High above the planet Harmony, the Oversoul watches, programmed forty million years ago to guard the human settlement from all threats, especially themselves. In the latest in the Hugo- and Nebula award-winning author's Homecoming series, the great artificial intelligence has lost control of the population, forbidden technology has been rediscovered, war has broken out, and the only repair lies light years distant on a lost and ruined Earth. "There seems little doubt that the whole series will prove as readable--and as morally committed--as we've come to expect from Card." --Locus


From Publishers Weekly
The fourth and penultimate book in Card's Homecoming Saga carries the travelers from the planet Harmony back to Earth at last?the first humans to set foot there in 40 million years. The journey through space intensifies the strife between Nafai, leader of the expedition chosen by the Oversoul (Harmony's master computer), and his brother Elemak, which erupts again into violence midway through the voyage. Nafai's Oversoul-given powers and the obvious futility of a rebellion in deep space force a renewed truce, but hostilities continue to simmer as the travelers reach Earth. As the humans establish a colony, they must make peace with two sentient species, evolved in humankind's absence, which live in a constant state of enmity. This action-packed, plot-rich installment features Card's typical virtues?well-drawn characters and a story driven by complex moral issues. As the narrative pace accelerates, however, the later episodes fragment and characters fade into the background. Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
Card's fourth book in his best-selling "Homecoming" series continues the interstellar feud between brothers Nafai and Elemak.Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
The fourth volume of Homecoming, Card's grand saga of the human race's far-future return to Earth, takes the characters on a century-long starship voyage back to the old planet. They find it inhabited by two sapient races, one evolved from rats, the other from bats. The two are constantly hostile to each other but also symbiotically linked by their reproductive process. Meanwhile, the long-standing rivalry between the statesmanlike Nafai and the dictatorial Elemak nearly wrecks the voyage, then leads to open violence on Earth, with consequences for relations with the other two sapient Earth races. In this book more strongly than ever, it seems that a lesser writer than Card could have neither conceived nor effectively executed this saga. His literary gifts and philosophical turn of mind continue to carry it on at a very high level, mandating that Earthfall go on the shelf with the rest of the saga. Roland Green


Review
"This action-packed, plot-rich installment features Card's typical virtues--well drawn characters and a story driven by complex moral issues."--Publishers Weekly

"This series continues to impress."--Kirkus Reviews



Review
"This action-packed, plot-rich installment features Card's typical virtues--well drawn characters and a story driven by complex moral issues."--Publishers Weekly

"This series continues to impress."--Kirkus Reviews



Book Description
The Oversoul of the colony planet Harmony selected the family of Wetchik to carry it back to long-lost Earth. Now grown to a tribe in the years of their journey to Harmony's hidden starport, they are ready at last to take a ship to the stars. But from the beginning there has been bitter dispute between Nafai and Elemak, Wetchick's youngest son and his oldest.

On board the starship Bailica, the children of the tribe will become pawns in the struggle. Two factions are each making secret plans to awaken the children, and themselves, early from the cold-sleep capsules in which they will pass the long decades of the journey. Each side hopes to gain years of influence on the minds of the children, winning their loyalty in the struggle for control of reclaimed Earth.

But the Oversoul is truly in control of this journey. It has downloaded a complete copy of itself to the Ship's computers. And only Nafai, who wears the Cloak of the Starmaster by the Oversoul's command, really understand what this will mean to all their plans for the future.



About the Author
Born in Richland, Washington in 1951, Orson Scott Card grew up in California, Arizona, and Utah. He lived in Brazil for two years as an unpaid missionary for the Mormon Church and received degrees from Brigham Young University (1975) and the University of Utah (1981). The author of numerous books, Card was the first writer to receive both the Hugo and Nebula awards for best novel two years in a row, first for Ender's Game and then for the sequel Speaker for the Dead. He lives with his wife and children in North Carolina.

ANNOTATION

Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author Orson Scott Card's Homecoming Saga continues. Chosen by the Oversoul to be the starship's Master, Nafai must finally confront his older brother Elemak. Yet even while the brothers are battling each other, the Keeper of Earth is preparing his world to receive them.

FROM THE PUBLISHER