Customer Reviews

Earthsong

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Anna and Joe - the twin Adam and Eve characters - are children who have come to Earth as part of a project to reclaim the planet that their ancestors have surrendered.

As a result of being `off-worlders' they have as much affinity of Earth's environment as the Crusaders had with the middle-east. By being at odds with their environment in such a way, the world starts off as a faceless enemy. Both the landscape and fortune are weighted against them - their guides usually have their own agendas and loyalties, leaving Anna and Joe doubly isolated. This makes the question of whether they can band together and remain sane all the more uncertain and makes this a particularly sinister book.

As their journey progresses, they do however experience a kind of fusion with the environment. The ship, for instance, tumbles down into bumbling entropy, turning from a star ship into an eventual land based tractor with an affinity with whales. The youths find refuge in trees, and become `parents' even with the most handicapped and primitive infrastructure.

While the progressive revelation of background information is a treat, Earthsong's forte is the development of both the humans into more resourceful and versatile people, and the artificial intelligences into prouder personalities. Their personal and interpersonal development is a wonder to behold, and the jargon filled speech of the ship's computer brings colour to lighten up an otherwise dreadful emotional landscape.

Though the obstacles that the protagonists of Earthsong must overcome are somewhat uneventful and the closure anticlimactic, Earthsong is redeemed in its portrayal of the children's grudging reconciliation with the world and their circumstance - in short, their growing their maturity.