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The Hunted Earth #2
The Shattered Sphere
The human race must enlist the assistance of the Adversary, the only entity capable of intimidating the Charonians, who have stolen the planet Earth
412 pages, Hardcover
First published July 1, 1994
3 people are currently reading
198 people want to read
About the author
Roger MacBride Allen
57 books102 followersRoger MacBride Allen is a US science fiction author of the Corellian Trilogy, consisting of Ambush at Corellia, Assault at Selonia, and Showdown at Centerpoint. He was born on September 26, 1957 in Bridgeport, Connecticut. He grew up in Washington D.C. and graduated from Boston University in 1979. The author of a dozen science-fiction novels, he lived in Washington D.C., for many years. In July 1994, he married Eleanre Fox, a member of the U.S. Foreign Service. Her current assignment takes them to Brasilia, Brazil, where they lived from 2007 to 2009.
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
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February 1, 2021Review written April 2000
The Shattered SphereThe Shattered Sphere is the sequel to Ring of Charon, which was written in 1990. I'd been reading everything I could get my hands on written by Allen, who was an up and coming new hard sf author, and as I recall I had really enjoyed RoC. Well, the sequel didn't come out until 1994, and somehow or other I missed it, or had moved on to other things. A few weeks back, I found a copy of Shattered Sphere at the used book store, and the rest is... the stuff of cliche.
This novel is probably one of those few exceptions to the rule for me - where strong characterization was missing, yet I still enjoyed the story. As a matter of fact, I'd have to wrack my brain to come up with the names of any of the characters except Wally (Every hard sf novel needs a Wally), the total geek. Allen also did the POV hopping that I usually hate, but it worked quite well in this novel. Indeed it is the only way the plot could advance, as the situation set up in Ring of Charon had left us with several isolated groups of human beings, the colonists on the moon, the people on the relocated Earth, the crew on the starship, and the anarchists on the space station.
So, what was it that "sold" this novel? First, Allen did a good job of incorporating the "what has gone before" message into the story line, which was a good thing, because I certainly couldn't have told you a thing about Ring of Charon after ten years had gone by. In short, while doing research into gravitics beyond the orbit of Pluto, scientists managed to awaken a "sentinel" of a race of alien cyborgs hidden on the moon. This triggered the kidnapping of earth through a wormhole and the appearance of an attack on the rest of the solar system by the Charonians. The remainder of the solar system beats off the attack and, in Shattered Sphere, are trying to recover from the loss of Earth's resources.
Allen also does a good job of weaving pseudoscience and astronomical theory into descriptions of the alien devices, motivations and actions. It seems that the Charonians have an adversary, which probably lives on the surface of neutron stars, and which "eats" gravitic energy, so is attracted to any area where they have harnessed the power of black holes. The characters in the novel slowly learn more about the aliens and how to deal with them. The mystery aspect of this novel was fun. Try to see if you can figure things out one jump ahead of the people in the book.
Anyway, if you think you'd like to read this, go pick up both novels somewhere and start from the beginning. I think Ring of Charon is out of print by now, so you'll be forced to save money at your local used book store.
The Shattered SphereThe Shattered Sphere is the sequel to Ring of Charon, which was written in 1990. I'd been reading everything I could get my hands on written by Allen, who was an up and coming new hard sf author, and as I recall I had really enjoyed RoC. Well, the sequel didn't come out until 1994, and somehow or other I missed it, or had moved on to other things. A few weeks back, I found a copy of Shattered Sphere at the used book store, and the rest is... the stuff of cliche.
This novel is probably one of those few exceptions to the rule for me - where strong characterization was missing, yet I still enjoyed the story. As a matter of fact, I'd have to wrack my brain to come up with the names of any of the characters except Wally (Every hard sf novel needs a Wally), the total geek. Allen also did the POV hopping that I usually hate, but it worked quite well in this novel. Indeed it is the only way the plot could advance, as the situation set up in Ring of Charon had left us with several isolated groups of human beings, the colonists on the moon, the people on the relocated Earth, the crew on the starship, and the anarchists on the space station.
So, what was it that "sold" this novel? First, Allen did a good job of incorporating the "what has gone before" message into the story line, which was a good thing, because I certainly couldn't have told you a thing about Ring of Charon after ten years had gone by. In short, while doing research into gravitics beyond the orbit of Pluto, scientists managed to awaken a "sentinel" of a race of alien cyborgs hidden on the moon. This triggered the kidnapping of earth through a wormhole and the appearance of an attack on the rest of the solar system by the Charonians. The remainder of the solar system beats off the attack and, in Shattered Sphere, are trying to recover from the loss of Earth's resources.
Allen also does a good job of weaving pseudoscience and astronomical theory into descriptions of the alien devices, motivations and actions. It seems that the Charonians have an adversary, which probably lives on the surface of neutron stars, and which "eats" gravitic energy, so is attracted to any area where they have harnessed the power of black holes. The characters in the novel slowly learn more about the aliens and how to deal with them. The mystery aspect of this novel was fun. Try to see if you can figure things out one jump ahead of the people in the book.
Anyway, if you think you'd like to read this, go pick up both novels somewhere and start from the beginning. I think Ring of Charon is out of print by now, so you'll be forced to save money at your local used book store.
September 7, 2024
The sequel to 'The Ring of Charon' (which I read at the end of July this year) and the conclusion to 'The Hunted Earth' duology. I wanted to read this one before I forgot who everyone was. There are some new characters, and the return of some of the MC's from the first book. It's science fiction on a grand scale, with huge ideas, but this one felt a little more implausible than TRoC. The smart people seemed to immediately intuit what was needed all the time. The ability to knock up of complex simulations in no time flat felt improbable. At at the end, the actions of one of the antagonists just felt too long winded, giving the good guys time to get every thing done. One star off for all of that.
(Bingo squares that this would fit: Alliterative Title; Under the Surface; Multi-POV (HM); Published in the 1990s; Space Opera; Survival (HM); Reference Materials (HM)).
(Bingo squares that this would fit: Alliterative Title; Under the Surface; Multi-POV (HM); Published in the 1990s; Space Opera; Survival (HM); Reference Materials (HM)).
July 24, 2018
Good book, not as good as the first but still a fun read. The plot felt a bit rushed to me, all the major characters have these great ideas or insights that all just happened to right. Also, as someone who works with simulations on a daily basis, I find it hard to credit when a character just whips up a simulation overnight that suddenly explains a major plot point. Feels a bit like baking a cake, so to speak. Still very enjoyable, I just wish the characters had had to work harder for the finish.
July 8, 2022
Epic in the sense of moving worlds about like marbles. If the first in the series was a rather too coincidental, then this one was significantly less ‘plausible’. Yes, I know it is SF, but when the probability of getting dozens of things just happening to fall into place was hard to swallow. That’s why I like authors such as Asimov: Science background helps.
March 31, 2020
This series is really solid science-fiction. Plausible mechanisms, actually alien aliens, logical deductions using deep time. I was shocked to see this book came out in 1994, since I've only heard the subjects discusses here come up in recent years.
June 20, 2017
Really good series.
Scifi where there isn't big gunfights and cg explosions, just scientist sitting around a table working the problem.
Scifi where there isn't big gunfights and cg explosions, just scientist sitting around a table working the problem.
June 21, 2020
Pretty much your standard hard-sf read with the standard set of characters and the ripped lass on the cover that bears no resemblance to any of the characters.
February 21, 2021
Very well done conclusion to the story, though obviously some things, like Earth, are still a little unsettled and out of place.
June 12, 2021
Classic science fiction adventure.
July 6, 2014
I finished the 473 pages in about 4 days. It has very much the same feel of the first book. If you enjoyed the previous book, you will enjoy this one.
This is a hard science fiction book with multiple viewpoints from the different characters. We even see internal dialog from two alien intelligences.
The story is a continuation of what transpired in the first book. The Earth has been stolen and transported to a nursery of worlds controlled by an alien intellect that does not even recognize the existence of human beings. Humans on Earth and the abandoned Solar System attempt to restore contact between the two branches of humanity.
All the same characters are involved as were introduced in the first book. Two new scientists are introduced on the Stolen Earth who play important roles and the Autocrat of Ceres is shown with his ship that will be important.
The reason some people would not like this book is because of the constant information dumps. This story is about gravity beam, tunnels, radios and other gravity based technologies. The plot is dependent upon the operation of black holes, neutron stars, fusion engines and radar devices. The narration and dialog constantly refers to the needed facts and theories on which the plot twists rely.
I enjoyed the heavy hard science mumbo-jumbo in the book, but I suspect many readers would not tolerate it. This book is for hard science fans who are interested in conflict with alien intelligences.
This is a hard science fiction book with multiple viewpoints from the different characters. We even see internal dialog from two alien intelligences.
The story is a continuation of what transpired in the first book. The Earth has been stolen and transported to a nursery of worlds controlled by an alien intellect that does not even recognize the existence of human beings. Humans on Earth and the abandoned Solar System attempt to restore contact between the two branches of humanity.
All the same characters are involved as were introduced in the first book. Two new scientists are introduced on the Stolen Earth who play important roles and the Autocrat of Ceres is shown with his ship that will be important.
The reason some people would not like this book is because of the constant information dumps. This story is about gravity beam, tunnels, radios and other gravity based technologies. The plot is dependent upon the operation of black holes, neutron stars, fusion engines and radar devices. The narration and dialog constantly refers to the needed facts and theories on which the plot twists rely.
I enjoyed the heavy hard science mumbo-jumbo in the book, but I suspect many readers would not tolerate it. This book is for hard science fans who are interested in conflict with alien intelligences.
July 26, 2015
Sequel to The Ring of Charon. It was supposed to be a trilogy but it's been a long time and the author still hasn't written the third book. It happens five years after the first book. From the human perspective, they are at war with the so-called Charonians, solar-system-eating colonial cyborgs who have stolen the Earth through a wormhole for their own purposes. But the Charonians haven't even noticed that humans exist, and their purposes have to do with their own "war" against the Adversary, an even more mysterious being that eats Charonians. Again, plenty of excitement and imaginative explanations of the Charonians, with well-placed passages from the alien point of view. It's also worth mentioning the Naked Purples, something like the religion a messianic prophet might found under the influence of postmodernist scholarship. They were in the first book too, but the ones here (mostly a navigator named Eyeballer Maximus Lock-on) come off as more sincere and believable. On the downside, the physics is increasingly fishy, and crucial information is inexplicably delivered by telepathy through a good but conventional virtual reality system that shouldn't be able to do anything of the sort. Oh, and the cover illustration is identifiable as a scene from the book this time (and there are 50% female characters on the Dramatis Personae list) but the armored crop top thingy has no basis in anything.
September 29, 2012
The continuing story of the Earth stolen by aliens! The first book of this incomplete trilogy, The Ring of Charon was good, but this is better. (Ring suffers the first book of a series problem of too much exposition.) We find out more about the aliens and their gravity control, their Dyson spheres etc. There are story lines going on in the Solar system and the alien Multi-System which has numerous stars and inhabitable planets.
Mr Allen has taken a lot of old ideas and made them new with his rich imagination and interesting characters-a book I want to reread if I can find my copy!
Mr Allen has taken a lot of old ideas and made them new with his rich imagination and interesting characters-a book I want to reread if I can find my copy!
January 5, 2014
Il secondo romanzo della serie, di cui il terzo ancora non è stato pubblicato. Prosegue la saga dell'umanità separata in due tronconi dal furto del pianeta Terra, ad opera di misteriose intelligenze aliene, oscure ed improbabili forme di vita, Sfere Dyson, stelle di Neutroni e molte interessanti idee.
August 19, 2014
There is a crowning moment of awesome, involving the simulation of a Dyson Sphere, that all by itself makes this book worth reading.
I'd love for the author to visit this universe again, but the story completes very satisfyingly as it is.
I'd love for the author to visit this universe again, but the story completes very satisfyingly as it is.
November 17, 2009
a nice continuation
June 14, 2012
Recommended to Denise me many years ago by Rae and Jan Zweerts-Casey. Absolutely excellent...have read and re-read it every few years.
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September 27, 20128-SFBC
August 23, 2013
Awesome follow up book! And now I can't wait for the next one in the series.
February 15, 2025
It is one of the best science fiction books, which touches on using VON NEUMANN MACHINES and FUSION OF DIFFERENT LIFE FORMS, including organic and non-organic ones.
September 13, 2007
This book seemed to me a little bit of a letdown, but it did have some very nice ideas.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews