Heirs Of Earth

The Orphans Trilogy #3

by Sean Williams, Shane Dix, Chris Moore (Illustrator)

Earth has been destroyed, and with it the natural order of things. What little that remains of humanity is caught between the Spinners and the Starfish, unsure whether to run, hide, or fight back. None of the options is particularly attractive, and none offers much hope for survival.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Space Opera, Science Fiction Fantasy

368 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

#1 New York Times bestselling Sean Williams lives with his family in Adelaide, South Australia. He’s written some books--forty-two at last count--including the Philip K. Dick-nominated Saturn Returns, several Star Wars novels and the Troubletwister series with Garth Nix. Twinmaker is a YA SF series that takes his love affair with the matter transmitter to a whole new level. You can find some related short stories over at Lightspeed Magazine and elsewhere. Thanks for reading.

Reviews

[Joe · Rating 4 out of 5]

All leads to disorder

I really enjoyed this book. The more chaotic the action became the less I followed it. Maybe it is me but understanding all is not possible.

[Rusty · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was shocked (shocked!) to learn that I had yet to review this book. I swear I did this already a month or more in the past. So, considering that I mentioned last time that I used it to inspire me to write my own novel (no more progress on that front) you’d think I’d have deeper thoughts to share about this one.

I don’t.

I probably did, back when I read it, but now it’s a blur. I recall that I liked it better than the previous book, as this was more action-y and could have been a really good episode of Star Trek, if it were tweaked some.

But be that as it may, it’s a great segue into my lastest obsession: A.I. generated music.

Look, I’m not gonna lie, this stuff is nuts. I can pump out banger after banger with just some prompts and then it’s off to the races. In fact, in less time that it took for me to actually write this, I had an A.I. create me a song that serves as my review. If my link works below, you can hear it by clicking (if my link doesn’t work, I hope there is an A.I. I can soon use to insert links that work into my book reviews)

HERE IS MY SONG

I’m sure there will be better and better versions of this, assuming this model isn’t sued out of existence by every songwriter living today. I mean, the thought that this will only improve over time is shocking. Right now my complaint is that when I get a song that is 98% perfect and I just want to slightly tweak it…. Well, then, I’m stuck.

A case in point, if my second link works, it’s another version of the first song that I actually like way better, but I made some mistakes (namely, one typo and another with me not understating how the AI would read “AI” before I realized you needed to write it out as “A.I.” and also it didn’t seem to know how to pronounce “arbitrary” very well.

But still, it was a killer song (in my rather plebeian opinion) and I just needed to fix those couple of little things but I can’t go back and edit it.

So, next update I’m sure they’ll make that possible. But regardless, they’re like, if you want the free version of this app, then as long as you don’t make money from it, then let the world know about it. If I give them 10 bucks a month then I can fill up Spotify and Apple Music with this AI generated stuff and they’re cool with it.

Again, this will get taken away from us as it is. There is no way something this cool can exist without it going away. I’m left wondering if I should even bother doing anything creative again. I’m sure novels will soon be better after we teach AIs to quit being so ADHD and get them to focus on making an internally consistent character/plot dynamic that they can actually carry through over the course of a whole book.

HERE IS MY PREVIOUS VERSION OF THE SONG THAT IS BETTER BUT I MADE MISTAKES

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Trippy space opera.

[elidemelnibone · Rating 4 out of 5]

j'ai vraiment bien aimé le concept des nombreux engrammes (reproductions électroniques) de mêmes humains, qui pour certains essaient d'aller au delà de leur "programmation"; j'ai bien aimé ce monde aussi. cette série vaut la peine d'être lue dans l'ordre.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting read that delves into moralistic questions in a futuristic world.

[Marsha Valance · Rating 2 out of 5]

"Heirs of Earth", 3rd volume in the “Orphans” trilogy, is pure old-fashioned space opera: plot-driven, written with little concern for writing style or character development. Earth and many of her colonies have been destroyed. The “engrams” (sentient software personalities), together with the remnants of humanity, are trapped between the benevolent, gift-giving alien “Spinners” and the destructive “Starfish”, a marauding starship horde that hones in on the Spinner-made FTL transmitters. The cardboard characters debate various courses of action, settling on confrontation with the “Starfish”. The ensuing space battle provides enough action to satisfy any military sf aficionado, though the lack of style and compelling characters may prove off-putting to some readers. The book’s greatest asset lies in its combination of brand-new scientific concepts with intriguing speculation. The "Heirs of Earth" will appeal to readers who enjoy “hard” SF, and aren’t bothered by a lack of writing style or character credibility.

[David Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this series of books and would recommend it. It looks at cloning and asks the question can clones develop individual identities or do they want to remain the same. It explores the challenges of xenophobia and various means of space travel. True Space Opera Science Fiction. :)

[Rajesh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Decent end to the trilogy. Enjoyed the way-outness enough to go through all three.