The Memory of Earth (Mass Market Paperback)

~ (Author) "Nafai woke before dawn on his mat in his father's house..." (more)
Key Phrases: inner market, outer market, clan council, Aunt Rasa, Back Gate, Spring Street (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Kirkus Reviews

First of a five-book series from the author of Xenocide, the Alvin Maker tales, etc. Planet Harmony, settled 40 million years ago following the destruction of Earth, is overseen by the Oversoul, an intelligent computer able to communicate telepathically with certain of the inhabitants. Set up to prevent war and ensure the colony's survival, the Oversoul is now breaking down, and for repairs must journey to Earth (where, the Oversoul theorizes, a new civilization surely will have arisen by now). Needing help from Harmony, the Oversoul first contacts young student Nafai of the matriarchal city Basilica, hoping to persuade him and others of his family to secure the Index--an ancient machine that will enable the Oversoul to talk directly with everyone. A major complication is that as the Oversoul decays, the mental blocks it implanted in Harmony's people eons ago to prevent war are also breaking down; and soon the women of Basilica find themselves trapped in a power struggle between two hostile male armies. Where Card focuses on children--as he often does here--he writes fluently and persuasively. Elsewhere, his adult characters and motivations are much less appealing. Neither is the ancient- computer backdrop, with its far-fetched Earth connection, particularly convincing. All in all, an uneven and irritatingly inconclusive starter. -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"The man's versatility of style, subject and approach makes him unique in the SF field." --Anne McCaffrey

"One of the genre's most convincing storytellers." --Library Journal

"Card is a master storyteller, and The Memory of Earth is eminently readable." --The Seattle Times

"As always, Mr. Card writes with energy and conviction." --The New York Times Book Review
-- Review

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 332 pages
• Publisher: Tor Science Fiction; 5th printing edition (January 15, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812532597
• ISBN-13: 978-0812532593
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 3.9 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 0.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (100 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #113,099 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

41 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars YIKES!!! It's 1st Nephi from the Book of Mormon in Sci-Fi!, March 14, 2005

By	Adam Gonnerman (North America) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Though I'm not Mormon, I've read the Book of Mormon quite a bit. Reading this book I was startled by parallels to the Book of Mormon narrative in 1st Nephi. By chapter 10 the copying from that 19th century religious work was so overt I couldn't wait to finish it to write this review.

Oh my gosh! IT IS EXACTLY LIKE LEHI and family leaving Jerusalem. They head out to live in tents. The two older brothers are skeptical, critical and antagonistic. The father names a river and a valley after those two, and the son Nafai (looks like "Nephi" to me!) receives a great number of visions from the "Oversoul."

What stopped me cold was when, as I expected, the father sent the sons back to town to get historical documents of the family. This is JUST LIKE the Book of Mormon account.

I'm not sure I can say whether the story itself is good or not, as I find the fundamental plotline being identical to the Book of Mormon to be terribly destracting. Someone who's never read the Book of Mormon and (especially) has no opinion about it would surely write a fairer review.

It is disappointing to see such a lack of originality in an author. Tracy Hickman admits to involving elements of his Mormon faith in the original Dragonance series, but in that context it was minimal, made sense and did not constitute a wholesale copying of another work.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The beginning of an exciting science fiction ride, December 5, 1999

By A Customer

Card gives us the first of four very good volumes in a five book science fiction series. Basilica is a wonderful world and the characters that we meet will gain depth and develop over the series. Card is sometimes slow and tedious in his plot advancement. I liken his writing to a journey in which each step is mundane, but when taken one after another, cover long distances and present vista after vista.

Buy it, read it, and then get the next three volumes. Then read the reviews before purchasing volume five.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Use your Imagination, December 31, 2002

By	Graham Hunt (Sydney Australia) - See all my reviews

In works of Sci Fi, I think one has to deploy ones power of imagination to create the authors universe in the mind. As a science fiction fan, not a science fantasy fan I found this universe a bit difficult to believe. While I can accept the genetic changing of the human race so the brain can respond to sattelite signals as a good idea, I found that the degree of control the Oversoul needed to achieve what it does just too extreme. Of course this is the essence of the plot, since this very control begins to deteriorate accordingly with a gradual breakdown of the Oversoul's machinery. I found it hard to accept that the Oversoul might be able to balance a society which is prevented from inventing the wheel and yet has the techology to create and use a floating vehicle (Issib's Chair) that can give an invalid mobility that can outrun a man, or to imagine that a society with advanced solid state electronics technology is not capable (or allowed) to conceptualize communication facilties such as a telephone. I'm reading the second book now, and find that an army general is reading a map under candlelight, while dictating instructions to his second in command who is typing them into a computer. So the Oversoul allows the development of advanced computers but it can prevent the concept of the lightbulb at the same time ?!

After reading the complete works of the Ender and Shadow series to date I probably did expect to use my imagination to some degree in this series, but probably a bit too much more than I would have liked.