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The Orphans Trilogy #2
Orphans of Earth
After the destruction of Earth, human Caryl Hatzis and human engram Peter Alander must learn how to unleash the power of the Gifts in order to conquer a legion of deadly alien ships that arrive to exterminate what is left of the human race. Original.
384 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 2002
11 people are currently reading
141 people want to read
About the author
Sean Williams
276 books468 followers#1 New York Times bestselling Sean Williams lives with his family in Adelaide, South Australia. He’s written some books--forty-two at last count--including the Philip K. Dick-nominated Saturn Returns, several Star Wars novels and the Troubletwister series with Garth Nix. Twinmaker is a YA SF series that takes his love affair with the matter transmitter to a whole new level. You can find some related short stories over at Lightspeed Magazine and elsewhere. Thanks for reading.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
March 30, 2024
Okay. Let’s see if I can recall something about this.
Well, it inspired me to write my own seminal work of science fiction. So far I’ve come up with the first line and about two paragraph’s worth of plot. So, about 8 months of work at my pace. Good on me.
The bad part is that I was ‘inspired’ because I feel like this is a million dollar concept that I haven’t really seen executed quite right (for my tastes, I mean).
I don’t have any detailed thoughts about this, because it’s been too long since I finished, but I will state that my impressions, which I still remember, are that not a whole lot happens in this installment. This should have been a duology and not a trilogy. I find that a lot actually, I don’t know why people feel like everything, if it isn’t a series, has to be a trilogy. I have a long habit if quitting after two books anyway, mostly because second books tend to be mostly holding actions anyway. You know, just hanging out and not really doing anything because all the good stuff happens in the third book.
That’s not always the case, I liked the Mistborn trilogy of books, as each installment felt like a complete story and things weren’t being obviously held back for later use when it would have made more narrative sense to put them out earlier.
Alastair Reynolds managed to tell his Teenage-Space-Pirate story in two books. Worked perfectly. I guarantee if he’d chosen to make that a trilogy I would have hated it. I feel like he made the opposite choice in the Blue Remembered Earth books and again, I felt like it was all wrong. In that case, the very first book was a holding action while we wait for the real story to start later.
So, yeah, if big things happened here it was lost on me. And this simply didn’t have strong enough characters, in my opinion, to carry a whole novel on personal drama alone. I was disappointed and wanted so much more from this. Because this is the kind of Science Fiction I want to read a lot more of. It just needs to be better.
Well, it inspired me to write my own seminal work of science fiction. So far I’ve come up with the first line and about two paragraph’s worth of plot. So, about 8 months of work at my pace. Good on me.
The bad part is that I was ‘inspired’ because I feel like this is a million dollar concept that I haven’t really seen executed quite right (for my tastes, I mean).
I don’t have any detailed thoughts about this, because it’s been too long since I finished, but I will state that my impressions, which I still remember, are that not a whole lot happens in this installment. This should have been a duology and not a trilogy. I find that a lot actually, I don’t know why people feel like everything, if it isn’t a series, has to be a trilogy. I have a long habit if quitting after two books anyway, mostly because second books tend to be mostly holding actions anyway. You know, just hanging out and not really doing anything because all the good stuff happens in the third book.
That’s not always the case, I liked the Mistborn trilogy of books, as each installment felt like a complete story and things weren’t being obviously held back for later use when it would have made more narrative sense to put them out earlier.
Alastair Reynolds managed to tell his Teenage-Space-Pirate story in two books. Worked perfectly. I guarantee if he’d chosen to make that a trilogy I would have hated it. I feel like he made the opposite choice in the Blue Remembered Earth books and again, I felt like it was all wrong. In that case, the very first book was a holding action while we wait for the real story to start later.
So, yeah, if big things happened here it was lost on me. And this simply didn’t have strong enough characters, in my opinion, to carry a whole novel on personal drama alone. I was disappointed and wanted so much more from this. Because this is the kind of Science Fiction I want to read a lot more of. It just needs to be better.
October 10, 2018
Megascale mayhem (continued)
Survival is still a tough proposition for what is left of humanity. Sol system is wiped out, and all surviving colonies, having first received generous gifts of knowledge and unfathomable tech (including ftl ships) from the mysterious Spinners, now face destruction by the equally mysterious Starfish that follow the Spinners. However there are aliens that have adapted to living as scavengers in the same circumstances, and can be communicated with. Could an alliance save the orphans?
The scale of the canvas is staggering. Aside from the mystery of the plot there are interesting meditations on the nature of individual identity when minds can be copied and multiplied. The question I keep coming back to is how human are the engrams in the first place; is the Caryl from Sol, the closest thing to an original human in existence, a fragment of a group mind stuck in a single body, more human than Peter, a simulation put in an android body, and is Peter more human after his encounter with the Praxis.
If the heirs of humanity ever go to travel across interstellar distances, I bet they won't be sacks of meat, so these kinds of questions are interesting.
Survival is still a tough proposition for what is left of humanity. Sol system is wiped out, and all surviving colonies, having first received generous gifts of knowledge and unfathomable tech (including ftl ships) from the mysterious Spinners, now face destruction by the equally mysterious Starfish that follow the Spinners. However there are aliens that have adapted to living as scavengers in the same circumstances, and can be communicated with. Could an alliance save the orphans?
The scale of the canvas is staggering. Aside from the mystery of the plot there are interesting meditations on the nature of individual identity when minds can be copied and multiplied. The question I keep coming back to is how human are the engrams in the first place; is the Caryl from Sol, the closest thing to an original human in existence, a fragment of a group mind stuck in a single body, more human than Peter, a simulation put in an android body, and is Peter more human after his encounter with the Praxis.
If the heirs of humanity ever go to travel across interstellar distances, I bet they won't be sacks of meat, so these kinds of questions are interesting.
April 14, 2022
Dix and Williams have created a grand story and I will be reading their third installment for sure. Yet I have to say that it feels like all the characters are simply dragged along to a destiny over which they have little control. In fact the introduction of Axford was like a fresh breath of reason and decisive action, despite his suspect motives and military narrow-mindedness.
With the odds so impossibly stacked against our "heroes" I hope the authors have either come up with a brilliant way to salvation, or are as brave in the utter despair and destruction created by the starsfish as in the first book. Most of all though looking forward to the facts that are sure to be revealed about the ambivalence and the big "why".
With the odds so impossibly stacked against our "heroes" I hope the authors have either come up with a brilliant way to salvation, or are as brave in the utter despair and destruction created by the starsfish as in the first book. Most of all though looking forward to the facts that are sure to be revealed about the ambivalence and the big "why".
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 11, 2018
L'auteur a résumé le 1er vol au début de ce 2ème vol. Mais il faut absolument lire le 1er vol avant celui-ci, ce serait dommage de s'en priver. Beaucoup d'idées : j'ai aimé les descriptions des vaisseaux-trous, les personnages et leurs questionnements, la rencontre réussie avec une race d'extra terrestre, la construction du livre et son écriture, je tremble pour l'humanité, et j'ai une grande envie de lire la suite.
August 22, 2019
Review is for the three books in the series
Books focuses on ship of Theseus dilemma in regards to copying people. bunch of other sci-fi ideas thrown in, von neumann probes, darkforest, grey goo and others. Not a must read but if you need something to pass the time enjoyably this will do.
Books focuses on ship of Theseus dilemma in regards to copying people. bunch of other sci-fi ideas thrown in, von neumann probes, darkforest, grey goo and others. Not a must read but if you need something to pass the time enjoyably this will do.
March 5, 2025
It took my four years to slog through this. It did get better in the last twenty pages, but compared to the first book I found it hard to want to pick up.
April 20, 2022
Giving up on this series…
I gave up about 1/3 through this book. I just couldn’t take the constant bickering between EVERY SINGLE character. The author is stuck on only one type of social relationship…conflict. There are no likable characters. Everyone is at odds with each other within every conversation in every interaction. It’s too much. The author needs to have more dynamic interactions with his/her characters. There are other issues, too. Like mundane dialogue…“maybe this changes everything…but then again maybe it changes nothing.” Also, there’s a definite lack of science…seems the author has forgotten space is in 3D. Keeps referring to movements “along a plane of travel” concerning exploration…which is ridiculous to assume in space. Your point of origin (earth for example) would not follow a plane if you were exploring other planets…but would span out in ANY direction. Overall, though, if the characters were somewhat likable I would continue with this series…but alas.
I gave up about 1/3 through this book. I just couldn’t take the constant bickering between EVERY SINGLE character. The author is stuck on only one type of social relationship…conflict. There are no likable characters. Everyone is at odds with each other within every conversation in every interaction. It’s too much. The author needs to have more dynamic interactions with his/her characters. There are other issues, too. Like mundane dialogue…“maybe this changes everything…but then again maybe it changes nothing.” Also, there’s a definite lack of science…seems the author has forgotten space is in 3D. Keeps referring to movements “along a plane of travel” concerning exploration…which is ridiculous to assume in space. Your point of origin (earth for example) would not follow a plane if you were exploring other planets…but would span out in ANY direction. Overall, though, if the characters were somewhat likable I would continue with this series…but alas.
November 17, 2014
Book #2 of the series and moves much faster than the first in many ways. Still many intriguing story lines and thoughts on what makes us human...or not. Pretty much a cliff hanger type ending so on to #3.
January 19, 2017
This book is in here twice under each author's name though they co-authored it.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews