Terraforming Earth

by Jack Williamson

When a giant meteor crashes into the earth and destroys all life, the small group of human survivors manage to leave the barren planet and establish a new home on the moon. From Tycho Base, they're able to observe the devastated planet and wait for a time when return will become possible. Generations pass. Cloned children have had children of their own, and their eyes are raised toward the giant planet in the sky which long ago was the cradle of humanity. Finally, after millennia of waiting, the descendants of the original refugees travel back to a planet they've never known, to try to rebuild a civilization of which they've never been a part. The fate of the planet lies in the success of their return, but after so much time, the question is not whether they can rebuild an old destroyed home, but whether they can learn to inhabit an alien new world—Earth.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Post Apocalyptic, Fantasy, Science Fiction Fantasy, Hard Science Fiction, Dystopia

348 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

John Stewart Williamson who wrote as Jack Williamson (and occasionally under the pseudonym Will Stewart) was a U.S. writer often referred to as the "Dean of Science Fiction".

Reviews

[Phoenixfalls · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think that to review this book I am going to have to use spoilers. There's no way to talk about it without spoiling something, and to tell you the truth I wish someone had spoiled this stuff for me, because the jacket description, the artwork, even the title are a bit misleading. The book I read, which I think was actually pretty strong (if old-fashioned) big idea science fiction, is not at all the book I was expecting to read. The spoilers will be kept general, on the order of "spoiling" Romeo & Juliet by saying it's a tragedy where everyone dies by the end, so I'm not going to mark this review as containing spoilers, but I will put it all behind a little cut. Don't read further if you really like to go into books cold!

------------------CUT FOR SPOILERS-------------------

The apocalypse comes quickly, an asteroid that sneaks up in the Earth's blindspot, so only seven people manage to make it off the planet to Tycho Base. This isn't a problem, because they've been preparing for something like this to happen, so the base is manned by robots and run by a computer; there's cloning technology (which is apparently not prone to replication error) and they have frozen samples from plenty (a number is never given) of people and animal and plant species -- everything they need to one day terraform the Earth. What is a problem is that they weren't prepared yet, so the base isn't fully functional. The seven survivors do what they can to make records of their lost (entirely American) civilization, and then they die.

All of which happens before the start of the book. The computer watched the planet for who knows how long (eons) keeping itself and its robots running, until the planet cleansed itself after the meteor impact -- there's a mention of volcanic activity that subsided and an Ice Age that came and went, but magically the continents are still in exactly the same place. Then it began to run its program, which involved birthing the clones of five of the survivors who have the skills to reseed the planet with life like we had known it. They're raised by the robots and holograms of their progenitors which have personality and some sort of artificial intelligence (the holograms can respond to their children, and learn, and think, though there's never any talk about artificial intelligence) and when they reach adulthood they're sent down to the planet to survey and spread the building blocks of our sort of life.

This begins a cycle. Clone generation after clone generation is born and raised identically, hundreds or thousands or millions of years apart from previous generations; each generation tries to plant the seeds of life and steer it to provide a good place for humans to recolonize, building on records left by previous generations of clones. Because they do receive the same upbringing and are genetically identical, it's easier for the reader to think of the clones as all the same person -- every Dunk (the narrator) is the same, even though Williamson has them often say they are their own people. And every time they go down to the planet, some of them die, or they discover that life has taken a very unexpected (and dangerous) turn.

They actually do manage to start several small human civilizations, but they are wiped out in their turn, and the computer on the base has to resurrect yet another generation to start again.

There are alien encounters, though they aren't at all convincingly alien. And the whole thing ends up feeling like an exercise in futility. The poor clones, born to die, seem like science fiction versions of Sisyphus.

I think that all this was Williamson's goal, and if so then he did accomplish what he wanted with the book. I didn't particularly enjoy it, but I think it is what it was intended to be, so I have to say that it's well-done. What hurt it (beyond my dislike for exercizes in futility) was that it felt like a throwback, like Williamson (who was 93 when this was published, and first started writing in the late 20s) never got beyond the science fiction of the 1960s. As mentioned above, there's no evidence that Williamson understands plate tectonics -- by the end of the book we must be hundreds of millions of years in the future, but the clones still look down from the moon at "the Americas" or "Asia" or "Africa" or "the Mediterranean." The whole question of artificial intelligence is never raised, and it really needed to be for me to get any picture of how Tycho Base worked. His portrayal of relativistic space travel seemed. . . inaccurate, though I will admit I'm not a physicist. I should say it doesn't at all fit with what I know from modern science fiction novels written by physicists.

And even more than all that science that seemed lacking in what felt like a hard science fiction novel, the race and gender relations portrayed in the book are very much a product of a 50s/60s mentality. There are three women in the eight people cloned at one point or another: one is the keeper of the cultural artifacts, a virgin locked in her tower of the past; one is a biologist who "understands and enjoys" sex and shares with all of the men who are interested; the third is cloned only twice, the girlfriend of one of the men who, when she isn't cloned, becomes a sort of mythic ideal he spends his life pining for. The women never play any role in reseeding the planet; often they end up being held captive in Tycho Base by the paranoid alpha male.

Of the men, one is a Latino of some sort (it's never clear where his ancestors are from, but we meet him in New Mexico) and the pilot; in every incarnation he simply follows whoever leads. Another is "black as tar, though he had an Oriental poker face" and he is the one person who forced his way onto the shuttle leaving the dying earth. A night watchman at the facility, he kept the crowds back while the chosen few made it onboard with their supplies and then pulled a gun and insisted that they take him and his girlfriend (the soon-to-be mythic ideal) with them. He isn't resurrected at first, but when he is he immediately is set up, time after time, against the paranoid alpha male, and time after time he loses. In one iteration, the alpha male sets up a tyrannical government that runs on slave power, and all the slaves are clones of "El Chino," the former night-watchman.

So when I pretended to myself that it had been written in 1958, I could look past all those elements; when I reminded myself that it was published in 2001, I had to roll my eyes and wonder what the editors at Tor were thinking.

But still, if I ignore all those throwback elements, the book does accomplish what I think Williamson intended. It seems an awfully depressing future, full of futility and hubris, but I got it, and I think the book would work for people who like reading that sort of thing.

[Kar3n · Rating 2 out of 5]

Behold the power of cheese!

This looked like it would be good when I picked it up from the library.. it's a good premise, anyway: When Earth is about to be hit by an asteroid, a group of scientists build a base on the Moon with clones of everything, including themselves. When the dust settles, the base will start cloning, and the clones will repopulate the Earth.

Unfortunately, the first few chapters read like "Groundhog Day".
1. Hello clones.
2. Clones go to earth.
3. Clones die. Messily.
4. Hello clones.

It gets better toward the end, but since I giggled through the first few chapters, I had trouble taking the rest of it seriously.

Two stars.

[Elle Quintana · Rating 5 out of 5]

I bought this book at a garage sale for a quarter. I totally fell in love. This is one of my top 10 fave books ever. I know, it's totally nerdy of me. I'm a sci-fi geek through and through. I LOVE the speculation and creative ideas about how the world is turning out after billions and billions of years. I understand the comment someone said about it being like groundhog day with the day being relived again and again but I looked past that. I could hardly put this book down. I read it in a single day. This book led me to dozens more of Jack Williamson's books. Most are great as long as you can get past that arrogant male hero thing that most old books from the 40's/50's have-the storylines are 100% awesome.
As you can probably tell by my review...I'll never be a writer myself :(
I keep hinting around to my boyfriend that I want a first edition signed by Jack as a gift but he just keeps not getting it...looks like I'll have to buy it for myself.

[Pete Storm · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a decent but ultimately uncompelling book. The central premise of repeated clones of the moon colony that go back to resettle the earth after an asteroid disaster is one that has promise, but it's just not interestingly executed.

There are too many interesting questions just glossed over - how does the moon colony stay in repair for perhaps millions of years? Why don't the robots track time? How come none of the missions ever include the ability to return with more resources/seeds/samples?

After a while I just stopped caring.

[Robert Bedard · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a nice return to traditional science fiction for me. Mr. Williamson is a highly respected, much lauded author in the genre for good reason. The book builds on a simple premise, the earth needs to be rebuilt post-apocalypse, and the story soon gains depth and complexity. The complexity goes in many directions and culminates (spoiler) in a metaphysical resolution. This book, written in the twilight of his career, for me, respects the diversity and complexity of all life and points to a greater and ultimate path for all. This was a good read and masterfully crafted.

[Dan Henne]

I've finished reading but I can't write a review because I haven't finished thinking about it.

[Roddy Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘When a giant meteor crashes into the Earth and destroys all life, the small group of human survivors manages to leave the barren planet and establish a new home on the moon. From Tycho Base, men and women are able to observe the devastated planet and wait for a time when return will become possible.

Generations pass. Cloned children have had children of their own, and their eyes are raised toward the giant planet in the sky which long ago was the cradle of humanity. Finally, after millennia of waiting, the descendants of the original refugees travel back to a planet they’ve never known, to try and rebuild a civilization of which they’ve never been a part.

The fate of the Earth lies in the success of their return, but after so much time, the question is not whether they can rebuild an old destroyed home, but whether they can learn to inhabit an alien new world – Earth.’

Blurb from the 2003 Tor paperback edition

Williamson would have been ninety-three when he published this book which is an incredible achievement for a man who began his publishing career in 1928.
As Williamson is one of the official Grand Masters of Science Fiction it comes as no surprise that this was nominated for the main SF awards. It has been a practise in the past for establishment figures to have ‘late’ novels nominated, one presumes as a mark of respect, with seemingly little regard for the merits of the book. Asimov’s later Foundation novels and Heinlein’s ‘Friday’ spring to mind, but there are no doubt others.
With ‘Terraforming Earth’ however, one does feel that it has a certain quality to it, and for once, one has no qualms about its inclusion on the nomination list.
Some time in our near future, Duncan Yare, obsessed with the idea of a global extinction event caused by meteor impact, sets up a station on the moon, in the event of such a catastrophe. The catastrophe of course occurs almost undetected because the meteor heads in from the direction of the sun.
Yare and his team manage to launch a ship, carrying two uninvited guests who force their way on board.
The station, in the rim of the Tycho crater, is staffed by ‘robots’ and run by a master computer.
Yare’s plan is that a small number of the team are cloned periodically to check on the status of the Earth which appeared to have been sterilised by the impact. Their mission is to reseed and terraform the Earth, eventually to repopulate it with cloned humans from a storehouse of tissue samples.
So, several characters are re-cloned again and again, slowly revealing that certain traits are inherent in the characters of the clones and their subsequent lives.
There’s an odd, and perhaps deliberate retro feel to this book, as if Williamson were referencing some of the clichés of his career. The use of the word ‘robot’ is something a contemporary SF writer would surely not use unless employed in a post-modern or satirical manner. Also, the phrase ‘master computer’ is redolent of older styles. No doubt today it would be at the very least an AI. ‘Microbots’, infinitesimal machines which infest the future human race, making individuals immortal, are what we modern readers know as products of nanotechnology.
And yet, it works. There is something very much of yesterday running through, but it’s a clean, modern and sometimes beautiful piece of writing. There are echoes of Pohl, Vernor Vinge and Clifford Simak (particularly in the singing alien trees, a poignant creation Simak would have been proud of) and a final transcendent denouement.

[Julieta Steyr · Rating 2 out of 5]

Admito que hay conceptos interesantes en este libro, pero en cuanto a la trama es algo muy distinto. Como dijo alguien por ahí, básicamente consta en 4 pasos: 1) Tierra destruida 2) Clones humanos de la Luna para repoblarla 3) Los clones mueren en la Tierra 4) Todo vuelve a comenzar... una y otra vez, y otra, y otra, etc.
Cosas que me disgustaron: la historia de amor que hace que empaticen con los personajes al final está ahí para nada; segundo, los baches en el argumento que suceden cada vez que un par de clones deja la Luna pero sus compañeros quedan atrás, podría habernos informado de algo más pero no lo hace y quedamos tan incomunicados como los dichosos clones. He de decir que si me remonto al principio dirían más sobre Arne, molesta 3/4 libro con el carácter de él y sus tendencias obsesivas para luego desaparecerlo por completo SIEMPRE y sobre todo al final. Las tendencias a mostrar los mundos están bien, salvo por el hecho que no toma en cuenta que si tan avanzada era X civilización, los clones bien podrían tener los medios necesarios para comunicarse con la base lunar. Y los microrganismos al final me dejaron con el "¿eso fue todo?", sí, eso fue todo.
Los personajes, salvo por el historiador tienen tanta gracia como los 'robos', los robots o incluso la vegetación rojiza.
Así que básicamente es una historia en la que del grupo sólo unos cuantos realmente tendrán protagonismo, en la que empieza como queriendo relatar lo que es la humanidad mediante las pasiones para que al finalizar los mundos sea tan lento que cuesta tener los ojos abiertos. Sí, los principios son buenos, algunos cansan, los conceptos son originales, pero la narrativa... ¿dónde quedó la emoción?

[Cottageunderhill · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was recommended to me from a Barnes and Noble article talking about the new Neal Stephenson book coming out. So I was lucky enough to borrow this through the inter-library loan program at the public library. There are many layers to this book and it's tough for me to give it a 3 star review when there were other strings that make me want to give it a 4 star review. It's fast paced and kept my interest all the way through. But I think one of the drawbacks to being fast paced was that there were several chapters where I wanted more information-- to dwell on the story more. This story is a very dry and hard science-fiction based. I couldn't tell whether this helped me read the story because the premise is that we are following clones, reborn multiple times, to try and repopulate the Earth. Earth goes through numerous stages of extinction for human kind. Kinda sad to think about. Therefore, during most of the chapters, it is hard to tell if Mr. Williamson is commenting on the emotional level of the clones. One of them goes crazy paranoid, and it is kind of left out there. Or perhaps someone could comment that the clones resembled humans so flawlessly that there was no reason to think clones are different. Hmm. An interesting debate. And I think that's why I had to give it a 3 star review: there were so many opportunities for Mr. Williamson to explore the humanity side to this story and instead it seemed like the story was just meant to be fast paced and hard science fiction....

[Daniel Hamad · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ehhh. This book feels like it was written in the 20's or 30's, not 1999. It's a whole lot of generic nonsensical description language with no actual movement. The first 2/3 of it is just utterly pointless effectively short stories, but they'd at least be worth it if they were interesting, or if they made sense. They don't.

Basically, this book is a flight of fancy. If you like early 20th century sci fi, you *might* like it. Otherwise, I Just don't get it.

[Jason Bleckly · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a very odd book. Having finished it I’m still not sure if I like it. There is a surprising twist in the second to last chapter, which is also completely inevitable, that does provide a satisfying conclusion. So on the whole I don’t regret reading this book.

It’s sort of a fix-up. The book is divided into 5 parts, 2 of which were published as novellas before appearing in the book. Part 4 The Ultimate Earth first appeared in the Dec 2000 Analog and went on to win both the Hugo and Nebula for best Novella. Part 3 Agents of the Moon first appeared In the Mar 2000 Science Fiction Age. The other 3 parts are unique to the novel and obviously written to expand the framestory hinted at in the first 2 published novella. Each of the parts is a separate self-contained novella

The story is about re-terraforming earth after a big rock wipes out all life in the opening pages. Fortunately there was a moon-base set up to re-seed earth in case something like that happened. The base is fully auto-mated apart from 5 people. Terraforming a planet doesn’t happen overnight, or within a human lifespan. For most of the time that passes in the book is everyone is dead. They periodically cloned in incubators pop down Earth to check on the progress. Hundreds or thousands or millions of years can elapse between each batch of clones. The story is very fuzzy on precisely how much time does pass. Yet each batch of clones is the same character. Jack is clearly on the nature side of the nature/nurture debate. This constant new clone character not being any different from their previous iteration I didn’t find entirely convincing. It also made it hard to empathise with any of them.

Also I’m not convinced by the longevity of the automated moonbase. It seems to have limitless supplies of everything and nothing breaks down irreparably after millions of years. Yet the moonbase is built today with current technology and we’re lucky to build something that last 100 years.

But these are minor quibbles. They are anisbles, quick and dirty plot devices to allow the story to be told.

This is an ideas book. The characters are shallow and exaggerated, but cover a full range of sterotypes so there is the right character type for every situation. It’s the ideas in this book that save it from being bad. Each of the five parts covers a central idea around re-building earth. Some of the ideas are ecological, some of them a sociological. I can’t say too much about the ideas without spoiling their impact.

So all the niggling story flaws, limp characters, inconstancies between the novellas, overall story cadence, etc make it a frustrating read. But the general quality of the language, the thought experiments, and the ideas kept me reading until the end. I’m very ambivalent about this book.

[Daniel Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the first book by Jack Williamson I have read, and I’m very impressed by the breadth and depth of this book. I was expecting a sci-fi book with maybe a thriller aspect and some aliens, but Williamson delivered something more sober and thoughtful. The Big Idea in this book is the idea that over millennia life may populate and repopulate the galaxy in a multitude of ways. There are some very interesting explorations of the human psyche from the perspective of clones of a team sent to repair the Earth’s ecosystem after cataclysmic events. They’re brought back multiple times when they’re called for, and their depth of character really helps bring some of the more interesting thought experiments Williamson presents to the reader in a digestible and humanizing way. They also give us a reason to feel invested in the world Williamson has created.
This book was created by adding onto a short story Williamson wrote prior called Ultimate Earth, which was incorporated as a section of Terraforming Earth. This does feel a little disjointed when the reader encounters it, but the ideas and the presentation of them vastly outshadows this and carry the day.

[James]

First Paperback, Contains the Hugo and Nebula Award-winning "The Ultimate Earth" When a giant meteor crashes into the earth and destroys all life, the small group of human survivors manage to leave the barren planet and establish a new home on the moon. From Tycho Base, men and woman are able to observe the devastated planet and wait for a time when return will become possible. Generations pass. Cloned children have had children of their own, and their eyes are raised toward the giant planet in the sky which long ago was the cradle of humanity. Finally, after millennia of waiting, the descendants of the original refugees travel back to a planet they've never known, to try and rebuild a civilization of which they've never been a part. The fate of the earth lies in the success of their return, but after so much time, the question is not whether they can rebuild an old destroyed home, but whether they can learn to inhabit an alien new world--Earth.

[Daniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

La Tierra sufre el impacto de un meteorito y toda la población mundial desaparece. Unos cuantos científicos terrestres se han podido preparar y huyen a la Luna donde tienen todo lo necesario para clonarse y volver a sembrar la semilla de la vida humana en el futuro. Los clones del futuro van yendo y viendo y narrando sus experiencias de lo que se encuentran en la Tierra. La novela no se centra en cómo se terraforma la Tierra, más bien en las diferentes experiencias de los clones a medida que pasan los eones y lo que se van encontrando debido a la propia evolución del planeta. Aunque el argumento principal de la novela es interesante, tiene bastantes vacíos en los que deja al lector que busque su propia explicación. La parte científica del proceso de terraformar se deja de lado y se centra más en las aventuras y desventuras de los clones durante las diferentes etapas de la Tierra.

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

My gateway into Williamson was the collection "The Worlds of Jack Williamson (which contains "Darker Than You Think"). Then I read "Legion of Space." Both of those were 5 star reads for me. I enjoyed this one but not as much as the other two. What I liked was its premise and the fact that it was not at all predictable. But I did find the first half more enjoyable than the second half. I wanted to see more development with some of the characters who never leave the moon. I also wonder about the notion of clones retaining the memories of their predecessors but that supposition reflects the author's rich imagination even if it comes at the expense of plausibility. Overall, I thought it was worth reading. If someone is reading Williamson for the first time, I'd recommend starting with "Darker Than You Think" which is incredible and unforgettable.

[Xabi1990 · Rating 3 out of 5]

5/10 en 2008.

Por esta novela se llevó Hugo, Nébula y Campbell este señor que además fue Gran Maestro de la Ciencia Ficción (toma ya!)

Pues toda vuestra, me aburrí como un hongo. De las de este autor que he leído me quedo con La legión del espacio.

Aquí tenemos futuro apocalíptico con una base en la luna atendida por robots para "sembrar" la Tierra destruida por el método de ir enviando oleadas de niños...que van muriendo. La idea está bien, pero el desarrollo eso, aburrido para mí.

[Will B · Rating 1 out of 5]

I first read this book in high school and somehow walked away with positive feelings. Upon returning to it as an adult, I am so disappointed.

The premise is interesting, but ultimately this book feels like a collection of half-baked scenarios that go no where and serve no purpose. The characters lack depth and any sense of realness. And for a science fiction novel, its science feels off in many regards.

Additionally, the author is unable to write female characters or grapple with race. His attempts come off as sexist/racist at worst, totally ignorant at best.

Save yourself the time and read anything else instead.

[Mike Osorio · Rating 5 out of 5]

A remarkable and complex story

From an initial asteroid strike that wipes out almost all of humanity to millions of years into the future, the story takes you on a voyage of discovery and rediscovery of humanity. While some of the transitions are abrupt and some timelines are longer than they need to be and others too short, the overall story is compelling and I am glad to have experienced it.

[Michael Hirsch · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have to remember that if any of the reviews use the work "storyteller" to describe the author, it means that the writing is weak. It is the kind of story that would sound okay when told at a campfire, but it doesn't really work as a novel. If I want that sort of thig I would read Anasazi the Spider stories. I expect more from a novel.

[Paula Arcolina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Es verdad que es un poco lento al repetir bastantes veces el patrón de reiniciar los personajes, pero me ha resultado muy imaginativo y la última parte y el final me han dejado muy buen sabor de boca.

[Sebastian Sajda · Rating 1 out of 5]

Stay away. The description/summary of this book is a siren song.

[Andrew Orange · Rating 3 out of 5]

A great design, strong voice and imagination, but there is a lot of "but"...
Three stars.

[Alexys · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was okay. The first parts are somewhat repetitive and a little boring, but the end parts are interesting.

[Phil · Rating 4 out of 5]

I very much enjoyed this. Great story lines.

[Michael Duquette · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting book and a good science fiction read, although I think it lost the plot in the final quarter

[Daniel Paniagua Diez · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesante propuesta, al ser varios relatos seguidos se lee con facilidad, el mejor de todos es el último. Un clásico de la ciencia ficción.

[Charl]

Excellent science so far, but just not to my taste.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Terraforming Earth" by Jack Williamson is a well-imagined book telling a potential future after earth is hit by a devastating meteor. I have read books leading up to a disaster, and apocalyptic books describing life on earth right after a disaster, but this book is different in that it describes life for millennia afterwards in an almost encyclopedic manner. Obviously this lengthy period of time cannot be dealt with in detail so the book skips ahead 100's, even 1000's of years between chapters. On the positive side this technique allows Williamson to describe many possible reincarnations of Earth with various life forms, environmental patterns, and civilizations. On the negative side, since the story is told with such a wide lens, its difficult to have an emotional connection to the characters as they seem somewhat one-dimensional. Other reviewers have described "Terraforming Earth" as a dry, hard science novel and I would agree with that assessment.

Overall though, there was some serious original thought which went into the making of the novel, so I feel it definitely deserves 3 stars. Read it to get a unique perspective on a possible future, and to be reminded just how small a speck in the universe Earth is.

Favorite quote: "Life has always been uncertain, but it renews itself. Or so I dream."

[Dokusha · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ein großer Meteor löscht alles Leben auf der Erde aus. Jedoch hat ein findiger Ingenieur die Katastrophe geahnt und eine vollautomatische Station auf dem Mond gebaut und dort Genproben gelagert. Von hier aus soll die Erde wiederbelebt werden von geklonten Nachkommen seiner selbst und fünf anderen Menschen, die mit ihm noch vor dem Meteor flüchten konnten.
Das Buch erzählt die Geschichte der verschiedenen Wiederbelebungsversuche und der Erfahrungen der Klone. Die Zeitspanne reicht daher über etliche tausend Jahre, während der der Mastercomputer der Monstation die Klone immer wieder neu generiert, wenn er die Notwendigkeit oder Rechtfertigung dafür sieht.
Die Idee ist wirklich interessant, und es gibt ein paar raffinierte Wendungen in der Geschichte, aber insgesamt fand ich das Geschehen etwas zu konfus. Es geschehen zu oft Dinge, für die keine Erklärung gegeben wird, und man hat das Gefühl, der Autor hat des öfteren mal vergessen, seine losen Fäden zusammenzunähen. Das ist schade, denn wie oben schon geschrieben ist die Grundidee mal eine erfrischende Alternative zu sonstigen Endzeit-Szenarien. Aber leider wurde die Gelegenheit zu einem großen Wurf nicht wirklich genutzt.

[Shawn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my first read from Mr. Williamson and there was something haunting about how much time passed while those clones kept repeating themselves. Kind of like "The Time Machine," with how far in time the traveller goes. I recall a scene with vampire-like bat creatures attaching themselves to the clones; and one character chasing a harpy-like creature that resembles a long-deceased lover. There's nothing epic about this book, it's a contained book, it doesn't sprawl all over the place, it takes place in near-orbit to Earth, and the characters are only a handful, but those characters are over and over. I went on to read other works from Williamson and agree that he's like a dean of sci-fi: there's no shortage of spacey ideas from him and his stories move, they don't dawdle or turn too philosophical. There's some outdated air about the writer but this can be forgiven.