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 The Ships Of Earth by Orson Scott Card
reviewed by Underview
Original appearance: Albedo one issue 7, 1995
THE SHIPS OF EARTH is the third instalment in ORSON SCOTT CARD'S HOMECOMING series. From what little I know of its background, it appears to be a book that was beset by delays and Card refers to the delays in its writing in his Acknowledgements. As someone who waited patiently through the delays in keen anticipation I wonder if I would have been satisfied no matter how good the eventual result.
To me, this has the feel of a work that has come in at about double the length it need be to satisfy the needs of the plot. As part of a series, I feel it serves merely to slot another book into the contract. Perhaps it is the fact that he delves too deeply into the minutiae of the lives of his characters and attempts to draw them too clearly, when sketches throughout the action might have served him better.
To be honest, and as an admirer of Card's writing I wish I did not have to be, this really feels like the work of a man who is merely marking time, waiting for the point in the contract where he can get down to the real business of writing. The pacing of THE SHIPS OF EARTH is funereal and the action is minimal and generally incidental. This is very much intelligent Space Opera, rendered as almost pure Soap. From a writer as talented as Orson Scott Card this is pretty poor fare indeed.
I blame his editor, whose job it surely is to ensure that the author delivers on the promise implicit in a book published under his name: that it is the very best he can do. This is patently below Card's peak and with an understanding, but forceful, editor could have been trimmed to half the length. How much did the editor of this work weigh the value of the product to his employers against its worth to the customer? How much input can an editor have when the author is as big a name as Card? Why does the commercial viability of an author's name so outweigh the necessity of producing a decent novel? And whose fault is it anyway?
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