Earthside

Quantum Earth #2

by Dennis E. Taylor

The Yellowstone super-eruption has put an end to modern civilization. As cities and countries continue to fall, the colony of Rivendell in the alternate Earth known as Outland looks more and more like the only real hope for humanity. But life in Rivendell isn’t getting any simpler, either. Bill and Kevin continue to discover new worlds; the population continues to rise; winter is approaching; and everyone has their own opinion about how things should be run. Then, a garbled plea for help from Omaha sends most of the security forces back Earthside to investigate, leaving Outland’s police force understaffed just as a large group of refugees arrives with its own ideas and power structure. With threats from both inside and outside, will the colony even survive until spring?

Genres: Science Fiction, Audiobook, Fiction, Post Apocalyptic, Dystopia, Apocalyptic, Adventure

360 pages, Paperback

First published January 26, 2023

About the author

I am a retired computer programmer, an enthusiastic snowboarder, and an inveterate science fiction reader.

And, apparently, an author now. Did not see that coming.

Reviews

[Susan Tunis · Rating 5 out of 5]

So, Audible released this book at midnight, and I finished it around 6:00am, despite having to work today. This wasn't for bragging rights, but because I couldn't stop reading! (This is not technically true; I did nap for several hours--in case my boss sees this.)

I'm actually surprised by how much I liked this sequel. There was so much high-concept science and world-building in the first book, that the follow-up automatically has an enormous novelty deficit. But what it does have is the same cast of characters we loved in the first book.

This is a great point at which to mention just how completely fantastic the narrator Ray Porter's contributions to the series are. He imbues each and every character with personality. There is never any doubt who is speaking. The man paints cinematic vistas with his voice alone. He is magnificent!

And Mr. Taylor brings new areas of exploration and conflict to explore in this sequel. Arguably, nothing here is as high-stakes as the events that occur in the first book. How could they be? All I can tell you is that he kept me happily turning the pages, fully engaged. Occasionally outraged.

Also, this is not the end. This segment of the story comes to a conclusion with so much action and drama that I think I was breathing kind of heavy at the end. I feel like I waited so long for this sequel, and hours later I'm in the exact same boat of just wanting MORE. So annoying.

Look, I'm a professional bookseller. I'm good at making books sound enticing, so your mileage may vary. But this is not a book we'll be carrying in our independent bookstore. It's published by our enemy, Amazon (via Audible), so I have no interest in selling you this book beyond my sincere enthusiasm. Damn you, Dennis E. Taylor; I can't quit you!

[Laura May · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is terrible.

What I was expecting: dinosaurs! adventure! natural disasters!
What I got: rape! murder! torture! kidnapping!

The characters are indistinguishable other than the particularly flanderised Monica ("my personality is violence!") and the guy who talks about coffee. Seriously. Coffee is almost a character in this book, and not in a good way.

This all takes place against a background of American political in-fighting, which reads as nothing so much as a reddit argument about politics held between teenagers. That is the majority of the book.

Oh, and then there's the misogyny. I don't know if the author is going through something, but wowza. The book was full of toxicity.

I also want to know why the ever-living-f people kept getting pregnant. The argument is that, a month (or less?) after the world ended, 12 women are pregnant (of total population ~342 iirc), and it's because their birth control had run out. Let's query this for a second.

a) Everyone you know has just died! Oh no! Time to have sex.
b) I'm on the pill - phew, lucky I brought a few weeks' supply - oh no, I've run out! Time to have sex. And apparently get pregnant. Despite it taking MONTHS after going off the pill for hormones to regularise and pregnancy to become more likely. Nope! Miss a day, pregnant! Which I guess is why every woman on the pill on this planet who takes the sugar pills to have their period actually gets pregnant every month! Not!
c) Nobody is on IUDs!
d) Condoms don't exist any more!
e) 80% of pregnancies end in miscarriage, often without the woman ever knowing? NOT ON THIS PLANET.
f) Okay, no condoms, no pill, but we raided pharmacies for important things - pregnancy tests!
g)... which don't work immediately! You normally test 21 days after your last unprotected sex!
g) And wait, why does everyone think they're pregnant anyway? They stop taking the pill or whatever and are immediately pregnant and start taking tests? Because pregnant is the way women should be! The only other option is psychopathic, take your pick!
h) Oh and EVERY SINGLE WOMAN IS HAPPY ABOUT FALLING PREGNANT
i) DESPITE THE FUCKING DINOSAURS
j) DESPITE THE END OF THE WORLD
k) DESPITE THE IMMINENT THREAT TO THEIR LIVES SHOULD THEY GO THROUGH WITH IT
In conclusion WHAT THE FUCK. Is this book some kind of breeder fantasy!? WHAT THE FUCK.

This book is embarrassing. Bad. I will *never* read or listen to this author again.

[Leisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not fun like the first book. Slow and the second half was all political. Slanted stereotypes. Don’t think I’ll look for the third book. Very disappointing.
3 stars for the memory of the first book. Otherwise it’d be less.

[Monica · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wow, so disappointing 😬

[Ian · Rating 1 out of 5]

Boring. Political drivel of the worst sort - ie. It neither challenges your beliefs with compelling arguments nor is it interesting. All this sequel proves is that Dennis Taylor is trying to milk a great idea but doesn’t know where to go with it and they he has NO (and I mean NO) training or understanding of political philosophy or history.

[Kevin Thomas · Rating 2 out of 5]

Alright so I loved the first book, but wow what a turn of events and in a completely bad way. This book was so disappointing in the direction it took, I know its a series and this isn't the final book but jeez, the political stuff was just TOO MUCH. Not enough happening but the squabbles about who's in charge.

There were so many ways this could've gone but post 'apocalyptic political' wasn't the way to go in my opinion. But, this is just my opinion and I guess there's a crowd for this. I was here for the science of which there was wayyyy to little in this book. So unfortunate that the story took such a turn.

[Karen’s Library · Rating 5 out of 5]

This sequel to Outland was every bit as fun as the first book. Earthside picks up immediately after Outland.

After Yellowstone erupts and decimates much of normal civilization on Earth, the university geeks who invented a portal to an alternate earth continue to rescue anyone they can find to cross over to Rivendale. Yes. Perfect name for a new colony. They are geeks after all.

Trying to keep up with the resources needed for all the refugees, the formations of a new colony in Outland starts. There were some sections in this book about the type of government they needed to form on this new land that were a bit snoozy, but overall the story was fascinating.

I especially loved Monica “the Kracken”’s character!!

The story ends in a place that appears to set up another book or two, and I cannot wait!!

I love the dream team of Dennis E Taylor with Ray Porter narrating. Please take my money already!

[Zak · Rating 3 out of 5]

Was really looking forward to this after loving the first book. Unfortunately about 80% of the story here is political infighting between the survivors. I had a hard time paying attention because the moments of fun scifi were few and far between. Overall just kind of felt like this all the internal politics stuff could've been cut down a lot with more time spent on the science experiments, exploration, agriculture and the core characters from book 1. I think the story jumped around between too many characters too often. Had a hard time remembering who was who.

I will stick around for book 3 but I'm hoping for less focus on the infighting.

[Jas · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was a really difficult review to write as I have been a fan of Taylor’s since he started, the Bobiverse was an amazing series, and he has done some other great books as well. The first book in this series was really well done, watching this series of events unfolding on Earth as the Yellowstone Super Volcano erupts, sending enough emissions into the atmosphere to take out most of North America, and affect the rest of the planet. A group of students at a University have made an amazing discovery, linking them to different multiverses of Earth. Whilst initially this was experimental, and was being used by the group for both financial gain (digging up gold in a multiverse that had not been touched by humans), they also started to set up a fallback given the growing concerns at the start of book 1.
What unfolds, is them moving to ‘Outland’ as book 1 moves to the second half with the eruption of Yellowstone, and the subsequent decimation of all life on Earth (or Earthside as it becomes known).
Outland was a really great book, with great detail of the setup of Outland, some fun detail of the characters, and their initial growing pains in setting up Outland, and the description of the events surrounding Yellowstone.
Earthside unfortunately is just a massive disappointment, so much so, that I did not actually finish it.
Taylor has used this story as a platform to provide his opinions on the political situation in the US is, and how a better political run government would look like. A good half of this book is taken up with 300 people who are struggling to survive in a new world that still has sabretooth tigers, but has split into more political factions than there are people left in the group. Each day seemed to have a new political agenda and protest. There are several chapters with characters ranting about how the government system doesn’t work, and what is wrong with different aspects of the system.
It would be bad enough for anyone who lives in the US, but for people outside of the US, it is not only confusing (amazingly, we don’t all have a US system of government, nor do we care about US politics), but very boring.
But this was not the worst of it.
The population of Outland is very young, nearly all under the age of 30 due to how they were rescued from a University (because only young people study at Universities). When older people start to arrive at the colony, and by older, I mean anyone over the age of (SHOCK HORROR!!) 40+yrs of age, these people are referred to as “Gerry’s” – for Geriatrics. This is part of the political rant, but there is a real ageist slant to Taylor’s writing in which he has a definite dig at the younger generation. The younger people at the colony are almost militant in their stance that the ‘Gerry’s’ have ruined society therefore should not be allowed any decision in society anymore – especially government. His depiction of interactions between the younger and older generations, the dialogue is just so ridiculous you can’t even laugh at it. It is worse than stereotypical, being just inflammatory and prejudice.
Again, this was not the worst of it.
What I found really upsetting in this book however was the depiction of mental health issues. There are several people in the colony with obvious mental health issues, but each of these people are depicted as being violent predators, just waiting to explode and commit brutal acts of violence on others. One is obviously unwell, and although has violence issues, is treated like an animal. There is no attempt to understand his mental state. A ‘trial’ is held because these alleged enlightened young people don’t want to have a mob mentality. Without any lawyers (although they do have two ex-Police Officers, of which they sought no help from in setting up the trial), they proceed to try this person with a jury picked from a colony that has already made up its mind that he is guilty. The prosecution is the person who apprehended him – one of the gung-ho female characters (Female characters tend to be gung-ho quasi-psychopaths or demure gossipy housewives who have ‘women’s’ roles around the camp – cooking/organising stuff etc. The Female Intern Doctor rants about pregnancies every meeting, but in a camp with 50% women, forgets to mention sanitary pads as a priority for the salvaging parties), who is a 20-something student with no legal background, her only claim to being the law, is she was part of the original group and has gun experience and 6 older brothers. This apparently gives you the ability to become Police Chief and Head of Prosecution (nothing like a conflict of interest there), in the new world?
The Defence for the guy, is a former Police Officer, who makes no effort to do anything. The Intern Doctor, nor the collection of psych students, (More worried about forming a political party), make no attempt to raise any concerns about his mental health. There are several other characters as well with obvious mental issues who are just written up as major concerns and the way it is done is prejudicial and offensive to anyone who has any sort of mental health condition.
It is obvious that Taylor does not have a lot of social interaction, the dialogue in this book is not well done, it is incredibly stereotypical. The newly pregnant women drinking the latest alcoholic beverages that were being trialed in Outland was something else that was really stupid. Everyone knows you don’t drink when you are pregnant, and it would be even worse to be trialing a new alcoholic beverage that they are testing in what is essentially an alien environment.
This book was a massive disappointment, offensive, with way too much of a political agenda, poor characters, and just badly researched in some aspects. I have come to expect so much more from Taylor.

[Rosemarie · Rating 3 out of 5]

The uni students and assorted soldiers, cops and teachers are back to continue their adventures surviving in Outland. In their efforts to get more equipment they go to Omaha, and encounter elderly citizens trying to survive, a giant rifle that's more like a personal cannon, a group of white supremacist redneck survivalists in a bunker, and all the computer parts they could possibly need. Bringing new people into Rivendell causes problems and a long standing member of the community goes off his meds and commits terrible crimes. The council face murder, insurrection and politics as they try to build a town from scratch.

I enjoyed this audiobook. I find Ray Porter's voice relaxing. The book mixes moments of tension with humour while the main characters remind me of those in the Bobiverse books, especially Bill, who is Bob, I'm sure of it. I enjoyed the interludes that update the listener about events in the rest of the world and I also liked the arguments about how a government should be formed and the type of government that would work best.

There's a structure to Taylor's books that is obvious once you've read or listened to a few of them. I've read/listened to 7 and there's always a big showdown at the end and the heroes always win and then lament being put back in charge of things.

I enjoy Monica as a character, she's fun and unexpectedly violent and people keep underestimating her, but there is some repetition in the descriptions of her. I'm also certain that a character that turns up in this book as a thug is also in Outland, but he got eaten by a sabre tooth cat in that one. They have the same name, but one is a weasel and this one is a big bully. I don't know whether it's an coincidence or an oversight that got missed in the edits. Just change his name, and it won't be so confusing. Erin and Suzi get grabbed by criminals again, and rescued. That was a bit repetitious too.

I generally enjoyed this book but it did at times feel like a re-run of the first book.

[Selina · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an unexpected weird read. The biggest part of the book was talking about doing stuff, planning stuff, talking about planning, preparing, talking, taking action and back to talking.
It did not feel fully fleshed out as a book, more like a grocery list. Every time it got a bit more interesting, the scene was over and the voice from the off called: "next!"
Also, the level of suspension stayed the same throughout the book, around 30%. I was surprised when I turned the last page, actually.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really enjoyed the first of this series. The second one not so much. Will have to see how the next few books play out before I’d recommend it at this point.

[Sammy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots of fun, but not much of a story in this one. Still, loving the whole premise of this series and hope there will be more.

3.5 stars

[Black Pepperz · Rating 1 out of 5]

How to make scifi boring

Typical Taylor, nerds once again save the world with high tech. This time not only one nerd (plus copies) but half the university. And how they organize themselves and try to maintain a democracy in a catastrophe situation is about 90% of the book. As in all other Taylor stories, young science nerds are simply the cream of society, military - as long as it serves the nerds - also gets off quite well. The rest of society ... not so much. It gets neatly stereotyped like big and strong = bully; mental disorder = serial killer; older folks = ruthless powermongers and egotistical hangers-on or worse. Politicians, lawyers, etc. = boo.

Brief spoiler, in the story the technology exists to visit Earth in different timelines, so there are very different versions of Earth. This makes for a variety of ways to write an interesting story. What does Taylor do with it? He wastes most of the book on the difficulties of reestablishing or maintaining a democracy. So we're talking about political currents and elections, etc. This is not only absurd and incredibly boring, it also wastes the enormous multi-earth potential, which is only marginally used.

Somehow, after the second Outland book, I'm left with a bland taste, and I now view all of Taylor's other books with some skepticism. He propagates a very techno-elitist worldview. In the midst of a catastrophe, little attention is paid to the inconceivable suffering, especially of the bereaved and survivors, the only important thing is where we get fresh coffee.

[James Sproles · Rating 1 out of 5]

As a proud Australian First Nations Man, I was overjoyed by the author's take on post-apocalyptic events in Australia. Sure, there are only 200,000 of us, less than 3% of the coloniser's overall population, (calculated with coloniser math, yuk), but the author’s analysis of our ability to evict the 25 million filthy colonisers, including their modern and well-regarded Army, AirForce and Navy at the point of spears, nullanullas, bolt-action rifles and shottys is deeply heartening. Sure half of us are cross-bred with the colonisers, but be assured - the author’s implication that we will stick all our relatives that look a bit "coloniser-y" on boats and send them into the Pacific Ocean along with the other 25 million colonisers to starve in a genocide that makes the Austrian Corporal look like a mere cosplayer, is perfectly accurate. I was deeply heartened by the authors faith that, despite most of us being 200 years divorced from the pure hunter-gatherer lifestyle, being at least 50% city-dwellers our whole lives, having an average population IQ of around 62 (equivalent to an 11yo Colonizer child), being riven with debilitating chronic diseases from alcoholism and drug use to diabetes and syphilus, relying disproportionately on handouts from the colonisers, and never having organized in groups larger than local tribal mobs, that we will organise to sweep the colonisers into the sea and return to our idyllic hunter-gather lifestyle where we can engage in rampant tribal warfare, ince5t, cannibalism and roast possum to our heart's content.
Five Stars!
I can only give you One Star though, because you didn’t describe how our bruddas the Native Americans would do the same to the colonisers in North America, unna.
Slava Nunga! The Day of the Spear cometh, White Dogs!

[Kayla · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’m going to boil my review down to pros and cons simply because this story wasn’t deep (not that it needed to be) enough to analyze or create any hypothesis about.


**spoilers ahead**

Pros:
1. The gates, the different earths, all of those were fun to read about. I love the technology, and the surprises they found with each different version of earth.
2. Some of the banter between characters was actually good and made me giggle.

That’s it…

Cons:
1. Characters are created using terribly stereotypical characteristics.
2. None of the characters change or develop over time, which made it extremely hard to track the three act structure.
3. I couldn’t tell you what was plot a, b, c, d—I don’t even know, it was all over the place.
4. Every conflict that happened had a convenient solution whether someone showed up at just the right time, someone already figured out a solution before the problem arose, etc. None of the solutions to these problems were set up earlier in the plot. It’s like book heavily relied on the fact that these are decently successful college students so they must know EVERYTHING! Right?! No, wrong. Those characters needed to be cornered, and they never were.
5. The end of the book felt like a rant-ish commentary on the political climate in America.
6. The villains suck, and again, they just fit neatly into cliche cookie cutter tropes. Not once did I think the 4 or 5 villains, or villainous groups, that randomly created conflict in the colony would succeed.
7. There was only one time where I briefly wondered “how are they going to get out of this,” and that was at the very end when the dinos broke in thanks to the insurrectionists. But, like all of the other conflicts, it was short lived with no foreseeable long lasting consequences (maybe in the third book?).
8. A lot of the timeline doesn’t add up, mainly with the pregnancies. Which, I shouldn’t be surprised since the women are written terribly. There is an honest attempt to have strong female characters, but god damn they’re so poorly written (for example: the only reason Monica is “strong” is because she has to be trigger happy, borderline psychotic, and she was forged in the fire of having older brothers—cliche, cliche, cliche, and dependent on other men).
9. The whole book read like a low budget tv series that aired on the Sci-Fi network in 2007.

Overall, if you’re looking for something to drone through and want to listen to a halfway descent audiobook narrator, then this is a great book to do that. If you’re looking for a good sci-fi to challenge your perspective of humanity as we move through the timeline of the universe, then this is NOT what you are looking for.

[Jacey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Audiobook, read by Ray Porter
The students we first met in Outland are busy trying to make their new colony work on alternate Earth after the Yellowstone supervolcano has all but destroyed our own, but life in Rivendell is getting complicated, especially when a bunch of older refugees think that their age entitles them to run the place. There are moral dilemmas and hard decisions. Bill and Kevin continue to explore a variety of alternate Earths, including some inhabitable and others decidedly not - including one still occupied by dinosaurs. I'm a sucker for society-building novels, so I loved this. I hope it's not the ;last one in the series. The reader is Ray Porter who reads Taylor's Bobiverse book. He does an excellent job.

[Shannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5⭐️

[Georgia Tumbleweed McNabb · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book continues the Story started in Outland and gets even more intense and it really shows how humans can not, even in a Survival situation, agree on things!! This is a very good series that highlights peoples inability to come together even in a Survival situation. because of their Political, Religious, Upbringing, or Raceist beliefs and policy. Hell of a Great book, hope it is not to long until the next Audible book in this Series. Narrator does an Excellent job with the various characters voices and the entire storyline.

[Stephen Richter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dennis E Taylor is one of my favorite writers. Discovered the author while reading the Bobiverse series . This is the follow up to his first attempt at a novel which Dennis smoothed out the rough edges and released this follow up tale in 2023. A colony is set up on an alternative earth as the Yellowstone volcano rendered the Earth unhabitable. Dennis does not shy away from what he thinks of current events, as his tale has some topic very familiar to anyone reading the news. Sure to gore some oxen.

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Earthside by Dennis E Taylor is a great follow-up to Outland. The second book in the Quantum Earth series, what I suspect will be at least a trilogy, this novel adds great character and plot development even if it does sometimes seem a bit repetitive. Overall I think this book will be enjoyable to fans of the first book, but absolutely does not stand alone. 4.5 stars.

[Chip · Rating 2 out of 5]

Cardboard thin characters again - even moreso than the first book, and absurdly generic descriptions / snippets of life in a post-apocalyptic world, that were so badly done the book would have been better off without them.

[Italo De Nubila · Rating 3 out of 5]

Same as the last one. I was perhaps hopping for a little more oomph to this novel. I feel like he had so much space to evolve the story and I felt as if we stayed in the same camp more or less during the whole story.

[Dustin Clayton · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked outland but earthside lacks the excitement or a real good plot and climax. It's just a lot of problems that pop up that are dealt with quickly by voting.

[Alexandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really loved the first book in the series but this one really disappointed me. The book was more focused on politics then anything else. There's nothing wrong with that if that's what you want but after the first book I really expected more world building and excitement about this new world. They seemed more concerned with getting off this "world" then anything else.

Also the characters kept talking about how there would be no intimidation regarding voting or anything else while continuously intimidating the people they were talking to with guns and threatening them with getting thrown through the portal. I understand the people were being frustrating but the double standard was a little much.

If there is another book in the series, I will most likely still give it a try but I hope that it would be less focused on politics and more on exploring the new environment or fleshing out some of the characters.

[Brenda · Rating 4 out of 5]

The refugees continue to deal with establishing a new community after fleeing Earth after the Yellowstone volcano blows. I appreciate that they have to deal with more than just the inconveniences of living in an uninhabited (previously uninhabited?) world and gathering supplies. I like that they are also struggling to establish governance and deal with crime and violence. This really makes you think about how it might be if/when the volcano blows. I also like that there are tidbits from all over the planet on how other communities (cities, states, countries) are handling it. I really, really hope there will be more in this series.

[Deb · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is more of a 2.5 star for me, but I'm giving it three because I like how Ray Porter "performs" it on Audible. I read the Kindle version and some of the time listened with my husband.

My main complaint is related to plot issues. Several conflicts arise and are resolved a little more quickly than it seems they should, which makes it feel a little pointless and like the stakes are too low, which makes it hard to emotionally invest in anything. The plot wobbles all over the place. But it's an okay book, I like some of the characters, and I'm curious about what will happen to them. So if there's a Book 3, I'm sure I'll read it.

[Lars Dradrach · Rating 3 out of 5]

Directly following Outland we continue to follow our merry band of survivors on alternate earth (and some more).

It's still an entertaining story, but it's also a little repetitive with far to many uprisings, in reality the two novels would have worked better as one continuing story, with some editing done.

[Jen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is entirely too short. All of a sudden it was over and I thought 'what! But I want more! Keep going!' I love Taylor's writing and I can't seem to get enough.

Taylor was smart to include all the typical things that go into a PA society. But including rampant dinos and alternate worlds was the real appeal.

I found it interesting that those on the committee to form the government began to see just how complicated a process it is. Time consuming, exhausting, trying to please all of the people all of the time the best they can. And the idea that they're all in their 20's, university students and staff where stereotypically all the "liberals" are. In the end, good common sense prevailed. It makes me view our government with a slight amount of sympathy (huge emphasis on slight). It also made me really think about the way our society works, with a lot of the tech guys trying to realistically envision manufacturing, modern conveniences and the engineering it takes to make those things work.

Also good that this society had all the regular bad guy elements - the bully, the serial killer with mental instability, the random BMOG idiots, the gangs out for power. But then there was the building of gates, the science of alternate worlds/universes, the exploration of what could happen. I like the possibilities there.

And of course Ray Porter was amazing on audio.

[Riley Murray · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not as good as 2nd book but it still has a lot on interesting moments that keep the plot interesting as well as several refinances to the bobiverse that I appreciated. Overall a solid book that keepers me interested in the series