Earth Alone

Earthrise, Book 1

By: Daniel Arenson

Narrated by: Jeffrey Kafer

Length: 8 hrs and 19 mins

Publisher's summary

They came from deep space. They came to destroy us.

Fifty years ago bloodthirsty aliens devastated the Earth. Most of humanity perished. We fell into darkness.

But now we rise from the ashes. Now we fight back.

Marco Emery was born into the war. After his mother is killed, he joins the Human Defense Force, Earth's ragtag army. Emery must survive basic training, become a soldier, and finally face the aliens in battle.

Against the alien onslaught, Earth stands alone. But we will fight. We will rise. We will win.

If you loved Ender's Game, Starship Troopers, and Old Man's War, you'll love Earthrise, a new military science fiction series. From a USA Today best-selling author.

©2016 Daniel Arenson (P)2016 Audible, Inc.

50 years of war, death, destruction and despair

It's been 50 years since the Cataclysm, since humanity's first contact with an alien race, since scolopendra titaniae - the scum from space - had slaughtered sixty percent of the world's population and plunged mankind into this war. The scum had ravaged the world in a massive assault, bombing and gassing city after city, wiping out billions - a year of death, of inferno, of humanity hurtling towards extinction.

Humanity had scrambled, bonded together, and launched their own warships into space. Ship after ship had perished until one intrepid pilot, the hero Evan Bryan, had launched a nuclear bomb against the scum homeworld, slaying millions of centipedes. The Cataclysm had ended that day. Humanity had emerged from the flames stronger, a civilization with the power to ravage distant worlds, to face enemies in the depths of space and defeat them. That day the genocide had ended and the long War of Attrition had begun.

The HDF, the Human Defense Force, the global military created to fight the scrum, was the gauntlet all humans from every last corner of this ravaged earth entered at eighteen, then spent five years in the fire. Marco Emery lived with his father above the library where his father worked. Addy Linden had lived with them since the day seven years before when she had saved Marco's life, pulling him away from the scum that killed his mother and Addy's parents. The scrawny eleven-year-old had grown into a tall wild woman.

This terrific tale, first of the Earth Rise series, continues to delight with Addy and Marko in basic training, taking me back to memories of the excitement and terror of my own basic training. The rich and colorful descriptions of the characters bring them and their stories to life. Great characters spring from the pages, providing emotional and exciting action. I can't wait for the next installment of this tale!

Great book

It was a great start to the series, however it is short for the price.

I can not wait to listen to the next 2 books.

This is one of the best sci-fi books I have ever read or listened to. Will definitely be buying the next two books in the series. Let's hope Marco doesn't get romantically involved with another woman....that will be trouble waiting to happen.

build up

The story starts off good slows down byt builds up the characters pretty well. pushes characters past what they believe they can do. really enjoyed first book on a long trip. time for book 2.

Fun, strait forward military Sci-Fi

I enjoyed this audio book. As soon as I finished it I purchased the next book in the series. Don’t be put off by some of the comments from other readers.
Good story, characters and performance.

alright!

I was a little bit wary at first... But soon the characters captured a little piece of me. It was real and I even shed a tear now and then LOL

Welcome to the HDF ... the Human Defense League.

Set after a failed alien invasion which still managed to destroy more than half of the human population, Earth continues to battle on. All 18 year olds are drafted into the Human Defence League, put through a rigourous, if short, training session, then spat out to continue the battle against the insectoid-like Scum. The story basically follows the initiation of Marco, nicknamed Poet, a young man who only wishes to continue writing his book about a turtle, become a librarian and live peacefully with his girlfriend. Well, that's not going to happen.
The reader follows Marco and a small group of other conscripts, some there more willingly than others, through the rigours of boot camp to their first major encounter with the alien enemy, a battle which is both fierce and bloody action. Although nothing much is new, it is still an exciting read and the character of the main protagonist well drawn.

What does concern me, however, is the overall world picture: the aliens are capable of inflicting huge casualties. After fifty years of fighting, surely there would be too few survivors to be able to continue the defense in such organised number, especially when conscription of Earth's youth is for a five year period. Yet the central figures yearn for the peaceful home life left behind, daily and sports events as other social activities. Who would be left to enjoy them? And where? Cultural mentions also seem to reference the present day, or even our recent past, - like the recruit who is constantly singing Elvis songs - rather than introducing new: the story is supposed to be set a couple or more centuries into our future.

Jeffrey Kafer's narration, however, leaves the listener little time to ponder this. Reading at a fast pace, with good intonation and pleasantly voiced, his performance is slick, but not overemotional, allowing the author's words to tell the story. He draws the listener along with him, through the loves, fears and horrors confronted by the Poet.

I enjoyed this book. Certainly not without flaws and, as mentioned by others, very reminiscent of some earlier works, it nevertheless can stand on it's own as good entertainment. And if action is what is desired by the reader, the final chapters alone certainly provide that. And, yes, I have already purchased book II in the series.

solid character and war build up for excellent SF

This was my first experience reading Arenson. I'm solidly impressed with what he's done here, both with the story premise and how I felt in the end about wanting to read on in the series.

The blurb says this is an ideal fit for fans of Ender's Game and Starship Troopers. I agree. Earth Alone delivers on the sense of camaraderie that builds in a boot camp setting, while empathizing with the difficult scenarios that brought each member. The main character has a strong love triangle situation going, and while Earth Alone is not a romance, you feel for the young man being a bit of a romantic, and getting his heart broken once or twice along the way. We have plenty going for it as the series builds off book two in this regard, but more so in the aspect of him learning to be a soldier. I don't want to spoil the transformation, so I'll just say Arenson did a great job with this character and making me want to root for him in subsequent books.

The premise is a good one for fans of alien invasion and military science fiction. The aliens that invaded fifty years ago pushed Earth's buttons, and got nuked pretty bad because of it. The strategy shifted to more of a death by a thousand cuts approach, where they send advance troops that land like meteors, can infect people with hideous and sterilizing diseases, and can certainly kill hundreds at a time before they're taken down. This takes our main character, who would rather read and write his life away in the comfort of peace, and forces him into war. I really empathized with him in this. I have so much admiration for our service members for doing what I don't and can't. Well, our main character doesn't have that freedom to avoid the sacrifices and struggle to come in the war he'll be thrown into, and I admired seeing not only how he reacted, but also how Arenson crafted his story.

There's a sense looking back on books like Starship Troopers, Ender's Game, and more modern examples like Germline and Quarter Share that books this good, and the authors who write them, are hard to find. I believe Earth Share is one of those books, and seeing how prolific Arenson is encourages me of the many more stories I'll have to enjoy.

The narration by Jeffrey Kafer is as always a rock solid contribution to audiobook loving military science fiction. This guy keeps getting gigs for a good reason, and I'm glad to see him joining this project.

Terrific sci-fi story.

Superb prose and dialog. Grabbed my attention from the opening to the end. Interesting characters and plot.

Decent start great overall

*the so so:I found the first 10 chapters to drag on a bit to be honest

The last half of the book just flew by! Definitely will read the remainder of the series!