fun listen.

Close knockoff to Starship Troupers, the movie not the book. Lacked any attempt at philosophic discourse that Heinlein brought to his book but a good entertaining time filler none the less.

4 people found this helpful

Repeat - Repeat - Repeat

I listened to all nine books but the repeated laments of the four main characters had me gritting my teeth. If you took all the laments about this person died that person died you could fill a book but that would leave only half to two thirds of a book. Guess that would make the book too short. The overall story line was good, that is why I listened to the complete series. Thank goodness for fast forward.

3 people found this helpful

Okay-ish

The story was okay and characters had decent attention paid to their development but the performance was very one-note and as a result off theme most of the time. Hearing about a peaceful or boring section of plot described in the classic "epic movie voiceover voice" got to be grating.
The voice-acting had me rolling my eyes for half of the protagonist's introspective musings. In the end I had to force myself through the last couple of hours.

3 people found this helpful

Great book

It was a great start to the series, however it is short for the price.

7 people found this helpful

Meh

The idea seemed cool, but the execution was nothing to write home about. Performance was good, albeit a bit melodramatic.

The writing left something to be desired, juvenile character interaction and language, one-dimensional characters, an obvious storyline, horrible plot holes and nonsensical story decisions which are obviously intended to set up the analogy of this book to modern day mid-east politics in an extremely thinly veiled manner.

The book is a cliche of Starship Troopers and any bootcamp flick you've ever seen. It was also VERY hard to ignore the writer's Mideast politics being shoved down your throat. I tried, god help me I tried. But this book reads like a love poem to the author's own ethnic heritage. I don't think I've ever seen so much self aggrandizing in any book in my life.

I half expected the Israelis in the book to sprout wings and win the day with a golden sword and a heavenly light shining down on them as they rode a pegasus into battle, shedding one tear and killing the 'Aliens'.

Maybe it wouldn't have been as glaring if the book had other redeeming qualities... but nothing else was engaging - not the characters, not the tech, not the attempt at military customs, not even the action. Disappointing.

6 people found this helpful

alright!

I was a little bit wary at first... But soon the characters captured a little piece of me. It was real and I even shed a tear now and then LOL

6 people found this helpful

I can not wait to listen to the next 2 books.

This is one of the best sci-fi books I have ever read or listened to. Will definitely be buying the next two books in the series. Let's hope Marco doesn't get romantically involved with another woman....that will be trouble waiting to happen.

6 people found this helpful

Starship troopers

I am a big fan of sci-fi and I felt this book was well written. It reminded me of the movie starship troopers at the beginning but then it started to sound distinct. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in an starship trooper themed story line. Looking forward to the next book.

9 people found this helpful