What do you think?
Rate this book
Genesis Earth Trilogy #2
Edenfall
The ultimate truth requires you to sacrifice your innocence.
Sixteen years ago, Estee's parents abandoned their scientific mission to the planet Icaria and made the new world their home. They thought it would be decades before anyone else came to this rugged, edenic paradise. They were wrong.
Young, fearless, and free, the only other people Estee has ever known are her own immediate family. So when a military expedition arrives from Earth, she is innocently drawn to all the interesting new people, their large, noisy vehicles, and their strange weapons.
But her parents have a secret. There is a dark side to Estee's homeworld, whose distant past is linked to Earth's terrifying future. Now Estee is the guardian of those secrets, and she must do all in her power to keep them from falling into the wrong hands.
As the marines begin to hunt her, Estee makes an unlikely friend in a young lieutenant. Together, they must unlock the secrets of Icaria's past to break the cycle of violence and restore their shattered worlds.
Sixteen years ago, Estee's parents abandoned their scientific mission to the planet Icaria and made the new world their home. They thought it would be decades before anyone else came to this rugged, edenic paradise. They were wrong.
Young, fearless, and free, the only other people Estee has ever known are her own immediate family. So when a military expedition arrives from Earth, she is innocently drawn to all the interesting new people, their large, noisy vehicles, and their strange weapons.
But her parents have a secret. There is a dark side to Estee's homeworld, whose distant past is linked to Earth's terrifying future. Now Estee is the guardian of those secrets, and she must do all in her power to keep them from falling into the wrong hands.
As the marines begin to hunt her, Estee makes an unlikely friend in a young lieutenant. Together, they must unlock the secrets of Icaria's past to break the cycle of violence and restore their shattered worlds.
223 pages, Kindle Edition
Published December 10, 2019
25 people are currently reading
15 people want to read
About the author
Joe Vasicek
125 books103 followersJoe Vasicek fell in love with science fiction and fantasy when he read A Wrinkle in Time and The Neverending Story as a child. He wrote several unfinished novels in high school and took Brandon Sanderson's writing class at Brigham Young University.
He first came onto the indie writing scene in 2011 with his debut novel Genesis Earth. Since then, he has written more than twenty novels and novellas, including Genesis Earth, Gunslinger to the Stars, The Sword Keeper, and the Sons of the Starfarers series. His stories have been published in Perehilion, Mirror Dance, Sci Phi Journal, Uprising Review, Kasma SF, and Leading Edge.
As a young man, he studied Arabic and traveled across the Middle East and the Caucasus Mountains. He has also traveled across the United States, and has lived in Texas, Illinois, Massachusetts, California, Utah, Washington DC, and Iowa. Wherever he goes, though, he's always writing.
He first came onto the indie writing scene in 2011 with his debut novel Genesis Earth. Since then, he has written more than twenty novels and novellas, including Genesis Earth, Gunslinger to the Stars, The Sword Keeper, and the Sons of the Starfarers series. His stories have been published in Perehilion, Mirror Dance, Sci Phi Journal, Uprising Review, Kasma SF, and Leading Edge.
As a young man, he studied Arabic and traveled across the Middle East and the Caucasus Mountains. He has also traveled across the United States, and has lived in Texas, Illinois, Massachusetts, California, Utah, Washington DC, and Iowa. Wherever he goes, though, he's always writing.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
November 23, 2023
Worse than the first in the series. Really boring and silly.
November 9, 2022
Fascinating story
I found this to be a fascinating story about space and the future. Full of suspense , intrigue and deceit throughout the story. A lot of action also included.
I found this to be a fascinating story about space and the future. Full of suspense , intrigue and deceit throughout the story. A lot of action also included.
February 14, 2023
The author really doesn't know how to write women. And kept using the same phrases and metaphors the whole book such as blood turned to ice or released a breath they didn't know they were holding
September 7, 2024
Very good. I fine follow up to Genesis Earth in as much as it continues the tale and takes it up a notch.
March 11, 2023
"His story had left her sisters wide-eyed with fright, but not Estee. She was the oldest. She was the brave one. At least, she was trying to be."
I love the first book (Genesis Eden) and, several years later, I read the second in the trilogy with trepidation because, many times, I have found the sequel to be vastly inferior to the original. This is true of "Logan's Run", "Cadre One", and many other sequels that were absolute trash.
I wasn't sold on the first chapter, but ... I wasn't sold on the first few chapters of the original book either.
One of the main problems in the early part of the book is the "trying too hard to use descriptive phrasing" - like these gems: "... swarms of leaping locusts bivouacking together ..." or "Adrenaline coursed through his veins like hard liquor."
I also felt that Joe Vasicek was trying to be overly inclusive: early on we are introduced to what seems like dozens of characters of differing ethnic backgrounds. Eventually, these filler-characters get shaken out and we are left with the essential characters.
One of the masterful bits of Genesis Earth was that the story was told from one character's perspective (Michael's) and this gave it an omniscient feel, but with all the foibles of biased personal interpretation. When I read people's comments, my impression was that many of those leaving negative comments tripped over this subtly. In this story, Joe Vasicek goes full omniscient narrator.
While Michael and Terra appear in this story, they are background characters and the "leads" are now Estee and Khalil. The problem is this "new generation" does not have the same powerful interactions and conflicts that Michael and Terra had - and this impoverishes the book.
It is true that Estee and Khalil are radically different, but the story is not about them. It is not about their experiences learning about and coming to terms with the "ghost ship" and the "secret" of Icaria, or even of each other - there is a lot of superficial learning, but nothing deep. In the original novel, Terra locked herself in her quarters for weeks on end. In this book (and this is true of far too many sequels) the characters mostly run around - in what feels like events contrived to make them run around - just to move them from point A to point B with no character development and growth, no personal challenges and experiences for them to have to come to term with. This is why this story loses a star: there is no growth in Estee and Khalil - they learn, discover, suffer, but they don't grow, they don't transform. I think part of the problem is the events of the story are too compressed - my impression is they happen over the span of a week or less - so genuine growth is hard when all you're doing is running for a week.
After the first few chapters, the story finds its pace and progresses at a fairly nice clip. There isn't as much brilliant writing as in the first book (because of the lack of character development), but it is competent and leads one on. It doesn't have the depth of the first book, but it leaves hope that the final book will bring a satisfactory close to the story - especially since nothing was actually dealt with here.
Despite my criticisms, I am grateful the book was not a disaster like "Logan's World" or "Cadre Lucifer", but was solid enough that I look forward to a powerful close to the trilogy that actually allows time for characters to grow and unravels the mystery of the ghost ship.
As a rough measure of the "depth" of writing between the original and the sequel: I marked 72 passages in the original and 8 in the sequel (and 3 of them appear in this review).
I love the first book (Genesis Eden) and, several years later, I read the second in the trilogy with trepidation because, many times, I have found the sequel to be vastly inferior to the original. This is true of "Logan's Run", "Cadre One", and many other sequels that were absolute trash.
I wasn't sold on the first chapter, but ... I wasn't sold on the first few chapters of the original book either.
One of the main problems in the early part of the book is the "trying too hard to use descriptive phrasing" - like these gems: "... swarms of leaping locusts bivouacking together ..." or "Adrenaline coursed through his veins like hard liquor."
I also felt that Joe Vasicek was trying to be overly inclusive: early on we are introduced to what seems like dozens of characters of differing ethnic backgrounds. Eventually, these filler-characters get shaken out and we are left with the essential characters.
One of the masterful bits of Genesis Earth was that the story was told from one character's perspective (Michael's) and this gave it an omniscient feel, but with all the foibles of biased personal interpretation. When I read people's comments, my impression was that many of those leaving negative comments tripped over this subtly. In this story, Joe Vasicek goes full omniscient narrator.
While Michael and Terra appear in this story, they are background characters and the "leads" are now Estee and Khalil. The problem is this "new generation" does not have the same powerful interactions and conflicts that Michael and Terra had - and this impoverishes the book.
It is true that Estee and Khalil are radically different, but the story is not about them. It is not about their experiences learning about and coming to terms with the "ghost ship" and the "secret" of Icaria, or even of each other - there is a lot of superficial learning, but nothing deep. In the original novel, Terra locked herself in her quarters for weeks on end. In this book (and this is true of far too many sequels) the characters mostly run around - in what feels like events contrived to make them run around - just to move them from point A to point B with no character development and growth, no personal challenges and experiences for them to have to come to term with. This is why this story loses a star: there is no growth in Estee and Khalil - they learn, discover, suffer, but they don't grow, they don't transform. I think part of the problem is the events of the story are too compressed - my impression is they happen over the span of a week or less - so genuine growth is hard when all you're doing is running for a week.
After the first few chapters, the story finds its pace and progresses at a fairly nice clip. There isn't as much brilliant writing as in the first book (because of the lack of character development), but it is competent and leads one on. It doesn't have the depth of the first book, but it leaves hope that the final book will bring a satisfactory close to the story - especially since nothing was actually dealt with here.
Despite my criticisms, I am grateful the book was not a disaster like "Logan's World" or "Cadre Lucifer", but was solid enough that I look forward to a powerful close to the trilogy that actually allows time for characters to grow and unravels the mystery of the ghost ship.
As a rough measure of the "depth" of writing between the original and the sequel: I marked 72 passages in the original and 8 in the sequel (and 3 of them appear in this review).
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews