โ Scribed by Orson Scott Card
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
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.
"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_
๐ SIMILAR VOLUMES
High above the planet Harmony, the Oversoul watches. Its task, programmed so many millennia ago, is to guard the human settlement on this planetto protect this fragile remnant of Earth from all threats. To protect them, most of all, from themselves. The Oversoul has done its job well. There is no w
High above the planet Harmony, the Oversoul watches. Its task, programmed so many millennia ago, is to guard the human settlement on this planet?to protect this fragile remnant of Earth from all threats. To protect them, most of all, from themselves. The Oversoul has done its job well. There is no w
SUMMARY: High above the planet Harmony, the Oversoul watches. Its task, programmed so many millennia ago, is to guard the human settlement on this planet--to protect this fragile remnant of Earth from all threats. To protect them, most of all, from themselves.The Oversoul has done its job well. Th
The Call of Earth continues the story of Nafai, his family, and the few other people selected by the Oversoul to leave the city of Basilica, and their former lives. When the human refugees from a ruined Earth founded a colony on the planet Harmony, they determined that this world would not be devast
### From Publishers Weekly The third volume of Card's Homecoming Saga continues the epic tale begun in The Memory of Earth . After 40 million years, the artificially intelligent guardian computer (the "Oversoul") of the planet Harmony--created to keep the human colonists at a relatively low technol