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10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Armageddon from Space, December 11, 2002
Death Day (2001) is the first novel in a duology about the invasion of Earth by the alien Saurons. It is followed by Earthrise.
The Saurons destroy New York, Paris, Moscow, and other major cities in the first few minutes of the attack, killing over 3 billion people. With the destruction of Washington, and the Pentagon, political leadership devolves to the highest ranked remaining cabinet officer, Michael Olmsworthy, Secretary of the Air Force. He is in the TOC below McChord AFB and, when the aliens want to talk, he goes to meet them. Unfortunately, the Saurons are irritated by the insult, kill Olmsworthy, and chastise Alexander Ajani Franklin, governor of the state of Washington, for wasting perfectly good servants on a useless gesture. It seems the Saurons have castes, with the black-skinned Zin at the top, the brown-skinned Kan below them, and the white-skinned Fon at the bottom. Franklin is black and the others were not, hence the insult.
The Saurons have a made a list of suitable candidates for leadership of their human slaves, of which Franklin is the leading survivor. After Franklin accepts, hoping to ameliorate slave conditions, he finds that the Saurons are using his simulated image to promote their program. The novel spends the first third of the book introducing the main characters: a UN security man Jack Manning, his sister Marta Manning, ex-ranger George Farley and his buddy Deacon Smith, the white supremacist Jonathan Ivory, the historian Boyer Blue, doctor Seekko Sool, ranger Velo Kell, the StarCom worshipper Sister Andromeda, and USN PO3 Darby Stokes.
It also acquaints us with some of the Ra'Na, who have been slaves of the Saurons for two hundred years: Fra Pas Pol, Dro Tog, and P'ere Has. Fra Pol eavesdrops on the Zin and discovers that the Saurons are due to die on Earth. When he reports the conversation to Dro Tog, he is told that Tog will handle it. Nevertheless, Fra Pol autopsies a dead Fon and finds it is pregnant and the nymph is still alive. He spreads the word, even to the Fon, who are not aware of their impending demise.
Meanwhile, the Free Taggers, kids with spray cans, start using their graffiti to teach the Fon to read and the Fon also begin to uncover details of the Zin plot. At this point, the reader starts to understand the significance of the chapter headings, i.e., Death Day Minus 155, within the book. A new sense of urgency begins to develop.
This novel starts slow, but begins to build momentum in the middle. Franklin acquires a security detail, headed by Manning, Doctor Sool sets up a clinic, Sister Andromeda collaborates with the Saurons, Darby Stokes joins an attack of the Sauron shuttles, and the white supremacists attempt an assassination of Franklin. Thus ends the first volume in the series.
While this novel was probably influenced by Independence Day, it is more of a rebuttal than an imitation of that plot; odds are that the invasion will have accomplished its major objectives before anyone on Earth realizes the destruction is coming from space. What are the chances that Washington wouldn't be a prime target and thus zapped in the first few minutes. Bye-bye Pentagon, White House, etc.
This isn't Battlefield Earth either; in Hubbard's book, the hero overcomes his enemies single-handedly. Franklin definitely is not alone in his resistance to the Saurons; the humans, the Ra'Na, and even the Fon are required to repel the invaders. Stay tuned for the sequel.
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10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Keep your $. Get it from the library or a remainder sale., December 8, 2001
I confess that I love first contact and alien invasion stories. I thought I would enjoy this. I was wrong. Harry Turtledove seems to be the current master of alien invasion series. Had he written this novel, it would have been at least three times as long. I like brevity, but only if it furthers the story. When one sees paragraphs that read like "He did this and had an adventure there and escaped danger another place," one assumes that this would be a short, succinct novel. Unfortunately, the author seems to have ellipsed sections because he did not either have the skill to present them or the number of pages that the contract required prohibited such development. What I thought would be a stand-alone novel turned out to be the first of an unknown number of sequels. Part 1 didn't involve me enough to buy parts 2 - nnn. The aliens - all the aliens - could have been replaced by humans. There is simply no difference in their actions in this novel. And, any of the human characters could have been replaced by any of the others. Cardboard is cardboard, and that's what all the characters, human or alien, are here. And much of the novel was not internally consistent. I'm not going to waste your time by enumerating the problems. I'll just say that they make this a waste of your time and dollars. If you read this review and disagree, please post a rebuttal. Fiction is, in the end, in the eye of the beholder. On the other hand, if you feel the author has cheated you our of your time and money, please enter that comment, too. Science Fiction is difficult to write, and all to often I think we affectionados get trapped into accepting the mediocre, when we should be demanding the best. Deathday is certainly not one of the worst novels, but it is not one of the best. It is low-mediocre at best, and not deserving of your time. Rick
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
One star is overly generous, December 5, 2002
Don't buy this book. Don't even think about it. The plot is a direct imitation of Independence Day, War of the Worlds, and any number of other SF titles that were MUCH better done. The book itself is the first in a series. It is not a "stand-alone" read. If you care to find out what happens, you won't, but if, you must buy at least the next book in the series. We are asked to believe that the Sauron race descends upon Earth, laying waste to everything they see. They conquer all, with no reply from an emasculated military. But wait, while the military can't seem to make the weapons be effective, by God, some good old boys from the back country can get those aliens. But not enough to matter. By the end of the book I was hoping for some kind of finale. It wasn't there. In fact, the book endpapers tell you to look for the next book in the series, "Earthrise". I'm here to tell you, don't bother. I don't mind series books, in fact Harry Turtledove has turned them into a cottage industry. But Mr. Turtledove's books can be read as a series or individually. You will pick up immediately what is happening. Mr. Dietz however seems to think that he can put some garbage together, publish the book and we will "need" to see how it comes out. Again, don't bother. I won't go into what is supposed to be a morality tale about race relations, because to be honest, Mr. Dietz doesn't do it very well. It could've been worse. I almost bought both books at the same time. Don't bother. Save your money or go and rent Independence Day. You'll have a better time.
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