Comments by Thomas B., 45, Nov 02, 2006
Story was pretty good. More diversity in the names, would help of course. I noticed that the author spent very little time, ever, in descibing the people physically. Except to point out that 1 brother had a very pale complection and 2 of the other brothers were black skinned. Cute way. Dumb not to phhysicaly draw a picture of each individual, so that the reader could then picture each person. It left me uneasy throughout this story. Intentional, mmmmmmm.

Overall this was an enjoyable story.
The minor points I am about to make have probably already been mads, but just in case.
Too many of the characters last names are too much alike.
Lisa's last name is wrong at the begining of chapter 34.
When Shem gets on the ship to Mars he goes to his room, the royal suite, and gets in using his fingerprint. Shortly after entering his room the captain knocks on his door and is there to show him to his room, the royal suite, and they leave ang go to Shem's suite.
I would prefer if there had been more development of the reason such strong hatred existed between the Outworlders and the warm world population.

I thought it was interesting to have this alternate view of Noah but the author made the family seem unlikely to have been chosen by God for saving.

I thought this was a decent young adult book. The science was a little weak in areas (how did the soldiers stepping through qgates from the outer worlds step into Earth gravity so easily?, having gravity on a 6 month space journey is necessary to prevent major bone loss and other health issues, not just for comfort on arriving at the destination, how did they cope with radiation from the sun with thin walls/floors in the ship?).

There were too many character plotlines leaving not enough time to develop individual characters. What was the point of Shem's viewpoint (and what was with all the comments about his hair? Genetic mutation, and presumably the subsequent loss of psi powers, in the humans was explained at the end...)? Shem's story arc could have been abbreviated to the same time spent on Ham and the rest of the time could have been better spent developing Japheth or Noah's plotline in my opinion. Other than being pious, why did God like Noah?

The characters also seemed very naive and unsophisticated for being as old as they were. They all seemed to have an early 20-something mindset instead of what I'd picture for people that were multiple centuries old (especially Noah and Methuselah).

The plotline was novel though and I did enjoy Japheth's story arc. I was really hoping God had more motivation in the end to save Noah's family than that they were the only worshipers he had (out of billions!) in the entire solar system!