Earthside

Quantum Earth, Book 2

De: Dennis E. Taylor

Narrado por: Ray Porter

The fate of mankind is in the hands of a group of 20-something science nerds in the sequel to Outland, by the Audible #1 best-selling author of the “Bobiverse” series.

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 Monica’s police force understaffed just as a large group of refugees arrive with its own ideas and power structure. With threats from both inside and outside, will the colony even survive until spring?

©2023 Dennis E. Taylor (P)2022 Audible Originals, LLC.

Good, but let down by angry politics

I get all the angry self righteous political lectures I can take from just turning on the TV, I don’t want more in my chosen entertainment, especially if they are presented in a cartoonish way. A 14 year old can give a better defense of liberty and capitalism and trade offs between economic systems. Authors channeling their personal political anger never works for their full audience and it is best to leave that stone unturned in my opinion.

I finished the book in two days and it was very entertaining. There were some plot holes but they were minor in the grand scheme. I look forward to the next book but hope it has less brain dead partisans all around.

Dennis E. Taylor for president!

Another fantastic story from Dennis! Ray Porter is the absolute best narrator for all of the series from Dennis, thank you guys for incredible listens.

Another amazing book

Dennis E. Taylor and Ray Porter deliver again. My favorite duo. Dennis E. Taylor I hope you continue to make these amazing books forever.

I've loved everything by Dennis E. Taylor, but...

Earthside missed the mark. It seems like the author thought of a bunch of ways people could be horrible and shoved them all in. It was the same subplot multiple times by different actors. Very unexpected given how great every other book by Dennis E. Taylor has been.

meh villains.

I'd have been happier with out the villains they had in the story. They were the standard mustache twirling villains of old. I'd have been happier with them scouting out Nazi Earth, or Dino World or something. May be the 3rd book will be better.

Don’t buy into the negative reviews (IMO)

I saw all of the negativity about “too much politics”, so I went into the book wary of them.
Personally, I don’t feel that it was bad, overdone, or off—putting. If this scenario were to take place (heaven forbid), and society was being rebuilt, the political issues that come up in this book are very realistic. I do not feel like the author was spouting his own views or anything like that - the point of view at any given point belonged to the particular character being represented at that time, so many sides were promoted/trashed/made fun of.
Any negativity toward the book regarding politics are (IMO) people not wanting to hear thoughts that don’t line up with their own.
The only thing I didn’t care for in this book was some continuity issues - largely in narration. Kevin went from being an Indian student to not, and Bill/Richard had completely different voices. Having just re-listened to the first book before this one, it was not ideal, but still a 5 Star book and series. I and definitely a Dennis E Taylor Fan!

Pretty Good

This is a concept centric bit of science fiction. The vast-vast majority of the material is the mechanics of the sci-fi technology, operating it safely, navigating the apocalyptic world and the savage worlds, and dealing with people's BS seems like a distant second.

Seeing other reviews talk about politics... Guys that is the plot. It is a post apocalyptic, crime is an issue and they have to try and create a society. If you don't like politics in sci-fi you probably don't like 99% of science fiction that is worth a dime. And if you don't like the particular politics of the book, "Authoritarian reactionaries who dislike that younger generations prefer egalitarian democracy... and that makes them villains" I don't know what to tell you other than you should probably just go look for some other series. I have read a lot of Taylor's stuff at this point and he does not like reactionary politics or reactionaries.

Otherwise if you enjoy the sort of, "let's breakdown these problems into steps and then go thru each of the steps" approach to high concept science fiction I can't imagine this failing to scratch that itch.

The Second Book in the Quantum Earth Series

Earthside is the second book in the Quantum Earth series, and continues the story of a group of disaster survivors who escape to another world.

If you are a Fan of Dennis E. Taylor's other books, this is another good series to pickup. The only downside is that there's been a lot of time between books, and it's unclear when and if a third will be released.

The Quantum Earth series is different from Taylor's Bobiverse series, as all his book series are, so expect a different ton and focus.

The story deals with people trying to survive, and create a community, after the collapse of society due to a extinction level event. It deals with the inevitable clash of ideals, extremes, and the consequences as they struggle to find a way to mutually survive.

A number of readers of the series have over emphasis the politics of fictional characters, and by proxy the author, which apparently have irritated those for whom the book's story parallels, to certain contemporary events, may have hit a bit too close to home. I don't get where some are calling it "Communist", unless of not immediately coming up with a monetary system and a stock market while you're trying to survive an extinction level event, or get eaten by the local wildlife, makes it such.

Irony as reviewers

While reading reviews for this book, the major downside expressed by reviewers providing negative reviews all seem based on politics. I think the author portrayed what was necessary to get his story across. If our way of life ended tomorrow and we had to scrape together to get by, you better believe politics would be involved in every aspect of how a camp would do things. The truth of it is that the reviewers didn't like the politics the author was trying to convey.
This book covered a lot of the strife that would be involved in running a camp. Youth vs, Old, Conservative vs. Liberal, Environmentalism vs. Industrialism. I mean I could go on, but this book really isn't that deep.

The book is good and Ray Porter does an excellent job as always.

So, take your brain out and sit it beside you on the sofa and just listen. It is a fun book to listen to.

Entertaining

Kept me interested, quick pace, only a few times I rolled my eyes with some misses in the story (like ignoring California’s huge solar infrastructure).