Instead, humans create a human-alien hybrid in search of increased human longevity and, along with it, inspire the worst in people: hatred and prejudice against these half-humans, with simultaneous envy of their strength, heightened abilities and appearance. Additionally, a large faction of humans called the "Spear of Humanity" form a radical belief that the Earth needs to be cleansed of all of the alien corruption and utterly destroyed and - only then - will a new, pure and pristine Earth appear to replace the previously sullied one. Not only that, but, thanks to knowledge gained by the hyper-advanced aliens, one of the radicals discovers a new type of bomb that destroys the Earth. In seconds. The end.
...or it would be - and should have been. Lieutenant Selene Genji, the last remaining hybrid (or "alloy" as they're called), who happened to be in orbit, serving on a Unified Fleet ship, watched in horror as the bomb went off, not only causing massive damage, but actually causing a chain reaction that accelerated as it went, literally tearing the Earth apart entirely and sending a shock wave toward her ship in orbit and then, in a flash, it was over... until she finds herself being rescued from her derelict ship by soldiers in uniforms she's never seen before.
Confusion ensues, but in time she comes to realize that somehow she's now twenty years before the destruction of Earth. She takes it on herself as her mission to find some way to prevent the Earth from being destroyed. That, however, will be difficult, since her ship is destroyed and her removal from her ship goes quickly from rescue to interrogation to an off-the-record problem to sweep under the nearest rug, per official Earth Guard statements. Lucky for her, Lieutenant Kayl Owen of the Earth Guard has had about enough of the Earth Guard and is not about to let harm come to the very human woman rescued from that ship, regardless of what her DNA scan says. They secretly stay in communication during her imprisonment and isolation aboard the Vigilant, and try to get a combined understanding of what has happened and begin to build trust, while Lt. Owen watches for an opportunity to sneak her off the ship. However, before he can come up with a plan, he gets tasked with escorting her clandestinely off the ship in a shuttle to another ship. That both helps them get her off the ship and presents a fairly immediate threat, but things go from bad to worse when they have to crash-land on Earth after a series of mishaps. Mishaps which could look like ineptitude on Lt. Owen's part or pure bad luck, but that are, in fact, deliberate attempts by someone in the Earth Guard to eradicate them.
So, now the fate of the entire Earth is in the hands of two misfits: one human/alien hybrid cast into a world years before her birth and not long before the Earth has contact with the aliens whose DNA partly makes up her own... and a soldier who, while fairly intelligent and capable, has been sidelined for political reasons. One has information about the future... at least the future she seeks to prevent. The other has some people he can reach out to here and there, but it's fairly limited due to his being generally disliked by higher-ups. And while Genji has some information about what conditions were like in the future and some of what seems to have contributed to the events leading to the destruction of the world, she didn't research for this mission; it was thrust upon her. She only knows what she learned growing up in that time. Further, there's no way to know if the changes they're making will be enough to prevent the Earth's destruction - and, with each change they make, the timeline they're in diverges more and more from the future she's familiar with. Kayl Owen will show Genji the importance of family and the two of them will have to work out some concept of what their relationship is, while trying to plan and execute an overwhelming mission to literally save the entire world.
I greatly enjoyed reading In Our Stars, the first installment of Jack Campbell's new The Doomed Earth series. The writing is great, but readers of his previous sci-fi series would know to expect that. Additionally, the characters are interesting and their relationship and interactions are... complicated... but I enjoyed watching as the story unfolded. The end of the book definitely left me wanting more, but I guess that's part of being the first book in a series. And now, I await the next installment. Alas, if only we had actual time travel.
