The Watchers: Home World is the first of a three-part series that tells the story of the Elohim largely from the perspective of Uri, a "sage of his people". The Elohim home world is dying, and the Elohim along with it. Uri has worked since primary school to become a part of the salvation of his world: to arrest the runaway greenhouse effect that threatens them. But now he finds that his life's work is pointless, and there may be no way to change this future. In the process of discovering purpose, Uri stumbles upon a bold group called The Community who dare to challenge the Elohim principles. Eventually, Uri's strength and that of his friends change much more than themselves. In the end, they change the fate of the entire world.
Assessment:
Plot/Idea: A space adventure set in a robust sci-fi universe that serves as the kicking-off point for a larger space opera. The plot moves linearly, following a group of travelers on a decades-long journey across the universe toward a new home following the demise of their home planet due to climate change.
Prose: The book features some dense and technical language that plays well to the setting and tone of the story. Descriptive writing elaborates on a well-imagined cosmic scenario.
Originality: The novel effectively brings common sci-fi elements and themes like interstellar travel and climate change to an original scenario and narrative. The cosmos established in the novel is enticing enough for readers to want to return in the two planned subsequent installments.
Character/Execution: The book’s protagonist Uri also serves as a narrator from a different narrative present, and through the temporal difference a complicated character begins to emerge. Side characters are interesting and feel connected to the fictional world rather than merely serving as plot vehicles.
Date Submitted: August 25, 2023
The Watchers: Home World
Trenton Hamm
Margidda Publishing
979-8-9874262-1-0 $14.99 (paperback), $4.99 (ebook)
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BT6V391T
The Watchers: Home World is first in a three-part series about a world very similar to Earth, which is facing its own ecological self-destruction over a runaway greenhouse effect.
Narrator Uri has become an elderly sage of his people (the Elohim) and is in the perfect position to reflect on the dilemma posed by The Watchers as they attempt to repair what his people have brought about, because his life purpose to save the world from itself has seemingly come to naught.
The tale opens with Uri and the crew on a crash course with a gas giant planet. The action-packed opening scene turns sharply into an important philosophical inspection that reflects on life, death, and choice:
"There comes a time at least once in the history of a people, which inspires future generations and alters the course of their history. When this happens, a people have a choice to make: do they fight to survive, or do they ignore the facts, and, through willful ignorance, travel the same course to their doom? It was in one of these times when this story begins."
Thus, a dual atmosphere is created which will attract those who seek spirited reads with its action-packed volley of high drama, setting the stage for thought-provoking moments of realization.
Trenton Hamm's ongoing juxtaposition of high-octane drama and evolving truths that operate on a higher intellectual level give thinking sci-fi readers an absorbing story that rests on the foundations of not just transformation, but surviving and learning from disaster: "Some might argue that it was the death of the home world that caused the death of the people, and some might argue conversely."
Issues of poor stewardship and the runaway greenhouse effects that are killing the planet and its people are juxtaposed with personal conflicts between individuals who mirror the planet's clashes in their lives and choices.
As Uri comes to know The Community, a group that challenges the most basic actions and choices of his people, he also begins to realize that the heart of this struggle lies not in the outside world's demise, but in the souls of the planet's stewards, and their ideals.
Visionaries such as Penne and Mikh are not always greeted warmly. Their elite position and spirits tailor an experiment that shake the Elohim and cement the Community's next efforts to do better against all odds.
In many obvious ways, The Watchers: Home World mirrors much of the current (and likely future) state of the world, with its disintegrating ecosystem and struggles between ideals on how to address it. Thus, the story of Uri's people is a familiar one which then takes off into new territory as the Community decides to build a new colony. But, will they bring with them the baggage that contributed to their ultimate betrayal of the planet?
The Watchers: Home World ideally will be used in sci-fi, social issues, and ecology reading groups as a starting point for discussion and debate over the moral and ethical approaches involved saving or abandoning a world. The principles of good stewardship may be discussed and reinforced through the examples presented in these pages, while the search for paradise and unlimited opportunity (both within the psyche and in the outside world) makes for thought-provoking insights on both.
Libraries and readers looking for stories that juxtapose fast-paced action with solid character development, psychological growth, and social issues worthy of classroom or individual contemplation will find The Watchers: Home World a formidable, involving read. It tempers its moral and ethical complexity with characters that are rooted in privilege, challenge, and higher-level thinking.
An open ending leaves a cliffhanger that awaits Book Two for further enlightenment.
