This wasn't a bad book, but it just wasn't what I was expecting or wanting as a conclusion to the series. ( )

Reviewing the full trilogy, (here be spoilers)...

#1 - Marsbound

Quite a good book and a very good opener to the trilogy. One of the more interesting aspects was the way Haldeman subtly managed to change the voice of the protagonist as she grew up from a teenage girl into a young woman. At the beginning of the story, Carmen Dula is leaving her Florida home to go live on Mars for a few years with her family. By the end of the book, she is a 'Martian', quarantined away from her home planet, and now facing a mission to another star system to try and deal with a vastly superior alien threat.

#2 - Starbound

A solid middle volume. The pace slackens a bit from the first novel but, considering it's mostly about a team of human emissaries traveling to another star system, it cruises along pretty well. There is some weird pseudo-science stuff that is essentially explained away using Clarke's Axiom; "Any sufficiently advanced science is indistinguishable from magic". Apart from that, the rest of the science in the book seems pretty solid while not getting in the way of keeping things moving forward, (note: I am not a rocket scientist so please don't lambaste me if the science is actually completely wonky).

Overall, this is a good book that carries the reader nicely from the end of Marsbound into the beginning of Earthbound.

#3 - Earthbound

The third book in the trilogy is a solid closing volume. The team has now returned from their trip to meet with The Others to find that the Earthly quarantine has been lifted. In this book therefore, most of the action takes place back on Terra. And there is a good amount of action. Haldeman paints a brutal and, to my mind, realistic picture of how things might progress should a scenario like this ever come to pass. Despite the grim narrative, the novel does end on a hopeful note.

The Trilogy (spoiler warning!)

A word about the entire trilogy: Haldeman takes the first-contact trope and stands it a bit on its' ear; Instead of humanity being initially out-classed by a vastly superior race and then somehow figuring a way to triumph through, y'know, "good old-fashioned human ingenuity & stuff", Haldeman imagines a scenario where humanity is not up to the task of overcoming the stacked odds. I've read many negative reviews of this series and, frankly, I don't get it. Does everyone want a happy ending all the time? The writing is smart, the characters are fairly well-developed - especially the protagonist, and the plot moves well throughout all three books. The situation is, quite honestly, about the most likely thing that we would face if another species happened to be keeping an eye on us. Think about it; A race of beings that have the ability to travel through interstellar space would realistically be so technologically advanced compared to us that, if they wanted to wipe us out, and we tried to fight back, it would be like a pack of squirrels trying to stop a bulldozer.

I give books #1 and #3 four solid stars each. Book #2 gets 3.25 stars and I average the trilogy at 3.75 overall. ( )

In this third novel in the Marsbound series, the crew of the Ad Astra return to Earth after their brief and unsatisfying meeting with the mysterious “Others.” Their welcome back celebration has barely begun before the virtually omnipotent aliens to decide to torment humanity again. We never learn much about them from direct communication, but from their actions, it is clear the Others are a sadistic bunch, treating humanity they way a budding psychopath might treat a fly, pulling off one wing and then one leg at a time for whatever amusement that might provide.
Humanity itself is presented as almost as bad. One of the torments the Others impose on Earth is to deprive it of electricity. Any technology requiring electricity stops functioning. Generators, no matter how simple, cannot create a current. Batteries won’t store it. Nothing electrical will work. Within an hour of this happening, people start shooting one another. Those whose veneer of civilization is not so thin and do not respond to disaster by immediately visiting their neighbor, murdering them, and stealing their canned goods are apparently in the minority.
Carmen Dula, the Mars Girl, from the previous two books again provides the first person point of view in this book. She has matured and not nearly as irritating as she was in the other two. Many of the other characters are back as well, but some of them die. New characters are introduced, and many of them die. Several unnamed characters die, and billions of nameless people are presumed to die quickly from violence or ultimately from starvation. This is not an uplifting story.
One interesting character, a humanoid construct of the Others called “Spy,” appears -- and then disappears. He pops in and out of existence and we never learn much about him.
This trilogy (so far) begins with humanity reaching for the stars and discovering new life and ends with it a squashed from outside, its achievements destroyed, and its ability to recover denied. I can’t say it was a fun read for me.
Sorry if that’s a spoiler.
( )

loved the characters.

just going to say the end was depressing and kinda unfulfilling.

first book was the best. second was worth it if you liked first enough. would only recommend third to completionists

This was the third book in the Marsbound trilogy and I had not read the other two. i was very disappointed in the book in that there was very little 'meat' to it -- especially given that it was from a Hugo Award author. Character development must have occurred in a previous book as there wasn't much here -- to the extent that one was not at all emotionally attached as various ones met their demise in the wars following the 'Others' turning off the energy on Earth. I would not recommend this book. ( )