Customer Reviews

Orphans of Earth

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Orphans of Earth is the second novel in this new series. In the previous novel, human civilization in the Solar System has been wiped out by the Starfish aliens and some human colonies were also destroyed. The only surviving full human, Caryl Hatzis, has joined Peter Alander's engram in warning the remaining human colonies in the path of the Spinners.

In this novel, they acquire more FTL ships and start organizing the survivors. Caryl is secretly enhancing her engrams with intent to form another personality gestalt. Alander's only other known engram is destroyed. Alander joins the Hatzis engram from Thor in surveying systems in the Spinners path and discover a secret engram colony based on the personality of a project administrator, Frank Axford, who stole a colony ship and has since replicated his engram many times. Since the original was a army general officer and CIA administrator, Axford has a different attitude toward both sets of aliens and has uncovered a few techniques unknown to the other human colonies. Axford has also discovered that the anomalous ship settings are caused by a third set of aliens, the Yuhn/goel, and wants to ally with them against the Starfish.

The Starfish have changed tactics somewhat, still attacking systems where FTL communicators are used, but now are also following up with random seaches of nearby systems. They are gradually sterilizing the whole volume of space in the Spinners path. All the human colonies are threatened. Will the Yuan become allies and help strike back against the Starfish?

This novel continues to be as exciting and immediate as the first. Enjoy, but stay tuned for the sequel.

-Arthur W. Jordin

Having felt a little nonplussed with the way the ending of the first book of the Orphan Trilogy, "Echoes of Earth" I was bowled over by this sequel- absolutely brilliant from start to finish! Just when I think it is getting harder for SF writers to come up with something gripping and original, Williams and Dix have done it in this book. There are numerous plot twists throughout, and many, many, MANY great ideas and 'didn't think that would happen' twists.

Probably the thing I liked best about this book though were the characters - they were real. Too many authors nowadays seem to have 'flawed' characters who obsess endlessly about their neuroses and you just want to smack some common sense into them. Instead, Williams and Dix have characters with some doozy of problems, and they way they deal with them are probably no different to the way the average person would deal with them. It makes it so much easier to relate to the characters!

Having stuck with Williams and Dix through the Evergence series (felt a little rough around the edges, although still an extremely good and novel series) I am so glad to see this partnership seriously hitting its stride now. These guys are great and I look forward to reading the final book and any new stuff, especially as so many of my other favourite authors are not producing so much anymore... Thank goodness there are still some excellent SF writers popping up!

This is the second book in Williams/Dix' presumably three-part EARTH series, and you are well advised to read "Echoes of Earth" first if you want to understand, let alone enjoy, the story. Williams/Dix' delicious obsession with artificial intelligence and the evolution of the human species was a sort of trademark of EVERGENCE. In their OF EARTH series they don't shy away from continuing to chart the most extreme - and often distinctly uncomfortable - but frighteningly realistic options humanity may face, but they are able to spin a golden-age yarn of intrigue and interstellar warfare around it that makes their work so spellbinding. The result is a tour de force combination of a Kurzweil/Penrose scientific analysis, embedded in a sweeping Poul Anderson/Asimov/Star Wars space opera.

What makes "Orphans of Earth" so fascinating, however, also makes it somewhat flawed. The scientific foundations are stronger here than in EVERGENCE, and while it helps establish a very strong sense of reality, it also weighs down the novel a bit. Thankfully, in "Orphans..." the Planck system is pushed in the back to allow more room for character development and a plot that never stops growing in complexity. Still, at times the narrative gets bogged down in insignificant details; at other places the authors seem to end up with completely nonsensical sentences, so over-complicated and obfuscating that one can only hope they were written as such intentionally; and regrettably, the grammar and spell-checking leaves some to be desired as well, especially in the second half. Overall, "Orphans of Earth" is still a thoroughly satisfying read that you will find nearly impossible to put down - but it is also exhausting, and demands strong concentration.

Finally, I thought the pair has always been a bit weak on endings (and the conclusion of EVERGENCE provided clear evidence for that) which makes me fear how they wrap up this trilogy. Still, I can hardly wait for the last book to be published...

How could I not like this book-- they name a starship after me! Williams and Dix write star-spanning, sense-of-wonder science fiction with a lot of cool stuff in it; exactly the kind of stuff I'm sucker for.
I suggest you start with _Echoes of Earth_ (to which this is a sequel), and then, assuming you enjoy that one, move on to _Orphans of Earth_.

Orphans of Earth, the second in the Orphans Trilogy, has to be one of the finest novels I have ever read. With all the essential elements to make it so---mystery, suspense, intrigue and action---the only frown would be the long delay release of the trilogy's final book.

An understanding of the first book, Echoes, is a prerequisite for Orphans. The vital questions of who the conquering Starfish and mysterious Spinner aliens are continues, spawning new ones as the plot complexifies. The addition of new characters like Axford, a military warhorse with his own agenda, and more engram explorers, only add to the dangerous game of survival for the few remnants of humanity.

Then a third alien race comes into play, and the parley of further intrigue, potential allies, and creative mayhem deepens. The vicious Starfish are changing tactics in the systematic hunt for new victims; the engram community is showing signs of political and ideological division; and the inter-character relationships are as energetic as they are tense.

But by far the best facet of Orphas are the "surprises" thrown into the plotline literally every score of pages. Just when the story is settling down, these devious authors add in a new element to the plot to gyrate everything anew.

For a book that's heavy on scientific and astronomical lines, the writing has neither hard jargon nor heavy wordage that you would expect from one. The writing style is smooth and the pages flow easily one after another. And the final battle will have you alternatively holding your breath, grinning triumphantly---and in the book's true nature---suddenly frowning disbelief.

There are some challenges to reading Orphans, though. As many character names are replicated, knowing who is who and where they are can be confusing at times. Another frustration are terms like merges, urges, senessence, conSense and certain acronyms that only get explained many pages after they appear, or even not at all.

In all, Orphans of Earth, while heavy on intrigue and sporadic in action, is a book that is highly recommended for mature readers.

Williams and Dix are back on form in "Orphans of Earth" after the slow start of "Echoes of Earth". It's an action-packed book, full of secret plots and counter-plots, double crosses, mighty battles, and astonishing revelations. What makes it significantly better than the previous books is the developing depth to the characters (and they have become more likeable as well), plus a greater depth of context to the setting they operate in. There are also a number of hints of something big brewing and revelations to come.
To recap, the engram (computer program) explorers/colonists from Earth are spread around space, struggling to hide and survive as the miraculous technological Gifts of the Spinners are followed by the awesome destructive power of the Starfish. Caryl and Peter are trying to organise the colonists and build something for the future, in alternating conflict and concert with Frank, another engram who left Earth before it all went downhill, and a very alien fleet of aliens. Meanwhile, Rob is starting to find evidence that the Gifts might not be all they're supposed to be, while Lucia is making discoveries of her own all alone in space.
Yes, the writing/editing is a bit sloppy at times, and you can only hope that the series as a whole will be worth it in the end. But if "Orphans of Earth" is any guide, this series is definitely worth your time.

Fairly average, I don't enjoy this nearly as much as the Evergence trilogy. I wonder if there is any chance these guys ever do a stand-alone book?

More of your people separated from bodies type fare.

The middle volume of a trilogy, as events shape up and the alien forces come into play.

_Orphans of Earth_ by Sean Williams and Shane Dix is the exciting, fast-paced, almost breathless sequel to their book _Echoes of Earth_. I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and consider it to be among the top space operas of all time (using the term "space opera" in a non-derisory and positive way of course).

By the end of the previous novel all traces of civilization in the Sol system as well as in the system of Peter Alander's ship, the _Frank Tipler_ (and in several other systems reached by UNESSPRO vessels) have been destroyed by the terrifying and seemingly indestructible race dubbed the Starfish, so-called thanks to the appearance of their spinning, multi-armed, deadly ships. Ignoring all attempts at communication, they destroyed completely and utterly any civilization that made use of the FTL communication system provided by the Gifts (which unfortunately was a form of broadcast and could not be directed only at one individual destination; once made use of, everyone could pick up on the signal over a very large area). The situation at the end of the last novel was quite grim, as there was only one true human left alive, the original Caryl Hatzis, the sole survivor of the UNESSPRO program pressed into service by the Vincula to handle Peter Alander's arrival in the Sol system and by accident the only one that survived the destruction of the Vincula. She, along with Peter, the only survivor of the _Frank Tipler_, made it their mission to save what remained of humanity, the engrams of the nearly one thousand other UNESSPRO missions, scattered across the galaxy, uniting them to run, hide, or fight if possible.

I am not sure how much I should say about what happened in this novel, so full of twists, turns, and surprises was it. For those who want to have all the surprises intact for them to enjoy I say stop reading this review and get this book! If you liked the first one, you'll love the sequel.

Otherwise, in brief we pick up the story with Peter and Caryl working to contact other colonies, particularly those that have the Gifts, acquire more hole ships, and laboring to unite the survivors, warning them of the Spinners and also of the deadly Starfish. There is some intrigue as Caryl sought to take control of the scattered engrams, particularly over her own engrams, while others - notably Peter - were at odds with this arrangement. A major factor is that several of the Vincula enhancements that Caryl possessed gave her tremendous advantages over the engrams, which to her were very antiquated and often deeply flawed software (and in truth inherent shortcomings in the engrams endangered their long term survival).

Two new actors came into play fairly early on in _Orphans of Earth_. While surveying systems in the path of the Spinners, Peter and one of Haztis's engrams discovered a secret colony that they knew nothing about, a colony comprised entirely of engrams of one person, a military leader, secret agent, and one of the project administrators, Frank "the Axe" Axford, who deleted all the other engrams on his colony ship, replicated himself many times, and constructed a military base. They find Frank busy studying the Spinners, the Gifts, and the Starfish and chastising Peter and the others for lousy tactics in dealing with their new enemy. Owing to his background and odd personality Frank had a completely different take on the Starfish situation and was a very interesting character, neither completely trusting nor completely trustworthy.

The other actor is a third race of aliens, the Yuhl/Goel, a fascinating and rather alien extraterrestrial species that have been living as scavengers for thousands of years, following in the wake of the Spinner/Starfish migration through the stars (the Yuhl/Goel referred to both of them together as the Ambivalence), trying to stay one step ahead of the Starfish while collecting as many of the Gifts for themselves as they can, by theft if necessary.

Caryl and Peter (and the other engrams) contended with both Frank Axford and the Yuhl/Goel. Are they allies or enemies? Did the Yuhl/Goel show the way of the future - following the Spinners and Starfish, constantly running and hiding - or did they possess secret weapons and knowledge to defeat them instead? Was Frank going to turn out to be the secret weapon they needed, assuming they could trust him?

An exciting book, the ending was riveting and awesome and I have already started reading the third book in the series, _Heirs of Earth_.

The alien Spinners bestow gifts upon races far less technologically advanced than they are. These presents include a faster than light ship and ftl communication ability. The largess is soon considered a curse because shortly after they are used the Starfish arrive, hostile aliens who destroy entire solar systems, wherever beings that use the ftl communications exist.

The Starfish destroy Earth and the rest of the solar system. Human colony planets, spread out throughout the known universe, are being destroyed and it looks like Homo sapiens will soon become an extinct species. Caryl Hatzis and human engram (an advanced simulation) Peter Alander are desperately trying to find a way to save what is left of mankind. They discover a third alien race, the Yvel, who have been trailing in the wake of the Spinners and the Starfish for twenty-five hundred years. They survive by staying behind their enemy but now Caryl and Peter want humanity and the Yvel to make a stand against the Starfish.

ORPHANS OF EARTH is space opera at it's finest as Sean Williams and Shane Dix have created a rousing adventure starring alien races that seem so real and superior to mankind that it is no wonder there is no communication between the various species. Though the Yvel are alien also, they share the same needs as humans and make believable allies. It will be interesting to see what far away galaxy the next installment in this exciting series takes the reader to visit.

Harriet Klausner

The Evergence series blew me away. Then, Echoes of Earth came along and surprised me with a different yet still very captivating story, leaving me just as anxious for the next installment as I had been at the end of each Evergence book. Orphans raises the bar on the storyline and takes unexpected turns.
I am not going to talk about the specifics of the story (You can certainly get plenty from the previous reviews) I just want to share my feelings on how much I enjoyed it. Dix and Williams may be my favorite authors. The characters are a joy to spend time with. The interactions between them are fantastic and realistic and I found myself voiceing my own opinions out loud as if I were in the room with the characters and needed to add my 2 cents to their conversations. Anytime I can get pulled into a story like that, I know I have found masters of weaving a great story. The perils that our group of humans are faced with are quite troublesome and yet their curiosity (and mine) remains strong even when faced with the possibility of thier extinction.

The worse part of this book was finishing it and knowing that I have to wait another year to conitnue the story. Fortunately, I knew that they were releasing a Star Wars trilogy (of which there is only about a month wait between books). I am about half way through the first of the Force Heretic series and the Dix/Williams style is shining through.
Now, if we can just convince them to bring us another trilogy in the Evergence Universe...I'd love to know more about the Dato Bloc and the High Humans!
If you haven't read the Evergence Series...buy them today! It's a rollercoaster ride you are sure to enjoy with an ending that caused great debate in my circle of readers.