Reviews

The Memory of Earth by Orson Scott Card

rj_owen's review against another edition

2.0

First off, the names are awful. The story is confusing and the religious aspect of it isn't something I enjoy all that much. Overall the book was ok, but I found myself drifting off and just trying to read it to hurry up and finish it. It can be kind of tempting to read the second in a series for me just to see if it gets better or find out what happens, but I don't have that feeling at all with this one.

booleancat's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

barefoot_james's review against another edition

3.0

First book in the Homecoming Saga series.

This is an interesting book as it is a retelling of part of the Book of Mormon. It depicts a struggle between faith and reason. God in this story is a super computer which retains the memory of Earth for the settlers of this planet.

With the exception of the antagonist the characters of the story are well developed. I was especially impressed with how the author drew the relationships between the men and the women in the story.

branwynnemay's review against another edition

2.5

The names felt strongly Mormon, and the exploration of male and female religiosity and power felt awkward, as if it were a man deeply planted in a misogynistic, male-dominated culture fumbling about in a thought experiment of “what if the tables were turned?” 
Otherwise, it was fun to delve into a strange sci-fi story worthy of Joseph Smith. The narrator was great, though I likely won’t be reading any more books by Card. 

tsteele93's review against another edition

5.0

I found the parallels to Christianity to be the very thing that made this so good. I respect that a lot of people might not care for this, but if you go in knowing that Card clearly wrote these (and Worthing Saga) to discuss religious (Christian) themes in an analogous way, then the story is in many ways quite brilliant.

Two major concepts are discussed in the series. One is the analog to Saul/Paul on the road to Damascus. The other is the concept of Hell being a disconnect from our creator, rather than a punitive torture.

I enjoyed the series as both sci-fi and a look at some Biblical concepts through a different lens.

t_shaffner's review against another edition

3.0

This was a fun book to read mostly, but a bit overdone in its characterization at times and in the end not enticing enough to make me want to continue in the series.

bad_robot's review against another edition

4.0

The social setup (separate male and female societies) is interesting and although well constructed I'm not sure I can believe in it. The storytelling is however is superb.

crloken's review against another edition

3.0

A good book if a bit slow. Memory of Earth is the first in a series of five and you can tell that by reading it. The book slowly introduces plot and characters and the culture of the world and then very suddenly ends a couple plot lines and ends. I believe that Orson Scott Card was attempting to make it a book that could stand alone or be the first in a series but ultimately failed. I think he should have focused more on some of the aspects in this story, such as the political situation in Basilica but instead that story serves as somewhat of a backdrop to the real task of introducing the characters and the full series plot. This is a Mormon allegory and I have never read the book of Mormon so I would be interested to know how much it follows it. All that being said it was an interesting book with a fairly unique society and I will be reading the next one.

apheline's review against another edition

reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

corvingreene's review against another edition

3.0

I loved this series as a kid, though now that I know Orson Scott Card is a nasty LDS homophobe, and that this series is, essentially, a re-telling of the Book of Mormon, I'm much less interested/impressed.