Earth 7 by Summer Whitton and Emily Walker is a fast-paced science-fiction novel that crosses both space and time. Earth 7 is book one in this new series as the authors explore space, the history of Earth, and the threat that looms over them all.
The blurb for Earth 7 really captured my attention as a sci-fi fan. The story sounded really intriguing and I originally thought that this book was going to be a stand-alone novel. Well, that is until I got to that ending. Then I was like...okay, this is going to be more than just one book. Right from the beginning, the authors throw readers a curveball. You’re expecting sci-fi, but what you get is a familiar story that most have read in a Bible. I was honestly shocked because that wasn’t what I was expecting at all. Don’t worry though! This book doesn’t go down a religious rabbit hole. The authors are just looking to put a bug in your ear. It’s a bit strange in my opinion, but I pushed forward with an open mind to see where they were going to be taking this whole storyline. At the end of the day, it’s essentially “what if we’re basically “excess” from another planet, molded to be what we are now?”
Earth 7 focuses on El, an “alien” from Earth 1, and Quaid, a “disgraced” archaeologist. El is on a mission to find a team who went missing and Vadik, a man intent on destroying the world. Signs point to the team that El is looking for are long gone, one of them being the man that she loved. Now, her heart yearns to return home, but without the right tech to do so, she’s stuck on Earth. The good news though? Scattered around the planet hidden in ancient ruins is the tech that she needs to get home. The trick is actually finding the locations, which is no piece of cake. So luck strikes for her when Quaid and his daughter (mostly it was his daughter) decipher the code to turn on the beacon that will point the way.
This book’s pace is really quick-moving, but in the process, I feel that it misses out on a lot of details that could really help bring it to life more and flow better. The authors give me some details about Quaid and how he got to be in the situation that he’s in, but not much else really. I get how the mishap handling of the “discovery” really dealt him a serious blow, but I don’t understand how he let it impact his life so negatively. He literally lets it drag him down to the point that he becomes neglectful of his life. I mean, you’ll understand when you read what his house and yard look like. I’m surprised his neighbors haven’t complained to the city about the yard. LOL! He complains about those ladies, but they must be somewhat nice to not be yowling at him all the time about his laziness. Then there are his best friends. The only one of the two that we get more than a few lines about is Jaxon. We get more information about Spencer later, but once again, it’s not much. I know that they aren’t the main characters, but it never hurts to give me more information about them to make the story more interesting. Quaid’s daughter is also a miss in my opinion in that the authors want to depict her as autistic, but I didn’t see much to showcase that. Honestly, throughout the book, I mostly viewed her as extremely smart with some scenes when her anxiety began to get the best of her.
This book has a lot of good elements to it, and a storyline that kept me page-turning to find out what was going to happen next, but it still had quite a few issues. There are editorial issues that were just bound and determined to make it into the final edit. Then there are some “issues” that just, for me, hit the ear wrong and had me going back and rereading the sentence/section several times. In some cases, it’s words that could have/should have been left out and the sentence would have flowed better. In other cases, words are missing or should have been flipped around.
Page 40 - “...the leeches here from the Earth 1 don’t know where it is.” I’d have recommended taking out “the” because it really doesn’t contribute anything to the sentence, and I feel it’s just not needed.
Page 41 – “So, we’re going to hunt humans after they find the map, and then what?” In this sentence, I would have added “the” in-between hunt and humans. They’re not going and hunting all humans, just Quaid and his group.
Page 42 – “they were more advanced on the newest planet than on even Earth 7.” This one really drove me a bit nuts. I’d have either switched around “on” and “even” or just taken out one or the other.
Page 48 – “there’s no reason to run!” Vadik yelled as he chased her. I just want to talk to you.” In this sentence, I think the issue is pretty obvious. A piece of punctuation is missing.
Page 82: - “However ill-evolved of you.” To give this context, El is getting in a dig at Zadix calling him “ill-evolved” but the way it’s done it just doesn’t come off right. I feel that it should just say “How ill-evolved of you.”
This book is a mixed bag of bad and good, but it has a lot of potentials to be really good. I’d have liked more details and for the storyline to flow better, but for a first combined work by these two authors this is a decent start. I’m choosing to rate this book 3.5 out of 5 stars. The editorial issues cause this book to automatically lose a star because there were too many to really ignore along with some being truly distracting. The storyline itself holds a lot of promise, I just want more from the characters and for Earth 1 to be a part of the storyline as well since we get some of Earth 6, 7, and 8. If you enjoy science fiction novels and are looking for something new I encourage you to check this book out. I think you’ll enjoy this book, but if you don’t like cliffhangers...you may want to pass on this one. I hope to find out what happens next with El and Quaid.
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