Book two of the Doomed Earth continues the story of Lieutenant Kayl Owen and Lieutenant Selene Genji as they try to avert fate. As we saw in book one, the Earth is going to get blown up. In book one they were on the run for their lives from the establishment. Naturally that continues in book two. 

We’ve seen that they have been making minor changes, but with no way to know the impact those changes are having. The young girl they rescued, Krysta, helps them escape from a situation their wits and abilities can’t get them out of. Krysta wears Selene’s disguise and creates a distraction to get the attention of the military forces waiting for Selene and Owen. The military though has been operating on a shoot first basis, and they take down Krysta. But her distraction gives them the time they need to get away. Once again thwarting the powers that be trying to stop them.

The Earth Cooperation Council is a NATO/UN type of organization that works with Earth Guard. Earth Guard reports to them and works under the ECC. But in recent years the Earth Guard is simply doing what it wants. Corruption is seeded throughout the Earth Guard, and it is a big part of what brings about the destruction of the Earth in 2180. 

Krysta survives the shooting and is met with members of the ECC, specifically Special Representative Cerise Camacho. Camacho begins looking hard at everything happening and realizes that something is deeply wrong within Earth Guard. Is this the moment Selene needs to change the course of future history? 

As Selene and Kayl continue evading authorities, they come across a car accident where Selene gets injured in order to pull someone from the fire. Turns out the people in the accident are known to her. One of them (in her time) is a hate spewing individual responsible for the Spear of Humanity doing what they did (blowing up the Earth.) She has a difficult moment, where she has to decide if she makes the future better by killing this individual before he can become the monster she knows he will become. Owen stops her. Well, he can’t stop her, but he slows her enough with words that she chooses not to kill him. 

I liked this moment a lot in the story, but it also bothers me. Another moment of serendipity with coming across the right person at the right moment. The exponential growth of humanity that we have seen has led us to 8+billion on the planet now. In 100+ years, it seems likely it would be 20 billion! If you could kill Hitler as a child, would you? That’s her dilemma. And Selene would have killed him if not for Kayl. He is softening her to a degree. 

At their next hotel stay, Kayl sees a news story where the kid they saved is talking about how Selene saved his dad and that she shouldn’t be hunted. The first major moment where we see significant course correction to what may happen. Selene has been doing all this with the potential knowledge that she could fix things and then simply cease to be. The Tramontine aliens had told her that they thought she would likely stay even if things changed. The idea being that of running water. It takes the path of least resistance. The universe likewise does the same. Selene being in 2140 making changes can’t cause herself to not exist because it would complicate things too much. Which is an interesting idea to deal with time travel. 

A somewhat minor character in the first book, Raven Tecumseh, is back and sets up a meeting between our heroes and Camacho from the ECC. They are promised protection, but that doesn’t work out so great as someone tries to blow them up. They head to Mars under the protection of the ECC but escorted by Earth Guard in what is clearly a trap and they are being used as bait to draw out a reaction from Earth Guard to get hard proof of the corruption. Camacho knows the risks she is asking them to agree to, but she is going with them. In space there is no back up. No cavalry to be called in. So setting themselves in dangers path in a situation where they will be 2 weeks away from anyone coming to their rescue is dangerous as hell for them. 

I’m so conflicted over these books. I liked the story. But we get a character development plot point absolutely pounded into our heads. Selene doesn’t want a relationship even though one is developing. Between the two books, I honestly feel like 100 pages could have been cut of repetitive drama. Each book is about 375 pages or so. Could it have been trimmed further in order to make it one book instead of two? Perhaps. I get wanting two books. More money all the way around. And a single 600+ page book is a lot. It reminds me of Clive Barker and his novel Imajica. An 824 page novel that the company released as a single hardback but then split in half for the paperback release. There are also a few duology books I’ve read in the past and I’m questioning the idea of them. Why not make it a single book? The Dennis McKiernan Silver Call Duology springs to mind, and it would have been 500+ as a single book. I think the Imajica method makes the most sense. Even though back in the day when they did the paperback thing I thought it sucked, but I already had at least one hardback of it, so I wasn’t buying the paperback regardless. 

This is another of those confusing to rate things. I think I am close to giving the story a 10 star rating, but will stop just short at 9. However, the frustration about some of the way it was told makes me want to give it a 5. The idea of splitting the difference to make it a 7 is pretty strong. That’s the spot I’m going to stick with.