Review: Out-of-the-Box Thinking! Never a Dull Moment!
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 07 17, 2014
Marduke is an alien. He and his brother Ival are on Earth doing reconnaissance before the people from his planet Oden invade and take over Earth. Marduke spends most of their time in their apartment. On one of his rare outings, he spots Mattie, a University student who is out jogging and finds himself unexpectedly mesmerized by her, so much so that he spends days surreptitiously observing her.  Just when he decides he should contact his father and call off the take-over and change it to something more cooperative, he discovers his brother has moved the invasion date up and the invasion has already begun!Earth is written from two points of view – Marduke’s and Mattie’s, generally alternating by chapter. Each writes from the first person point of view. I liked this as it gave the reader the alien’s outlook on life and the invasion on earth as well as the human outlook on the invasion.Mattie and Marduke find themselves together running from the machines that are destroying and killing everything in sight. Mattie has no idea that Marduke is an alien. He looks just like any other human. They are together with a couple of Mattie’s friends Hank and Lisa. They think that Marduke’s difficulty with the English language is because he is from France.Marduke struggles with strange new feelings he’s never experienced before, that humans would consider normal. As he struggles through these, they cause him to struggle with loyalty to his home world and his people.When Ival gives Marduke some strange news and the hinema or invasion machines don’t behave as they should, Marduke knows he’s in for the fight of his life. If he and Mattie are to survive, it will be up to him.Earth was an exciting adventure/suspense novel full of action and out-of-the-box thinking. There was never a dull moment.There is some profanity in this novel and some moderately graphic sexual content as well. Readers who screen their books for these things should take note.I liked the contrast of the points of view between alien and human. It was a good reminder of how different they really were. I liked that Marduke was so attracted to Mattie and that he couldn’t understand it given that is was not something that was ever experienced among his own people. I’d like to know why it happened. Perhaps we’ll find out in subsequent books.I liked the changes in plot brought about the challenges that Marduke and Mattie faced. They kept the book flowing smoothly and kept the interest of the reader. The book was well-paced throughout.It was easy to see the growth in some of the characters during the span of the novel. I think that would be normal in such a tense and life-threatening situation. The most growth can be seen in Marduke. He starts out as such a timid, almost mousy character, but by the end of the novel is nothing like that. Either the change in his character is unrealistic, or he is finally growing up and discovering who he really is. You’ll have to read the book and decide for yourself.I thought that Earth was an excellent read. I would recommend it to all science fiction fans. I gave it 4 out of 5 stars.Thank you to the publishers for providing a copy in exchange for a fair and honest review. A positive opinion was not required. All thoughts are my own.This review was published on my blog Shelf Full of Books http://kathrynsshelffullofbooks.blogspot.com/2014/06/earth-blog-tour-and-giveaway-with.html