Earth Song: A First Contact Thriller (Book 1 in the Complete Earth Song Series)

I bought this book for a few reasons, I love sci-fi, it had great reviews and the preface heralded a great story. I started to read it and was thrust straight into the action as Lauren arrived in the Orkneys with no mention of her job at Jodrell Bank which was in the preface. I thought it would be like in the movies where the action starts and then they take a breath, go back and bring you up to date.Things like the Overseers and Aunt Lucy were mentioned a few times, both of which have significance to the story but no background. I got to about a third of the way in but with no explanations to previous events it became confusing as if I'd jumped into a story in book 2, which in reality this is what happened. Although Earth Song is billed as the first book it is only the first book in this trilogy and NOT the first book in the story. For that you have to read The Signal, which explains some of Lauren's background as an astronomer but still not a lot on the Overseers and nothing much about Aunt Lucy.Reading "The Signal" caught me up somewhat so I went back to where I was in Earth Song and it made more sense. I was enjoying the book, it had a great story until Lauren - a Jodrell Bank radio astronomer - with no back story in the book that she could leap tall buildings in a single bound suddenly became a Lara Croft (one of the other characters analogies not mine) and could shoot like an olympic champion and ride a motorbike like Steve McQueen in the Great Escape (again, an analogy from the book).There is one bit in the book where Lauren has just been in a serious car crash but alert enough to jump on a motorbike that one of the pursuers had crashed and is racing at 100mph to get away from other other pursuers but still has the time to take a hand off the handlebars, her eyes off the path and shoot at other baddies. I've ridden motorbikes and one thing you don't do at high speed is take a hand off the handlebars. I'm afraid this is when the "with a bound she was free" writing became a touch too much for me.I finished the book just because I wanted too but I'm still no wiser about how Aunt Lucy died - this isnt really a spoiler this event is mentioned very early in the book.My honest review - a great story with lots of potential but spoiled for me by the author allowing Lauren to turn into some sort of superhero with abilities never mentioned or explained.

I enjoyed the book immensely! Look forward to reading the next one!! Not my usual read, but it was truly very good!*****😊👍

After a very good start, I gave up on this book after 16%. There are too many references to significant events that happened to the character and storyline in the past that makes me think there must've been an earlier book. I won't go into any details as you may want to read this book yourself, and, as I say, there may be an earlier one that I've missed but will look for.

Excellent storyline with strong credible characters, can't wait to get stuck into the next volume in the Earth Song series.Thank you Nick for your brilliant ability to bring text into a mental reality 👍😁👽👾

Liked the fast paceDisliked some of the conversations whilst battling enemies.Too in depth when you're sitting at people. Not as good as Peter F Hamilton, but still gripping enough to suck you in.

Really enjoyed this book great storytelling and strong characters am straight on to the next one definately recommend others to read hope you enjoy it as much as I did

Wasn't sure what to expect with this book, but I have to say it caught my attention and wouldn't let go easily. Great read if you enjoy some good sci-fi with a sprinkling of reality to keep it grounded. The main characters are both believable and completely unbelievable at the same time. Part of the charm I suppose. Looking forward to the next book.

The Signal should be read first even tho it says Earth Song is the first book, it will give you some insight into who some of the people are and how they came to be involved in this adventure.I have just finished the whole series of the Earth books and they are amazing, I loved the characters and the way there is a lot of action, and the ships are amazing. You totally lose yourself in these books and I hated when it all ended, not once did I become bored, they should make a TV series out of this. I am now going to start on the Death of Light, Fading Light and Fractured Light books, which I have no doubt will be of the same standard