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Earth

by David Brin (Goodreads Author)

3.87 of 5 stars 3.87 · rating details · 3,106 ratings · 157 reviews

TIME IS RUNNING OUT Decades from now, an artificial black hole has fallen into the Earth's core. As scientists frantically work to prevent the ultimate disaster, they discover that the entire planet could be destroyed within a year. But while they look for an answer, some claim that the only way to save Earth is to let its human inhabitants become extinct: to reset the evo...more

Paperback, 704 pages

Published May 1st 1991 by Spectra (first published January 1st 1990)

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Sep 23, 2012 Apatt rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is not an easy read in spite of well written, accessible prose, some good characterization and some exciting scenes. The difficulty is due to the ambitious scope of the book which seems to necessitate numerous plot strands, myriad characters, and frequent expositions and infodumps. Personally I am not wired for reading nonfiction, I am always grateful to novelists who manage to impart some new knowledge to me packaged in their fiction. Indeed I am also grateful to David Brin for the bits of...more This is not an easy read in spite of well written, accessible prose, some good characterization and some exciting scenes. The difficulty is due to the ambitious scope of the book which seems to necessitate numerous plot strands, myriad characters, and frequent expositions and infodumps. Personally I am not wired for reading nonfiction, I am always grateful to novelists who manage to impart some new knowledge to me packaged in their fiction. Indeed I am also grateful to David Brin for the bits of knowledge I picked up from this book about astronomy, homeostasis, biology and such. Unfortunately during the first half of this book I had the feeling that entertainment is not a priority for Brin in the composition of this book, I am not even sure it is of secondary importance. Half way through the book I was frankly a little bored and took a break to read some other books and I resumed reading it a week later. I did not want to abandon it all together because the major plot strand is very interesting (and I paid full price for the book!). I am glad I persevered because the second half of the book makes it all worthwhile.

Set in 2038 (written in 1990) the basic plot of Earth is about a man-made tiny little black hole that is accidentally dropped into the Earth and begins to devour the planet from the inside atom by atom; left unchecked there would eventually be nothing left of our planet. A team of scientists go after this little runaway black hole and make some startling discoveries in the process. The lost little black hole is an attempt to create a cheap new source of energy, as human civilization is in a state of general dystopia approaching the point of apocalyptic collapse. The maximum sustainable human population has been passed and food is scarce, and the cities are polluted. This is a world Brin is cautioning us away from.

While the book grew on me, exponentially in the second half, I think it could have benefited from being about 200 pages shorter. I feel that it would have been much tighter and better paced and easier to read. More often than not my eyes start to glaze over when I read the exposition passages, but in all fairness to Brin I think he explains the science better than most scifi writers that I have read, unfortunately there is just a little to much of it here for me. Brin clearly cares very much about the environmental issues he raised in this book, almost to the detriment of the story. However, he is a gifted story teller, and he does write good prose and dialogue. The central characters in the book are quite well developed and believable, but there are just too many of them. The narrative is based on multiple view points as expected, but it caused the early part of the novel to feel fragmented, particularly as some of the point of view characters do not seem to be of much consequence in the grand scheme of things. Brin does bring most of the strands together by the end though, and the explosive (not to mention implosive) climax is quite thrilling. While I don't believe that it is the job of science fiction to predict the future, Earth is successfully prophetic on several counts; the advent of the worldwide web, e-mails, spams, web forums, citizen reporters, global warming and rising sea levels etc. Hopefully the imminent collapse of the planet's environment won't be one of them, but then that is Brin's main motivation for writing the book I think.

At the end of the day I would just about rate this book at 4 stars, probably something like 3.8 or some similarly silly decimals. Worth a read if you have the time and patience. My next Brin book will be from his famed Uplift saga.(less)

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Sep 05, 2007 Rod rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Nephyr

Shelves: treasuredtales, damngoodread

This book is a treasure. It drastically changed my worldview and made me come to see the urgency of some of the issues facing our generation. One of Brin's concepts has actually become a major piece of my belief system. Besides all of this serious stuff....this is a damn fun book to read that you will not put down until you are finished!

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Nov 28, 2009 Michaelbert Humperdink rated it 3 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Apr 06, 2008 Michael Havens rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

David Brin is one of those hard Science Fiction writers who know the art of writing stories. He has characters that are flesh and blood; he gives good details of the scene before us without causing anemia in the telling. One irritation of many books, especially many found in the New York Times Best Seller List, is that the story and characters are so skeleton, if you were to blow on the page, perhaps the words themselves would float away in the wind for what little story and art there is betwee...more David Brin is one of those hard Science Fiction writers who know the art of writing stories. He has characters that are flesh and blood; he gives good details of the scene before us without causing anemia in the telling. One irritation of many books, especially many found in the New York Times Best Seller List, is that the story and characters are so skeleton, if you were to blow on the page, perhaps the words themselves would float away in the wind for what little story and art there is between the cover of the novel. But, David Brin does better on this account than many on those lists.
Another thing he does well is tell the cautionary tale, a "prophetic" style of storytelling in Science Fiction that found its hight of popularity with the Cold War, and various writers visions of a world after WWIII and nuclear confrontation. After Glasnost ,Perestroika, the talks between Gorbachev and Reagan, this type of fiction began to wane, as we all breathed a sigh of relief. But new confrontations are before us, and a new series of the cautionary tale are needed in fiction to raise the conscience and awareness. Brin does this in 'Earth'. The huge strength of the novel lies not in the hard science, but in a population's reaction to and debating of, the changing of the Earth's environment. It will be people and policies that will change the course of the threat of killing the planet. But in a world with so many cultures and so many opinions and ideas, this will be a challenge. This Brin does especially well.
His use of fonts is particularly interesting, as he creates tone, separate personalities, and tension in the use of various fonts and sizes. Adding to that a cyber community, which is much more advanced than ours, yet no more matured.
There are a few things that detract from the novel. First, the central conflict is not the climate or the environment, but a black hole tucked deep inside the Earth. Add to that all the possible outcomes of a world "raped" (as Brin calls it in his book many times), and you have a jumble of ideas that challenges credulity for the reader, for which he admits to in his afterword.
Also, while there is even a well liked and admired spiritual physicist in the novel, much of the portrayal of the religious community is relegated to the reader as simple-minded individuals and groups, even when at times they are thrown a carrot of admiration of sorts. Examples of this can be found on pages 451-52, where Mahayana Buddhism is relegated to a sound bite, and one that is superficial at best. There is also the “doomsday prediction” of an internet user (presumably Christian) on page 533. The Lord’s Prayer’ is given a Gain/New Age twist, and even there it is relegated with a sort of Agnostic twist “…Our Mother, who art beneath us, whatever thy name” (Earth, 535), where “whatever reads almost like an inside joke. There is at one point, an argument online of some rouge Catholic nuns whose argument sounds like the “angels sitting on the head of a pin” argument of the Middle Ages, as if though this type of thinking Catholics or other Christians are the only types of intellectualism they are capable of (at the time of this review, the reviewer apologizes that the citation cannot be found. Any assistance in finding the proper pages for this citation will be greatly appreciated). In fact, like any community, religious or secular, there are degrees to the talents and abilities of various thinkers in their respective fields. It is ridiculous to suppose that the only intellectuals are scientists. But in a sense, that is what one takes away after reading ‘Earth’.
Some will admire the fact that Brin is acting the futurist here, by predicting certain trends, and most importantly the importance and increasing use of the internet as a means of gaining information, news, and a place to debate, though the realized world of the internet and Brin’s vision are somewhat different. There are, incidently, websites which lists the predictive achievements of ‘Earth’. These are fine and kudos to Brin for such insight. This reviewer confesses not to be conversant in science, and while reading hard science fiction is a pleasure, what is looked for in any book read are good narrative techniques, good characterizations, plot, and descriptions. In this sense, Mr. Brin has done a fairly thorough job at creating a novel of this magnitude, despite the over excesses and the anti-spiritual/religious bias he exhibits.
(less)

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Oct 06, 2012 Laura rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: People

Recommended to Laura by: Lorna Aites

Shelves: alternate-history, being-human, coming-of-age, cthulhu, science, science-fiction, semi-dystopian

This book was revelatory for me in college. It synthesized so much about the world; environmental collapse, failed states, science as destroyer, science as savior, reporters as heroes, reporters as exploiters, blah blah blah. Reading it was exhilarating and exhausting.

Reading it 20 years later, I’m more aware of its flaws. A Jack Kirbyesque level of exclamation points. Prose that is all too often intrusive. More characters than I can keep track of. A whole lot of them could have been combined t...more

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Dec 10, 2009 Flying_Monkey rated it 3 of 5 stars

'Earth' is a bit of a strange mixture: it is a considered ecosocial critique patched onto a not entirely serious B-movie disaster plot and terrible deus-ex-machina ending. Brin can certainly write, and 'Earth' is a great read (until the end), populated by many well-painted characters, from the major protagonists like Alex Lustig, creator of the world-threatening miniature black hole, to the minor roles, like the excruciatingly realistic middle-class teenage gang-members in Bloomington, Illinois....more

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Jul 19, 2010 Rodney rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Earth started out as a compelling idea, one that drew me in right away. However, about halfway through, I found myself struggling merely to finish the book. It becomes bogged down in excessive information, characters, and plot lines, many of which could easily be pared down or cut, without negatively affecting the novel as a whole. The style in this novel was equally difficult to follow. Characters would come and go, sometimes quickly, other times, at painfully slow paces. Brin seemed to want to...more

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Sep 25, 2011 Andrewcharles420 rated it 3 of 5 stars

Perhaps the format I was reading in detracted from the overall experience (a poorly formatted ebook read in iphone-size half pages), but I thought there were too many characters and storylines to follow cohesively throughout the story. I also thought ending every character's page or two with a cliffhanger, then shuffling through the other 30 characters own cliffhangers, before coming back to the character to resolve and bring up another cliffhanger (etc), was difficult to remember or make sense...more

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Jan 07, 2012 Jim rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-fiction, ecosystems-and-sustainability, dystopia, kindle-books, library-loaner

3.5 Stars. There is much to admire about this 1990-vintage panorama of Earth in the 50-year future (at the time of writing). From our vantage point, ~20 years into that predicted future, many of the deeply disturbing trends are playing out along very similar lines as those predicted in the book. Equally important, a lot of mostly-positive trends are also falling more or less into place. In many ways, the predictive power of this book is quite remarkable.

I was also impressed by the ambitious scop...more

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Oct 26, 2011 David rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-fiction

I have mixed feelings. The book provides speculation about the future with climate change, population / natural resource issues, etc. It speculates about extraterrestrials, harmful and helpful. It has ideas about singularities (point-like masses) and gravity. It has ideas about government spying, plutocratic conspiracy, computer hacking, etc. It has an afterword in which Brin tries to clarify what was established science, what was speculative science and what was pure fiction.

On the other hand:...more

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Aug 16, 2012 Anthony rated it 5 of 5 stars

Earth, written by David Brin, is an unforgettable journey and story though a not-so-distant future that stresses the importance of taking care of the environment. With the well thought out characters, wonderful story line full of twists and quirks, Earth grabs your attention from the very beginning and doesn't let go until the final word.

The story takes place in futuristic 2030. Not so far from where we are today, but the book was published in 1995. However, Brin paints a situation that doesn'...more Earth, written by David Brin, is an unforgettable journey and story though a not-so-distant future that stresses the importance of taking care of the environment. With the well thought out characters, wonderful story line full of twists and quirks, Earth grabs your attention from the very beginning and doesn't let go until the final word.

The story takes place in futuristic 2030. Not so far from where we are today, but the book was published in 1995. However, Brin paints a situation that doesn't seem so far off. Because of global climate change, seas have risen way past current day levels, species have gone extinct, and many other problems that society has taken note of today are found in amounts not to far from what we could expect. With the introduction of new technology, society has become completely connected with one another through the use of a global online resource, sort of like the Internet of today, but much, much greater in extent. All of these things are not too far off from where we are for now, and give a realistic touch to the book that many science fiction stories do not.

Throughout the story, Brin takes the viewpoint of different characters from all over the world. Young teenagers, astronauts, and physicists are just a few types of people that make there way onto the list of characters. At first, none of them seem to correlate with each other and are seen as completely individual stories. However, Brin does a good job and ties all of the people together in a way that rivals the similar style found in the Song of Ice and Fire series by George R.R. Martin. Each character is well thought out and completely burst with personality. As the story goes on, they face increasingly difficult situations.

However, there are some bad points about the book. With all the details, the book can get bogged down a bit. Some of the more intricate scientific matters presented in the book can still be confusing even though it tries to explain it, but it does a good job at simplifying the hard subject matter.

Earth is one crazy journey through science, disaster, and human intuition. Brin calls upon some of the newest sciences of the day and uses them in a way that shows everyone what new technology could do if we are not careful. All of the science found in the book is well explained and will not confuse people without a background of what's going on. The story is gripping and will leave you with wanting to read more to see what continues. Earth is a powerful book and is a must read for all science fiction lovers and environmental enthusiasts.(less)

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Dec 02, 2012 Wayne Palmer rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

As the rating shows, I really enjoyed this book, especially as it was written ten years ago and is based 50 years in the future, so to some extent it was like a report card on where we are to date. It is a classic sci-fi in that it tells a story of what may be with realistic characters and, mostly, believable events with a few special ‘what ifs’ thrown in to spice things up. I particularly liked the main character, being the Earth itself, as the story unfolds as the tale is that of our planet, o...more

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Jul 26, 2011 Ryan T. rated it 4 of 5 stars

Once again, I find that several of the interesting ideas percolating through my own brain have already been developed (and published) by some famous author a long time ago. At least David Brin had the courtesy to only beat me to print by a couple of decades, unlike those damned Pre-Socratics...

But in all seriousness, this is a great book, and it has weathered the last twenty years far better than its ilk usually have any right to expect. It's a sweeping, grand, thrilling story that starts out as...more

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Aug 22, 2012 Jessica rated it 1 of 5 stars

I can imagine that reading this back in 1990, when it was first published, you might have forgiven the uninteresting characters, unnecessarily long slog of a plot, and unbelievable ending...because the book's elements of climate change and human negative impact on the environment might have been new to you, at least new enough to benefit from accompanying Brin on his 50-years-in-the-future "Gedankenexperiment." But if you've already given serious thought/attention to these things, you won't get...more

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Dec 08, 2011 Isabel rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Written at the end of the 1980s, "Earth" is set at the end of the 2030s, when the countries of the world are working together in a culture of openness as the Net means that secrecy is (supposedly) a thing of the past, and the need to recycle everything means that 'dumpit' has become a swearword. Opinions differ as to whether the environmental measures put in place to protect the earth will work or whether the human race will (or should in the opinion of the extremer Gaians) become extinct, but a...more

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Mar 25, 2008 Rob rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Any sci-fi fan

Despite the many numerous poor reviews, I found this to be quite an enjoyable novel and, at the very least, gave me plenty of things to consider in my own view of my place in the grand scheme of things.

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Aug 19, 2012 Gary rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Sad to say, this book was a clunker. It looked promising in the beginning--like it was going to be a parable about the dark side of technological progress. And it might have worked, had Brin kept his story on a smaller scale, focusing on the effect an abused planet was having on a few people. Unfortunately, he decided to attempt writing an epic, with the result that there were too many characters involved in too many subplots that I couldn't very invested in.

Given the fact that the book was publ...more

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Jan 06, 2011 Felix Dance rated it 4 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Oct 08, 2012 Lewis rated it 4 of 5 stars

I was close to putting this as 3 stars at 1 point. The main part of the book is interesting, but slow. I think a ruthless editor could've made it a lot better in many ways

However, i persevered through this because the central idea was brilliant and the characters on the whole compelling and intriguing

This idea of averageness changed in the last 150-200 pages though, as it came together brilliantly and everything exploded into life. Ideas that, while good up to then, were not particularly origina...more

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Jul 13, 2010 Stephanie "Jedigal" rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: sci-fi

It's been YEARS since I read this, but I remember more of this one than many. I think it struck as a little long, which probably means I was getting impatient towards the end - probably wanted MORE emphasis on the plot and less of the details that made it such a wonderful imagined world to delve into during the earlier portions. I remember that some of the social and environmental changes were fascinating and imaginative. I especially loved how "the internet" of today was presented as functionin...more

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Feb 04, 2009 Amy rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book took forever to finish. I kept starting it and putting it down, and having to start over again when I discovered it months later. I got it as a gift my sophomore year of high school and finally forced myself to read it after I graduated. (And that was only because it's the only book I brought with me to Ocean City, MD, where I received 2nd and 3rd degree sunburns from - get this - reading on the becah.) I would probably read it again if I could find it; I distinctly remember getting su...more

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Aug 30, 2009 Colleen rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-fiction

The hook here is the black hole that has escaped and is sinking into the core of the planet (how do we get rid of it). But the side stories are the real fun. The arcs that have been created to preserve the wildlife of Africa, and wherever. The American ghetto kids who find themselves in really bad places (like busting a smuggler in Hong Kong) when the finally find a job. And the astronaught who knows which way is north until something rattles that sense and exposes a huge new problem with the pl...more

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May 18, 2013 Kernos rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction, ecofiction

Great novel, well deserving of the 1991 Hugo, though it lost to Bujold's The Vor Game. It lost the SF Chronicle award and the Locus to Simmon's The Fall of Hyperion. All of these are great SF and I'd be hard pressed to chose among them. I give Earth 9 of 10 stars, very good, not perfect.

50 years in the future an extinction level event threatens the Earth. Noble laureate Alex and his many cronies have to figure out how to save us all using hard science, Maori mysticism, primate social behavior an...more

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Sep 16, 2012 CollinB rated it 4 of 5 stars

[Update] Just reread Earth. First time I had read is was circa 2002. I am finding that there are elements in this book that are resonating strongly with our current times.

First, we have the Large Hadron collider run by CERN, which has the potential to do something like the small black hole in this story.

Second, in this story's history, there was a international war against Switzerland and bankers. At the time I thought this was very silly. After the crash of 2008, I don't.

Third, after the war,...more

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Mar 25, 2012 Remo rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

De nuevo una novela de David Brin. Me ha encantado.

Un científico, trasteando con un experimento bastante peliagudo, libera un agujero negro que se va derechito hacia el fondo de la Tierra, empezando a oscilar y devorarla por dentro. Comenzará una carrera contra el reloj (y contra el agujero negro, claro está) para salvar a la Tierra de su fatal destino. Pero por el camino nuestros protagonistas se darán cuenta de que había muchas cosas que desconocían. Y hasta aquí puedo leer .

El libro está muy...more De nuevo una novela de David Brin. Me ha encantado.

Un científico, trasteando con un experimento bastante peliagudo, libera un agujero negro que se va derechito hacia el fondo de la Tierra, empezando a oscilar y devorarla por dentro. Comenzará una carrera contra el reloj (y contra el agujero negro, claro está) para salvar a la Tierra de su fatal destino. Pero por el camino nuestros protagonistas se darán cuenta de que había muchas cosas que desconocían. Y hasta aquí puedo leer .

El libro está muy bien escrito. Lleva la acción con pocos altibajos y crece a medida que se acerca el final. Como es habitual, Brin retrata a la sociedad del futuro (no muy lejano, en torno al año 2040) con increíble detalle. En esta historia, la Humanidad, que cuenta con 10.000 millones de habitantes, ha conseguido cargarse la ecología del planeta, y tras las extinciones masivas de especies, la pérdida de los bosques y los humedales, la desaparición de la capa de ozono y el aumento del nivel de las aguas, por fin se ha comenzado a gran escala una campaña de cultura ecológica. Todo está muy bien descrito y es bastante creíble. Como el propio autor cuenta en el epílogo, hacer predicciones a 50 años vista es muy difícil. A 10 años “sólo” hay que ver cómo estamos ahora y exagerar ciertos aspectos. A 200 años la imaginación puede volar libremente (explíquenle Google a Beethoven), pero a 50 años vista, las predicciones no pueden ser locuras, y tampoco pueden dejarlo todo como estaba.

Hacia el final, el libro sufre de algo que ya había comentado de Gente de barro, otra impresionante novela de Brin. Los acontecimientos se disparan y el autor comienza a desbarrar de manera leve tirando a grave. Aparecen asociaciones mentales libres que el lector no siempre sigue, suceden cosas que no tienen que ver con el desarrollo estricto de la historia (view spoiler) y, en general, se pierde claridad. Pero bueno, parece ser la marca de la casa.

En cualquier caso, su lectura me ha tenido entretenidísimo durante más de una semana, lo cual compensa con creces cualquier otro pequeño fallo que le pueda sacar.(less)

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Oct 16, 2010 Sven rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-fiction

This was the second time I read this book, and I liked it better this round.

It's fast-paced action with a strong ecological message. Although it was published pre-internet (1990), it anticipates much of the immediacy of instant communications. Unfortunately, the situation with the environment hasn't gotten better, and we'll have to face many of the challenges this book portrays.

I especially liked the author's explanation of the assumptions he made and the points he exaggerated. He's a great stor...more

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Dec 28, 2009 Tom Coffelt rated it 5 of 5 stars

As a "future" novel this book's societal trends are proving to be a good deal prophetic of where society is headed without being too wrapped up in itself. Argues well for a transparent society for the benefit of the general population as well as the protection of the individual. As you read it look back at the date it was written and see how close we have come on some of the trends in todays world. Is it too late to set up the "arks" since we are showing ourselves incapable of caring for our eco...more

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Jul 21, 2011 Jared Millet rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: hard-scifi, science-fiction, re-read, apocalyptic, environmental, inner-worlds-book-club

This book blew me away when I first read it twenty years ago, and it demonstrates the one great strength science fiction has over fantasy: its use as a forum for discussing big, real-world issues. My copy is one of the most beat-up books I own, not from rereading it but from loaning it out to other people. In the past couple of decades it's gained a reputation for having been uncannily prescient in its depiction of the near future. Reading it today, it still holds up as a rip-roaring hard scienc...more This book blew me away when I first read it twenty years ago, and it demonstrates the one great strength science fiction has over fantasy: its use as a forum for discussing big, real-world issues. My copy is one of the most beat-up books I own, not from rereading it but from loaning it out to other people. In the past couple of decades it's gained a reputation for having been uncannily prescient in its depiction of the near future. Reading it today, it still holds up as a rip-roaring hard science adventure novel, but you also get to play the game of "How much did Brin get right?"

The most spot-on bit of futurecasting, of course, is Brin's prediction of the impact the Internet would have on world culture. Back in 1990, remember, there was no World Wide Web, and the 'net was just an academic geek domain dominated by CompuServe, message boards, and university gophers. (Anyone remember gophers? Anyone? God, I'm old.) Since Brin's an academic himself, that does color his view of what the Internet would be used for - after all, who could have predicted LOLcats? - but he does recognize the potential for social networking a full decade before MySpace and Facebook put it into practice. He even predicted Twitter! (He calls them blips, not tweets, but otherwise they're the same thing.)

Another issue he was at the forefront of, and is one of his big soapbox stances, is the loss of privacy that the information age would bring. How Brin differs from most, though, is that he views the loss of privacy as a good thing - so long as transparency is total, and citizens can spy on their governments as effectively as governments do the same. I can only imagine the gigantic man-crush that Brin must have for Julian Assange.

Above all else, though, Earth is an environmental novel. The most recent equivalent would have to be The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi, but where P.B. is a pessimist bordering on nihilism, Brin makes the deliberate choice to be optimistic. We are screwing up the planet, he says, but there's still a chance we can dig ourselves back out of the hole. I think that's a much more useful stance. We have to assume that a solution exists to the world's problems before we can start looking for one. Neither Brin nor Bacigalupi deal much with the wave of environmental denialism we're currently struggling with, but both of their novels are set after a future tipping point, where the Cold Hard Bitch-Slap of Reality (tm) has made any of those kind of discussions moot.(less)

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Feb 07, 2011 Natalie rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites, sci-fi, speculative-fiction

Author David Brin just posted a link to a video where he does a reading from Earth. But, this is not just a talking head video.

Brin's bookshelves and some kitchen appliances are visible in the background, but they will not distract because the reading is illustrated w/fade-ins to terrific astronomical spacescape photography and art, and not randomly either, but in synch with the passage Brin reads.

Brilliant, fun, and much better than those origins of earth and the universe films you remember f...more

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Oct 31, 2008 Steve rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

First, David Brin is a great ideas author but has a horrible trait of being unable to end a book well. I've read many of his books and they all have great ideas and well-realized worlds and then at some point he realizes that he actually has to END the book and throws something together; The Postman is perhaps the most egregious offender of his that I've read but they all suffer from this problem. While Earth's ending is somewhat of a letdown relative to the rest of the book, it's pretty good b...more

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About David Brin

David Brin is a scientist, speaker, and world-known author. His novels have been New York Times Bestsellers, winning multiple Hugo, Nebula and other awards. At least a dozen have been translated into more than twenty languages.

Existence, his latest novel, offers an unusual scenario for first contact. His ecological thriller, Earth, foreshadowed global warming, cyberwarfare and near-future trends...more

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Books by David Brin

Brightness Reef (Uplift Storm Trilogy, #1)

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Quotes from Earth

“Prison for the crime of puberty -- that was how secondary school had seemed.” — 10 people liked it

“Self-awareness is probably overrated. A complex, self-regulating system doesn't need it in order to be successful, or even smart.” — 8 people liked it

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avg rating	preview: Earth Goodreads rating: 3.87 (3106 ratings)
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Earth

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