Homeward Bound

The Final Chapter In The Tosev Timeline(?)

I was a huge fan of both the Worldwar and Colonization series of books. As such, I thought this book wrapped up things and brought them full circle. If you've read the preceding seven books leading up to this one--and enjoyed them--this is highly recommended.

Awesome book

The only thing I did not like about it is that it was over. I ttuly enjoyed it and cannot wait to reread the whole series.

On with The Game...

Correct me if I'm wrong, Harry, but in one of the previous installments (vol. 6 or 7?), Kassquit was innoculated against human germs then went down to Earth and stayed in a lizard embassy in LA, CA, so as to attend a political function or was just visiting on a social basis. Is that right? If so, then in the hardcover version of this latest (8th vol.) installment of the series, specifically on p. 17, paragraph 4, you state she'd never been down to Earth. Am I wrong, or did you forget Kassquit previous journey to Earth when writing this novel back in 2002-3? Please clarify.

Overall, I immensely enjoy this series, though the main characters are a bit too bleeding heart liberal for my tastes -- a alarming and dangerous PC plague we're presently seeing within the US Military complex.

Does it ever end?

Turtledove must love the Neverending Story for the simple reason he has the never ending sequel. This is true with vitually everything he writes. The first few books grab you then they become progressively weaker until the reader says: 'What was I thinking?' when it should be what was Turtledove thinking? Well....ca ching! sums it up. Obviously he is writting Homeward for the money since as a literary work, even for this series, it is totally worthless. Read Turtledove? YES! But always stop after two or three books.

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Worth the read

Was a good book. I find that the story line was very compelling, but the writing left a little to be desired. I do not regret buying it in hardcover and once I started reading it, I couldn't put it down. I love the idea for the story. Absolutely awesome concept. This book seems to close it all out, though sequels could be devised I guess. The main character was one in which I had emotional involvement, I hated him. It always makes a book better if you can become emotionally involved with the main characters. The thing that irritated me about the writing was the repetitiveness. Constantly reminding the reader about stuff that already happened over and over again. You would have had to have read the previous books while in a coma not to know alot of this stuff. Toward the end, the main character was writing his autobiography and was thinking critically of how the editors rely upon computer spell-checkers to catch spelling errors, but will miss words that are misspelled, but spell a different real word. He used the example form and from. Then, later in the same sentence what should have been the word 'begin' was the word 'being'. Was this a joke that Turtledove played on the editors? I laughed for a good while after reading that. I recommend this book and series as good junk reading.

Bravo!

Truly excellent! Turtledove wraps up two series of books, and in effect, gives the human race a nice bit of revenge! Technology is the key to this story, and 'leapfrog technology' makes this story quite enjoyable. And, possibly, Mr. Turtledove gives us the possibility of yet another story to emerge.

No end in sight?!

As I indicated in my review of the previous book in the series, there was more to come - and here it is: A jump of about 60 years in the future from the last book, mankind is ready to visit the Race's 'home'. And boy, that takes Turtledove about 600 pages to write about. Sure, there are 1 or 2 twists and surprises, but give me a break - this is so totally off and away from the first book in the series that came out in 1994, it's hard to belief it is all the same series. This book is very disappointing. Very. Turtledove delivered much better work in the past. What happened, I wonder. And from reading the last sentence in the book, there is probably more to come. Which is OK, it's just that I won't buy it.

The train wreck

I am certain the following synopsis of my personal relationship with Turtledove's work will ring true for many who've experienced it. I started reading Turtledove in the mid-90s as a high school student. I was enthralled with the first book, if not a bit bored with the painful lengths Turtledove took, especially through the repetitious style he uses in the construction of his characters, to prove that he had indeed studied up on his history; thus making his writings 'alternate history.' After the fourth book, I think, I just gave up. The stories were predictable and I felt abused by the author. I had been a loyal reader and I was being strung out for reasons of profit -- at least that was my guess. I simply can't imagine that no-one close to Turtledove ever sat him down and said, 'Larry, you need to work on your style and move these stories along. You're taking what could be a great series on the level of KSR's Mars series and turning it into the SF equivalent of a soap opera.' Surely he heard the fans saying this, if nothing else. That's what this entire series devolved into: a soap opera. The better part of a decade after I simply gave up on the story line, I picked up this latest edition and started right into the story with little adjustment. Nothing ever happens in these books. And the Race in this book becomes embarrassingly simplistic. I've had bigger culture shock traveling in English-speaking countries than the U.S. ambassadors do on Home. Example: the Race's giant shopping center that is so obviously a character of modern Wal-Mart. Is this social commentary; is it just playful banter (hey, look, good ol' capitalistic spirit spans the light years)? Well, that's far less interesting to me than if Turtledove had taken the time and effort to invent a radically different -- truly 'alien' -- concept. Scene after scene is frustrating on this level. The differences between Turtledove's various races can be largely reduced to matters of semantics. The aliens say things to one another that puzzle and defy their own expectations (not yours, if you've read even one of these books). Oh well, it's a must read, if only for its train wreck quality. PS: I think the reviewers who write, and I paraphrase, 'fans will be delighted that there's room for a sequel' fully understand that those words will send people like me into fits.

Worst book he has ever written.

I was extremely disappointed in this boring ridiculous story after the previous series. The author plods along on what seems to be a tour of the Race homeworld. There never seems to be anything interesting about this novel.

I think this is the end

I has been a long time waiting for this book and have thoroughly enjoyed. Infact the whole series has been an adventure I have enjoyed immensely. This book to me implies we have finally come to end of the story, but you never know. I have read most of Mr. Turtledove books and I never seemed to find a finally. If you are a first time reader of this series, I suggest you skip this book and start at the beginning( WorldWar: In the balance). This book is a little slow and is proably as exciting as his other books, but truly have enjoyed. Mr. Turtledove THANKYOU

Now the humans invade the aliens

In the middle of World War II, a group of reptilian aliens calling itself The Race, invaded the Earth and came upon all sorts of trouble fighting the humans. Now, a century later, a group of Americans voyage to the Race's homeworld in their own starship. The Race, conservative, slow to change, begin to realize that maybe they ought not to have invaded Earth after all.

Enjoyable but is slow at times

The Race as they call themselves travel the twenty light years distance from their planet to invade earth, preoccupied with World War II. However, the locals proved adaptive and managed to stop the intruders though the Race was never fully driven off planet (see WORLD WAR: IN THE BALANCE)................... Over two decades later, a shaky truce has held up between the Race and the humans. However, humans refer to the Race in derogatory terms as 'Lizards' while the aliens call their ¿hosts¿ the ¿Big Uglies'. Tension has recently mounted as the Race realizes that the Big Uglies is technologically advancing at a rate that they will pass them shortly. Proof of that is the stunning launch of the Commodore Perry, an armed human space vessel faster than the speed of light, allegedly on a diplomatic mission heading to the Race¿s home planet. Though diplomats are on board, Sam Yeager (see WORLDSTAR) is too and he nuclear razed Indianapolis without second thoughts. The earthbound Race ponders whether to annihilate the planet to halt human advances?......................... Though intriguing in terms of first contact impact on life to include the adage ¿necessity is the mother of invention¿ and inter and intra relationships, the tale contains a large tedious diplomacy subplot. Much of the novel is set on the Race¿s home world where the exotic is fun to follow, but though diplomacy is everything in real life is quite boring in a novel (perhaps that is why the media likes war over peace). Still Harry Turtledove furbishes his latest alternate history tale with an off-world plot that his myriad of fans will enjoy and demand more on the Race¿s Home.......................... Harriet Klausner

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