✍️ Written by: Dennis E. Taylor
🏷️ Genre: Sci-fi / Fantasy
🗓️ Published: 26 January 2023
📄 Pages: 350
🧐 My rating: ★★★☆☆ (3 stars)
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 Outland’s police force understaffed just as a large group of refugees arrives with its own ideas and power structure. With threats from both inside and outside, will the colony even survive until spring?
I really enjoyed Earthside, but not quite as much as I enjoyed the first book, Outland. The premise of the story was obviously not a surprise to me, but things got a little darker in this book as supplies started to run out and people got desperate. On the whole it was a lot more...apocalyptic.
Unfortunately, there was more politics than I think the book warranted, as the group were trying to decide how to form a new government. As someone who isn't American, and therefore doesn't know a great deal about the American political system, I struggled with this a little. Plus, I don't really like politics and I felt the book dwelled on this particular aspect a bit too much.
There were also dinosaurs in this book. Like, legit Jurassic Park dinosaurs, which I felt was a bit overdone and unnecessary at this point...especially since this book was published in January 2023.
Having said all that, it was still a very good read and I really enjoyed it. If you're the type of person who likes high-brow, convoluted storylines, this one probably isn't for you. But if you want a good story and some light reading, this series is well worth it. I'll be looking forward to the 3rd book in the trilogy.
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