Ships of Earth: Homecoming III

The Ships of Earth is the best of the first three Homecoming books (though that is not saying much.) The pace is still slow, but things seem to come together much better here. Here, a party of exiles from the city go on a mission to help the Oversoul help the earth. Their adventures in the wilderness include a few murder attempts, a couple marriages, many children, and even a gay man marrying a woman and fathering a child. Most of the book follows their initial voyages to a "special place", where eight years quickly pass.

The characters all spend a lot of time thinking, and not a whole lot of time doing. Their philosophy often seems to echo Card's philosophy in other books, which seems to be a forceful (Bush Jr.) style attack of enemies, coupled with compassion and "build people up" style of leadership.

At the end, they finally find the space ship as well as a super-suit that gives the wearer the ability to quickly heal, see other peoples thoughts, and communicate with the "oversoul" as one. The ability to see other people's thoughts would have been a great vehicle for exploration. Unfortunately, it was just brushed aside, and only brought out in the bits where it was useful.