steveab's review
4.0
Humans Untied continues Michelle Murrain's account of the Earth's re-encounter with long-lost Casitian cousins. Also human, the long-gone Casitians have returned to the Earth and begin to connect all of us in wider galactic life, politics and civilization.
Most of this second volume takes place on New Earth, where many people have gone to start new pioneer communities separate from Casitian influence on Earth. The several, separate emigrant societies carries various contemporary Earth trends to extreme. We get libertarianism and fundamentalism among other things. Michelle seems both serious and humerous in such things as describing what happens to minimalist states when they need to find public health and other skilled labor, when there are no public schools or public health. All good stuff.
The book skips weaving the stories taking place at first independently among along characters in each territory. Not surprisingly, crisis brings key characters together. As you read, it is possible to anticipate the general nature of the crisis, which I won't give away. Let's just say it falls into the category of, if you don't feel comfortable among the Casitians, wait till you meet the rest of the family...
Michelle Murrain has a great imagination. Knowing Michelle as a friend, I can just feel how this epic story has been bottled up for some time, and now spills out in fast-paced adventures and plot twists and turns. The characters, new and old in this second volume, take on more depth and interest. The series definitely falls into the broad catergory of "hard science fiction," yet the science is really more familiar and accessible contemporary science than fastastical leaps into the unknown.
I'm looking forward to seeing what comes next in Volume 3.
Most of this second volume takes place on New Earth, where many people have gone to start new pioneer communities separate from Casitian influence on Earth. The several, separate emigrant societies carries various contemporary Earth trends to extreme. We get libertarianism and fundamentalism among other things. Michelle seems both serious and humerous in such things as describing what happens to minimalist states when they need to find public health and other skilled labor, when there are no public schools or public health. All good stuff.
The book skips weaving the stories taking place at first independently among along characters in each territory. Not surprisingly, crisis brings key characters together. As you read, it is possible to anticipate the general nature of the crisis, which I won't give away. Let's just say it falls into the category of, if you don't feel comfortable among the Casitians, wait till you meet the rest of the family...
Michelle Murrain has a great imagination. Knowing Michelle as a friend, I can just feel how this epic story has been bottled up for some time, and now spills out in fast-paced adventures and plot twists and turns. The characters, new and old in this second volume, take on more depth and interest. The series definitely falls into the broad catergory of "hard science fiction," yet the science is really more familiar and accessible contemporary science than fastastical leaps into the unknown.
I'm looking forward to seeing what comes next in Volume 3.
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