“2nd Earth”
Authors: Edward and Eunice Vought
So, here’s the premise for “2nd Earth;” co-written by Edward and Eunice Vought…
Good friends and Navy SEAL comrades, Jon and Tim are on leave and headed for home. They board the subway together and since both are extremely exhausted from their most recent search and rescue operation they fall into a deep sleep. When they awaken, seemingly hours later, although they know it’s not possible, they find that the subway car they are on is completely deserted. The train is stopped and Jon and Tim are left trying to figure out what they slept through. Is this particular train’s service done for the night and they somehow missed the all the activity? Has something on the car broken and they both slept through all the noise of its evacuation? Or has something much more sinister happened?
Intent on finding an answer to their current dilemma they step off the train and into a foggy and desolate world. As they walk through this murkiness they hear what sounds like a woman screaming. Jon and Tim’s protective instincts kick in and they hurriedly move in the direction of the sounds. What they see shocks them. A lone woman is chasing after three young men while four other men who look like hoodlums are chasing her. Needless to say the hoodlums don’t stand a chance against two trained Navy SEALS especially when they know they are defending a woman’s honor.
Jon and Tim save the young lady in question and give a stern lecture to the three men who were leaving her to fend for herself. Jon and Tim then find out that this isn’t the same world they fell asleep in and they now realize they must build a new life and possibly a new civilization.
“2nd Earth” has a decent plot but unfortunately the writing skills of the authors are mediocre at best. “2nd Earth” is a strange compilation of past and present tenses throughout its entirety and the story itself drags on for four hundred and seventy eight pages. (Yes, I read them all.) Truthfully this book would have had the same impact if it had been shaved down to a mere three hundred.
While I appreciate the authors need to explain almost every little minute thing; I think the Voughts need to understand that when you’re dealing with the rebuilding of an entire culture / civilization detailing everything out becomes…tedious…to read. Not to mention that the good fortune of everyone was extremely…unbelievable…at best. Anytime anything was needed it was miraculously and almost instantaneously found. Amazing! Especially since 21st century technology was also frequently found in a 1960’s setting…
In summary, not a terrible book to read so long as you can handle the poor grammatical structure and the many, many, many pages of explanation.