Homeward Bound (Worldwar & Colonization)

This novel should have been edited down by at least a half, but then it would become even more painfully obvious that nothing much happens. Characters are wooden, descriptions are repetitive, and the plot just peters out at the end. This series went on for too long and this book is a waste of time to read -- find something else to do!

Really bad read! Too much psycho-babel. Lack of action. Surprise invention guessed after the Senior Researcher's second phone call.
I hope this is not a forewarning of things to come from Harry's word processor. It was like he had to babel on to meet a word quota.
Mickey Flynn! Mickey Finn!! Almost needed one after reading this one. Urgh?!?!!?

Read it through enjoying it when sudenly the words stopped not quite at the end of the story. [Emphatic cough]

Does the race attempt to attack the humans again? What is that USSR ship on route going to do when they arrive there 10 years later? Is the US going to assume a protectrate role over the Race empire to protect them from the Germans in exchange for more favorable trading conditions than the race with the other not-empires?

Most males would love it if the clothing fashion of the young ladies described in this book caught on here. [Emphatic cough]

On the complaint about running into friends of the conquest fleet, the race does live longer than humans even adjusting for differences in the length of years, and for that matter, the last I heard there is still one widow of a Confederate Civil War Vetran left alive. (Winter-Spring relationship)

Harry's writing quality has been in a continuous decline since "Guns of the South" and the Videssos Cycle books. This supposed final installment of the series was one of the worst books he has written and as mentioned by other reviewers, filled with nothing but an endless sequence of repetitive nonsense. How many times can a reader be tortured with reading the same points repeated over and over again, ad nauseam? If you really want a painful answer go to a library (so as not to waste any money) and spend a few minutes on any page and you'll soon put it down. It is actually a painful book to read and I found myself skipping entire pages. I really wonder if Turtledove actually took the time to proof-read his product because I can't see how he could have let this one out into the market. This will be last book of his that I waste my time and money on.

The Race as they call themselves travel the twenty light years distance from their planet to invade earth, preoccupied with World War II. However, the locals proved adaptive and managed to stop the intruders though the Race was never fully driven off planet (see WORLD WAR: IN THE BALANCE).

Over two decades later, a shaky truce has held up between the Race and the humans. However, humans refer to the Race in derogatory terms as "Lizards" while the aliens call their "hosts" the "Big Uglies". Tension has recently mounted as the Race realizes that the Big Uglies is technologically advancing at a rate that they will pass them shortly. Proof of that is the stunning launch of the Commodore Perry, an armed human space vessel faster than the speed of light, allegedly on a diplomatic mission heading to the Race's home planet. Though diplomats are on board, Sam Yeager (see WORLDSTAR) is too and he nuclear razed Indianapolis without second thoughts. The earthbound Race ponders whether to annihilate the planet to halt human advances?

Though intriguing in terms of first contact impact on life to include the adage "necessity is the mother of invention" and inter and intra relationships, the tale contains a large tedious diplomacy subplot. Much of the novel is set on the Race's home world where the exotic is fun to follow, but though diplomacy is everything in real life is quite boring in a novel (perhaps that is why the media likes war over peace). Still Harry Turtledove furbishes his latest alternate history tale with an off-world plot that his myriad of fans will enjoy and demand more on the Race's Home.

Harriet Klausner

Although this saga, which made Turtledove worldwide famous, started from the rather peculiar "aliens attack Earth during WW2" plotline and was therefore initially developed as military AH, it was personally quite clear from the very beginning that the eight (so far) books in the series - the Worldwar tetralogy, the Colonization trilogy and finally Homeward Bound - aren't really about war.

They're about change and difference, and the ability of sentient beings, taken as individuals or as groups, to deal with them.

This is a consequence of the juxtaposition of Humans and Lizards: their attitude towards novelties, towards other races... in three words, how they are. The Lizards' love for meticulosity and stability, justified by tens of thousands of years without surprises, is seriously threatened - and finally, in this book, shattered - by the Humans' eager and sometimes dangerous curiosity and will to go beyond their own limits.

Such characteristics are not carved in stone: the Lizards are now starting to understand that they have to be more 'human' in order to have a chance to survive against the emerging Human race, but very old habits die very hard... and the Lizards find out it's now too late to defeat the Humans and they have to catch up with them.

Homeward Bound is a sheer departure from the previous books, both in time (it is set between the 1970's and the 2030's) and in space (it mostly takes place on Home); the presence of some of the characters from the previous books - Atvar, Straha, the Yeagers, Kassquit, to name the most relevant ones - helps readers feel more comfortable through reading. Action is admittedly sparse, which is, at this point, quite inevitable, as nuclear warfare is dull and meaningless, as Colonization: Down To Earth clearly displayed; readers get an in-depth description of the Lizards' society, and the Yeagers' family story is also told with new, interesting turns and depths.

For those who are wondering, yes: Sam Yeager is still the luckiest guy in the universe. Being also a good guy (he, unlike most Humans, always thought that Lizards and Humans had something in common... to the point of being ashamed of the sneak attack conducted, during peacetime, by the US against the colonization fleet in the early pages of Colonization: Second Contact) makes you feel the urge to stay on his side.

It is undeniable that repetitions are a bit boring - but taking them away would have shrunk the book by not more than 50 or 60 pages - and that there are a few inconsistencies - but again, go and read the Odissey tetralogy by Arthur C. Clarke and you'll find plenty -, nonetheless Homeward Bound also delivers a wonderful ending (interstellar warfare becomes a possibility and chances are it won't be dull), that gives Turtledove plenty of room to flex his AH muscles and move this saga forward again.

This book was very dissapointing. Really expected more from Harry Turtledove. Nothing really happens in the book at all. It seemed almost as if I was reading a history book on the guildelines of diplomacy. The ending was pathetic. This book was supposed to sum everything up and it did nothing of the sort. It ended with no bang what so ever. Nothing to make you think or wonder. Nothing exciting at all.

The worst thing about it was that Sam Yeager was the main character in the book. I have always hated the wife stealing american traitor and then to make him the lead in the book.. yuck!.

And what was up with the Garanpo character? A total rip off of Columbo, even the name sounds alike, a subplot that went no where at all and that was not the only subplot that never went anywhere. The book never went anywhere.

If you have started reading this series, do not bother with this book. It isnt worth it. Re-read the first book of the series and enjoy it again.

After reading a few of the reviews, I feel obligated to point out something that no one else bothered to mention: the fans asked Dr. Turtledove to write this novel. Yes, the series has gotten a bit repetitive. I, for one, have not been crazy about the topics he has chosen for his latest series but, let's be fair. Harry said that the point of this series was to illustrate the difficulty of conquering an industrialized planet. Like many fans, I wanted to see Turtledove write a victorious war story in this seventh novel but that's not what he did. The whole book is a series of scenes where people talk and plan and plan some more. Action-wise not a lot happens in this book. I think this is where a lot of the dissappointment stems from in these other reviews. I was let down too, but at the same time you have to face facts writers don't always end novels the way we would like. Before we go booing Turtledove too much rent "Misery" before you judge too harshly. That said, I personally would like to see more 'interventionist' alternate fiction, like "Guns of the South."

For ten years I've followed Harry Turtledove's Worldwar and Colonization series because they opened up the genre of alternate history, which I had been entertaining in my thought for most of my adult life anyway. They brought strange new portrayals of historical figures from Hitler to Molotov to...Earl Warren of all people.

Now the saga has come full circle. In 1972, Fleetlord Atvar is recalled; five years later, Sam Yeager is put under cold sleep for a special mission to the Race's home planet twelve light years distant, followed by his son and daughter-in-law seventeen years later. They (and most of the major characters from the two previous series) are awakened in the year 2031, and there, the American "Big Uglies" demand recognition from the Empire as equals!

We also see the human Kassquit, raised as a citizen of the Empire, interact with her biological counterparts and it is difficult for her to say the least. Yeager and the diplomatic team also tour various parts of Home and compare their experiences to what they had known all their lives back on Earth.

Comic relief also appears in the form of Mating Season. During Colonization we see the Lizards under the influence of ginger. On Home, only the business which can be conducted by the Rabotevs and the Hallessi (the other two races conquered by the Race) gets done...everything else has to wait!

Now the Race must deal with the wild Tosevites they were unable to conquer...and have caught up with them!...before the next technological advance of Humanity (which, alas, has come at a terrible price) pushes Earth past the Lizards!

Something tells me this ain't over yet....

I have been reading the "War World" series since the first novel, "In the Balance: An Alternate History of the Second World War (Worldwar, Volume 1)" was published in hardcover.

To be perfectly clear upfront, I am a fan of science fiction, alternate history, and Harry Turtledove. With all three of these interests converging, it is understandable that I might be biased. With that out of the way, I have to say that I throughly enjoyed "Homeward Bound".

"Homeward Bound" picks up where the last book in the "Colonization" series left off. Humans (Americans in particular) have broken into space and have developed STL (Slower Than Light) star travel. They decide send an embassy to the Lizard (or as they prefer to call themselves, "The Race") homeworld (known to "The Race" as simply "Home").

"Homeward Bound" was a captivating read that keep me up several nights in a row.

Several themes I greatly appreciated was the examination of what makes us human (biology or culture), which was a great commentary on the "nature vs. nurture" debate.

If you are looking for a good science fiction and/or alternate history novel,I would recommend starting the "War World" series and reading it through to the end. If you are already in the series, don't let my fellow reviewers scare you off - "Homeward Bound" is worth you time and energy.

Finally, unlike the other reviewers, I am not sure this is the last of the "War World" series. Turtledove has left a major opening to continue the series. The question left to be answered: do the humans destroy the Lizards, the Lizards destroy the humans, or do we somehow learn to coexist?

For the record, I REALLY like Harry Turtledove's work. I buy them all in hardcover. This one was not up to par. Homeward Bound was insultingly repititious and boring. It seemed to be a 20 to 30 page novellette that was drudgingly expanded due to a book deal contract. Of the 597 pages I would expect that less than 30 were actually Harry's work. If it weren't for my dedication to the series and the author I would never have finished it. Frankly, it was painfull. I hope there isn't a similar 'wrap up' to the American Empire, et al series....... Sorry Harry, with all due respect and at least a 3.6 average overall, this one was a dog.

Basically, the story went nowhere.

Nothing happened. I don't know how else to say it. Americans made it to Home in suspended animation. Home is hot and dry. The Race is shocked. America demands that they be respected as equals by the race. The Race refuses and just before they decide to launch a pre-emptive war, an American "Faster than Light" ship reaches home. Instead of spending years in suspended animation, the trip to home takes 5 weeks. Home, now realizing that they are now technologically INFERIOR for the first time in their history, decides not to make the attack. One of the Americans becomes Kassquit's sex partner, leaving her pregnant. The Americans go home.

Uh.......that's pretty much it. 600 pages.

2 paragraphs would have summed the entire book. The repetitive reminders are brutal and take up half of the print. For example: the Race never having to deal with catching up takes up at least an eigth of the book alone. I got it the first time.

Mr. Turtledove I love your work, but this was nothing more than a blatant cash (and yes, you got mine) grab. Don't let it ruin you.

Another boring book by Harry Turtledove. What happened to that great writer of yesteryear? I'll tell you what happened, he sold out! Having made some money with his earlier hits he is now pumping out as much drivel as he possibly can before he's too old to write it. Don't waste your time folks on this one unless you like to read page after page of mundane meaningless conversations between characters who have no bearing on the story. Page after page of boredom, it seems that all of his work is heading down the same path.

I just finished this tome and really enjoyed it. Yes, I'm an avid Turtledove reader (I've read all the World War/Colonization and the Great War/American Empire books), so I may be somewhat biased.

It was great to catch up with Sam Yeager and friends, as well as to get a glimpse of Home. What I found most intriguing was the concept of carrying out a "diplomatic" mission 10 light years from Earth (ie, there is a 20 year lag for communication), coupled with the growing uncertainty of what has occurred on Earth in their absence.

A great read!