Earthside

Quantum Earth, Book 2

By: Dennis E. Taylor

Narrated by: 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.

Vignettes, NOT a story...Kluge & Tubers!

I enjoy Taylor's creative ideas, Porter's voice is pleasant to listen to, and I will buy further books with either. However, flaws in Taylor's writing is starting to show.
The Quantum Earth series is a nifty idea. This book is vignettes of things that happen after the first book. There's no over arching story or character development. Villains? Yeah, 3ish. What's the saying? “A story is only as good as its villain.” -Luke Taylor(?)
The villain are cardboard stereotypes. They serve no purpose but present temporary conflicts that interrupt the main character's being nerds and bemoaning politics and social commentary.

Taylor's writing ability doesn't perform well here. As mentioned, the story structure was lacking.
-Writing/Narrative 'voice' shifts from declarative conveyances of information to semi-1st/3rd person perspective of things.
-Characters are poor in this book. Taylor has a tendencies to use "feisty female" as a catch all for female characters. Heinlein had a similar problem.
-Author's personal lexicon hasn't improved. It has shown up in nearly all his books. "Kluge" & "Tubers" one is over used by multiple characters, the other is a term Americans rarely use. Also, shared idioms among characters flattens their depth.
-Potential author-bias seems to leaching into all his characters. Quick example is religion, author seems to put Christians in one category of "fundamentalists". It's a boring overused stereotype in media. More time is wasted making that "group" look bad than writers actually researching the topic. Richard Dawkins takes the gold metal in that competition. Point being: Copy/pasting gross generalizations over used by other media is lazy and is about as creative as "zombies".

There's some praise to go around. An unexpected age-based social conflict develops. That is creative and the author develops a context that is well placed for the scenario of this story. It does seem explored fairly well and, given the author's age, presented from college kids viewpoints. Also, the perceived demeanor of the military is greatly improved in contrast to the author's prior depictions of military.

Again, I like Taylor and Porter. I would love the opportunity to buy them and drink and chat about many things. Despite my criticism and low ranking, I'm interested in seeing where this series goes.

Childishly Entertaining.

I really enjoyed the first book and often wondered how the group would survive after the end. though a bit weighty on the politics, I thoroughly enjoyed Earthside. I look forward to the next book in this series.

Voices changed a bit, still fantastic

A couple accents and voices Ray Porter had done in the first book changed. Not bad, but can be confusing if you come right from Outland to Earthside. Phenomenal overall!

Dennis does it again

I absolutely love this series..... maybe as much as the Bobiverse. I can't wait for the next book.

Taylor hits this one just right

Thus series is shaping up to rival his Bobiverse series in my mind. Well thought out characters, tech and world building.

One of the things I appreciate with Dennis' character writing is that people react as you would expect a human to react.

My only criticism of this book is that while it wrapped up some things, it left even more open. It's solidly a "middle" book of a series and seems to just end abruptly.