Customer Reviews

Homeward Bound

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(15)
1 star:		(25)

 

 

Basically, the story went nowhere.

Nothing happened. I don't know how else to say it. Americans made it to Home in suspended animation. Home is hot and dry. The Race is shocked. America demands that they be respected as equals by the race. The Race refuses and just before they decide to launch a pre-emptive war, an American "Faster than Light" ship reaches home. Instead of spending years in suspended animation, the trip to home takes 5 weeks. Home, now realizing that they are now technologically INFERIOR for the first time in their history, decides not to make the attack. One of the Americans becomes Kassquit's sex partner, leaving her pregnant. The Americans go home.

Uh.......that's pretty much it. 600 pages.

I enjoyed the series as a whole. It's a fascinating premise: aliens invade in the middle of WWII, and the warring nations must put aside their differences in order to confront the new threat. Also, after several books of humans playing catch up with the alien invaders, it was satisfying to see them pull ahead technologically.

But having said that, this book has serious flaws. Turtledove is, I am saddened to admit, apparently devolving as a writer. Look at his first major work, the "Videssos Cycle" and you will see good pacing; good plotting; memorable, colorful characters; rich detail; and a host of other virtues. Look at his more recent work, and you will see signs of a more slipshod approach to each project. Perhaps this is because he is churning out a lot more books these days, and quality is suffering at the hands of quantity. Perhaps also, having achieved critical success and gained a following, his editors are less inclined to make changes to his work than they were when he was an unknown newcomer.

This book was more or less good. It wasn't great. And that's a pity, for greatness is something this author is quite capable of. Some details just don't ring true at all. Throughout this whole series, he's had humans meekly accept the appellation "Big Uglies" -- a clearly derogatory term -- from the Race. Nowhere to you see humans stand up and declare that that is a derogatory and insulting name, and they find it unacceptable -- even when humans are grown powerful enough to insist upon respectful treatment. Social trends like large numbers of humans aping the Race by shaving body hair and wearing body paint just don't ring true either, nor does humannkind aping the Race's language by interjecting such awkward and unnatural (for humans) things like interrogative and emphatic COUGHS into the English language. English can easily adapt words for new concepts from other languages (and often has), but the language has never altered basic speech patterns to such a radical degree, so it doesn't feel right at all that it should here. But these are details. By far the biggest flaw I discerned in the book was far more fundamental: the author shows a real tendency to beat certain things TO DEATH. Before I was a quarter of the way through the novel, I had read at least a dozen times how the Race had been possessors of an advanced starfaring technological civilization when Cro-Magnons were still taking over from Neanderthals. It seems that each character in the story is given the opportunity to state or reflect on this. At length. And the reader gets to read about it each and every time. After the fifth time I was rolling my eyes in exasperation. I GET IT ALREADY!!! It's as though Turtledove was getting paid by the word, and was determined to stretch this thing out as much as possible, in order to milk the cash cow. The book (and really, this whole series, for that matter) was entertaining, but could easily have been trimmed to half its length without sacrificing anything important to the story. Harry Turtledove is to writing what William Shatner is to acting. Shatner CAN turn in brilliant performances (watch Star Trek's "City on the Edge of Forever", or even "Star Trek III" [the scene where Kirk loses his son]). Shatner CAN act, and act very well. But he has an innate tendency to ham it up, so he needs a good director to rein him in, and keep him from overacting so much that he starts eating the scenery. Similarly, Turtledove, as he proved with the Videssos Cycle, can tell a fantastic story, but he needs a good editor to stop him from running on endlessly over the same points, and from unnecessary exposition.

Once upon a tiime, September 23, 2005
Reviewer: Canticle For Leibowitz (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews
Once upon a time there was a writer named Harry, who wrote some great and imaginative books, Guns of the South, Household Gods, Ruled Britannia...WHERE OR WHERE IS HE? Sorry, but anyone these days who buys any part of any of his many series is simply begging to be taken. I swear, its to the point that Harry Turtledove could be replaced by a computer program designed to write hack historical science fiction, a program designed for the computers of the late 1980's...does he mail these in? Does he pay interns to write for him? Look, I know some of you will hate this review, and probably love what hes doing, but really, don't you all know his formula by now, couldn't many of you outline his hack formula? Is there any one left who doubts he is STRETCHING THESE OUT FOR ALL THEY'RE WORTH? Is he paid by the word? Does he even care any more, does he have any respect left for his public? I LOVED his work, and I regret what he has become...now, please don't hate me!

This is one of those books which some people love and others absolutely hate. For me it deserved five stars but there will be other readers, some of whom enjoyed the first few books in the series, for whom even one star would be too many.

"Homeward Bound" is the eighth and probably final book in the series which begins with an alien invasion of earth in the middle of World War II. The full sequence is


WORLDWAR Quartet, starting in 1942: warring human nations forced to unite against lizardlike Aliens from Tau Ceti 2.

Worldwar: In the Balance
Worldwar: Tilting the Balance
Worldwar: Upsetting the Balance
Worldwar: Striking the Balance


COLONISATION Trilogy, starting about 1962: twenty years after the initial alien attack a second fleet full of colonists arrives, touching off a further round of intrigue and war

Colonisation: Second contact
Colonisation: Down to earth
Colonisation: aftershocks


HOMEWARD BOUND: in 2031 an American spaceship arrives at Tau Ceti to pay the aliens a return visit ...


The first thing to understand about this book to decide whether you would be one of those who love it or one of those who hate it, is that the "Alternative History" element is very small indeed. Most of the action happens in 2031, seventy years after the alien invasion, and very few historical figures are recognisable.

There are a few little touches relating to real people - I caught references to Henry Kissenger ("The Doctor"), James Dean (no car crash, he lived to old age) and Matt Damon. And one of the comic touches in the book is a "lizard" (e.g. Tau Cetan) policeman who is clearly a parody of Lieutenant Columbo. But essentially this is a novel of alien contact, not alternative history.


The biggest difference between this book and the WorldWar quartet is that the book is about diplomacy and is not a war story. Turtledove often writes books which contain a lot of fighting, but not all his books are war stories and this one isn't. If you are one of the readers who liked his "Great War" series but didn't like the "American Empire" followup, or if you liked most of David Weber's Honor Harrington books but didn't like "War of Honor" then do not even think of buying "Homeward Bound".


One other characteristic of Harry Turtledove which doesn't bother everyone but which really annoys some people is that he repeats things. A lot. In fact, a very great deal. This is one of those books which has a lot of repetition, so if you are the sort of reader who feels patronised or annoyed when a writer repeats things, you may want to leave this one alone.


Good things about the book: I thought the characters, both human and alien, were well drawn, interesting and believeable. There was some interesting speculation about the likely human cost of early interstellar travel. The sources of tension between humans and aliens - ecological impacts, cultural differences, rivalry for territory, drug trading, and fear of attack, were well explored.


Some editions of the book have cover showing a human and a "lizard" raising a U.S. Flag, together. Other editions have a rather silly cover in which lizards who are not wearing spacesuits, are reflected in the spacesuit visor of a human who is. Since all eight books make perfectly clear that humans and lizards breathe the same air, and therefore earth and Tau Ceti 2 have similar atmospheres, the spacesuit cover does deserve a black mark. But it hardly affects the quality of the story itself.

Bottom line, if you're looking for alternative history, a war story or one with a lot of action, leave it alone. If you want to read an intesting speculation about how two races might interact in the early days of interstellar travel, you may find this a really good book.

Despite the numerous negative reviews, I still picked up Homeward Bound. After all, I am a big Turtledove fan. He introduced me to alternative history and I have read well over a dozen of his novels -many of which I would recommend - including the World War and Colonization Series. While I did not expect the next great American novel, I at least expected to be somewhat entertained. I was disappointed. Homeward Bound is downright dreadful and not one that I would recommend.

Here's why: 1) The repetition is simply mind-numbing. It is something an editor should have corrected. While one understands repetition between novels within a series, especially if a year or more has passed between prints, this novel has repetition of phrases and facts almost verbatim - over and over and over again - often within the same chapter. I knew I was in trouble when my bookmark slipped out and I had the darnedest time finding my spot because every page I read sounded the same.

2) The storyline went nowhere. I kept hoping something -anything- would happen. It never did. The story has several promising tangents, but they are dropped before anything of substance comes to fruition and you wonder why then they were even included. There are meaningless negotiations, a ginger smuggling plot that simply ends, and "poof" a predictable ending. By the middle of the book I figured out what would happen and said to myself, "I hope he doesn't end it this way. It would be so cheap." And he did.

I must conclude that Turtledove quickly turned this one out to cash in on his prior series. It was not his finest hour. I would have preferred if he would have instead taken the time and effort to put out the quality work that he is truly capable of or in the alternative opened up the creativity of the series to other writers like Flint did in his 1632 series. It is truly a unique and promising AH environment to write in. There are so many possibilities available. I suspect Turtledove is simply churning them out too quickly.

Indeed, the actual story could have been handled in fifty pages, and even then would not have been worth the time it took to read.

I read this despite both unease at Turtledove's latest writing and solidly bad reviews here. You know how it is, you've just got to finish a series. Unfortunately, this is no finish. Of course the humans were going to develop starflight and outpace the Race, that was obvious from book one of Worldwar. Apparently, by the time the starship has left Earth, the US is just beginning to pull ahead of the Race. In other words, apart from developing cold cleep and starflight - stolen from the aliens wholesale - fifty years of examining 1990s style technology has brought humans to - The 1990s.
There have been no developments on earth at all. Despite a terribly costly struggle against nazis and then a costly arms race, the Soviet Union survives to the mid 21st century. How likely is that? Even less likely, we find that Nazism survived having dragged Germany into a nuclear holocaust. Nothing has changed for humans since the world war ended. No UN of the surviving human states, no agreement on how to deal with a powerful alien race that are bent on changing the planet to suit themselves, in fact no sign that any of the human nations remaining are aware of the existence of each other at all.
Turtledove's humans are frozen in place from WW2, changing as little as the Race.
The whole trip to Home becomes a waste of time. Not long after Yeager & Friends reach Home, the US becomes the new galactic power and arrives to demonstrate that all that the Race couldn't launch a war if it wanted to, and wouldn't standa chance of winning. A whole book about Yeager, and turns out to be irrelevent. Ho hum.
Yet with all these advances, do humans address the issue of sovereignty over planet Earth? Do they act to halt the wholesale destruction of Earth's ecosystem? Do they act to address the plight of the billions of humans under alien control? Do, perhaps, humans in Africa find that their lot has improved vastly, or the reverse? How are a billion Chinese getting along with a large new population of aliens? None of this seems to have occurred to Turtledove.
Cut out the tedious, endlessly repeated assertions that Big Uglies change so, so fast while the Race has had civilisation since the dawn of blah blah blah, and this entire book might have been the opening prologue of a book that dealt with the possible consequences for humanity of sharing our planet with a numerous and increasing alien species.

Yes, there is too much repition. Yes, the main character should have been whacked for his treason a couple books back. Yes, There were multiple plot lines that ended in dead ends. Yes, Yes, Yes...

What I wanted from this book and did not get was a serious Lizard-Thumping.

No need for a shooting war, what about an ecological one with Tosevites figuring out how to kill off the Lizard's imported flora and fauna?

What about isolating the essence of ginger and genetically grafting THAT into the Lizard food source?

What about having the Tosevites run economic circles around the Race's static methodoligies of production?

How about diddling the weather so that the hot and dry places become hot and wet? This is supposed to be Science Fiction, is it not?

This is OUR planet, Harry; sharing it is for Kindergardners.

Not enough imagination here.

I'm waiting, Harry.

It started out as a grand, fun idea: "what if an alien invasion just happened to interrupt World War II." And it was entertaining, for a while.

But as it dragged on and on, book after book, trilogy after trilogy, it became clear that Turtledove had no real plan for wrapping it up.

The present book is no less frustrating than its immediate predecessors, and the unbelievably bad writing makes it painful. I have never encountered this much repetetiveness, or plowed through so many scenes where nothing happens, before.

We read a scene where a human awakens from cold sleep, and learn that he's weak and uncoordinated at first. OK, we get it. It is not necessary to repeat this information every time a new POV character awakens from cold sleep.

Lizards lower their eyes when they mention the Emperor. OK, we get it. It's not necessary to describe them doing so *every single time a Lizard says the word 'Emperor'*!

We get that humans are more creative and develop technology faster. We get that Lizard society is hide-bound and stratified. We get that it's hot on Home. We don't need scene after scene re-emphasizing these point without expanding on them or relating them to something else in the plot.

The actual story told in this book could have been handled in 50 pages.

But that's not the worst of it. The characters are the same templates they've been since the series began, with little or no change and little or no dimensionality. They don't do or say new things, they just do and say the same things as they get older.

The Lizards are just scaly humans with a mating season and a superiority complex. Nothing alien about them, really.

Ultimately, the entire exercise becomes unbelievable, boring, dull, and a complete waste of time.

Don't bother. Even if you've managed to struggle your way through the whole series up to this point, this book is still going to make you regret the time you spend on it. I know I do.

RichC

Harry Turtledove, once a very fine writer, has of late been slipping into the trap that more pages means a better novel. "Homeward Bound," the supposed "conclusion" to his Lizardwars sextet, is nothing more than the latest example of that trend.

Sam Yeager and company end up being loaded onto the Americans' first starfaring spaceship and shipped off to the Lizard's homeworld, Home (cough!), as part of an expedition to negotiate a peace with the elder race. When the primary ambassador, the "Doctor", dies in transit, Yeager is forced into service as ambassador because the Lizards won't deal with anyone else.

That, unfortunately, summarizes the bulk of the "action" in this latest tome. We see the Americans being drug all over Home by their tourguide. We see that the Lizards don't trust the Big Uglies. We see lots and lots of emphatic coughing from both sides. We see seemingly hundreds of Lizards trying to get ginger not only from the BU's but from the Lizard POV characters. Eventually a faster ship shows up from Earth and the Lizards get their tails even more into a lather. Will the Lizards launch a pre-emptive war? Will the Americans show up with a whole fleet of FTL ships and take care of that problem once and for all?

Well, that's where the book ends. Oh, sure, the last couple of chapters bring most of the Americans back to Earth where they feel like fish out of water due to the time elapsed on their trip to home, and Donald and Mickey put in an appearance in comic relief (Donald the game show host! Who would have thunkit?). But given the rather large McGuffin that still looms, e.g. there is no treaty, not much possibility of one, and who knows whether or not planets of the Race/Tosevites are going to be bombarded, this makes for a very unstatisfactory "conclusion." I have a feeling we're going to see yet another three books from Turtledove dealing with that.

Harry's writing quality has been in a continuous decline since "Guns of the South" and the Videssos Cycle books. This supposed final installment of the series was one of the worst books he has written and as mentioned by other reviewers, filled with nothing but an endless sequence of repetitive nonsense. How many times can a reader be tortured with reading the same points repeated over and over again, ad nauseam? If you really want a painful answer go to a library (so as not to waste any money) and spend a few minutes on any page and you'll soon put it down. It is actually a painful book to read and I found myself skipping entire pages. I really wonder if Turtledove actually took the time to proof-read his product because I can't see how he could have let this one out into the market. This will be last book of his that I waste my time and money on.