Terraforming Earth

The basic plot: An eccentric billionaire wants to build a base on the Moon to safeguard mankind's science/culture in case of a meteor strike. Before the base is really ready, the meteor does strike. Earth's atmosphere is completely changed. All living things are extinguished. The only ones left are the few who managed to get to the moon. Over the course of time, these people are periodically cloned from their own tissue samples. They mission is to make the Earth livable again. To terraform Earth. The story is told through the eyes of Duncan, who is the historian of the group. The children are raised on the moon and told that it is their duty to watch over Earth. Each generation of clones studies the writings and recordings of the "siblings" who have gone before to the point that these records seem like part of their own memories. The book spans millions of years. Some groups of clones are successful, some are not. This is a story not only of the evolution of Earth, but the evolution of the species as well. This book would make a great introduction to scifi for anyone new to the genre. The plot is character-driven and unique. There's a refreshing lack of techno-speak. All in all, a very accessible work. Great for newcomers and long-time fans alike.

Terraforming Earth is a remarkable read. The imagination behind it is stunning in its scope. Williamson is a very generous writer. You begin with a group of children living on the Moon. They are clones and they are learning from their clone "parents what happened to the earth. The earth has been nearly destroyed by an asteroid and it will be their job and their successors to terraform the earth. After that, we're off and away to the earth. Terraforming, I should warn, only takes place offstage. Williamson is interested in the strange creatures who have evolved out of the destruction, such as the exotically beautiful girl who literally floats down out of the sky. The book is barely a novel for it's really a series of adventures separated by thousands of years. This is why I gave it four stars instead of five. Anyone of the adventures deserved to be a full novel and as a result there's an episodic feel to it plus the characters are only sketches, especially the women. That aside, it's a great, fast read. Williamson has been writing for a staggering 70 years now (published first story in 1928!). He gives a unique vision in this novel. It begins like a standard disaster Science Fiction story then veers close to fantasy and then close to space opera and at the end a rather stunning epiphany for the ultimate fate of mankind. He's a good enough writer to make it all work. I can't help feeling that his writing could be pointing the way for a new direction for science fiction writing, one that takes the best of every era. So with the one reservation that it's a bit sketchy and episodic, I highly recommend this.

I honestly believe that in the not-too-distant future science fiction will be defined by just one name: Jack Williamson, "Terraforming Earth" is a fantastic, engaging, thought-provoking and haunting book of speculation and wonder, and shows why Williamson, after nearly 7 decades in the business, can still intrigue his readers and still lead the way for the rest of the SF field to follow...Gary S. Potter Author/Poet

This was a wonderful and fast read. But there were a few minor problems that I had with it.Granted that the main characters are clones who are repeatedly "brought back" to life, but you'd think that after a few generations there'd be ample room for some major identity crisises. Instead, we're treated to the same narrator, Duncan Yare, through several of his cloned incarnations. Each incarnation is somehow the same, yet somehow, creepily, different. However, apparently not different enough.Going back to the identity crisis bit, you'd think that there would be at least some major differences in personality from clone generation to clone generation, maybe as so far as to have one generation disagree sharply with the choices a previous one made. But no, Arne remains the paranoid, pompus "alpha male," and Casey remains eternally, permanently fixiated on his Mona. The clone generations seem very resigned and accepting, fatalistic even, about the nature of their eventual replacements/successors. For example, if Arne entertained such paranoid fantasies that he'd go so far as to enslave his companions in the Tycho base, why didn't any of those companions rebel and attempt to destroy any future attempts at creating another generation of Arnes? (Arne is stated as to having assumed this "alpha male" status in at least two different generations.)The author, Jack Williamson, cleverly never actually states how much time has passed between awakenings of the numerous clone generations. The most specific he ever gets is that it might be a thousand years later, or a million. In a way, he seems to imply that the passage of time is and, simultaneously, is not important to the narrative of his book (as contradictory as that statement seems, it's true).In short, this book is great for those who just want to waste an afternoon, and those who want to think, "Hey, what if an asteroid really DID hit us?"

In one catastrophic hit, four billion years of evolution and growth are erased. A century has passed since the asteroid crashed into earth eradicating just about every living creature on the planet. The only human survivors are clones from long dead parents who live in Tycho Station, a dome with tunnels on the moon. Each subsequent lunar generation understands the prime goal is to return to the homeland by TERRAFORMING EARTH. Over the millenniums, several efforts to return have failed leaving more dead people behind. Now thousands of years later, another attempt is to begin. Is the cycle of failure going to finally be broken and if yes what happens to the moon base that has been home seemingly forever? TERRAFORMING EARTH is an exciting, action-packed, thought provoking science fiction thriller. The great Jack Williamson focuses on the aftermath of a pandemic destruction of all sentient beings. The story line leaps through the millenniums at light speed yet never loses focus as to what the author wants to say about humanity, its future, and the impact of science on evolution. The great grandmaster gets greater as Mr. Williamson, whose been writing since the parents of the boomers were children, provides another novel for the ages.Harriet Klausner