The Call of Earth

Overview

The narrative advances the multi-generational project to reunite scattered human descendants and, ultimately, to reestablish contact with Earth. Tensions between dynastic politics, cultural tradition and scientific knowledge increase as characters respond to both visible threats and subtle manipulations from an artificial mind that oversees the planet. The story balances large-scale social developments with intimate moral choices.

Characters and Themes

Key characters include figures who act as leaders, skeptics and custodians of knowledge. Card uses their conflicts to examine recurring themes:

• Faith and free will — how belief and prophecy influence decisions.
• Memory and identity — the preservation and loss of cultural knowledge.
• Technology versus tradition — especially the role of an overseeing artificial intelligence known as the Oversoul.
• Family and politics — personal loyalties complicate broader goals.

One recurring character, Nafai, functions as a prophetic leader in the group, while Shedemei represents the scientific and archival impulse that preserves forgotten technologies and histories.

Background and Influences

Card drew on religious narrative structures and classic science-fiction ideas to shape the Homecoming Saga. The series is notable for reworking ancient motifs — migration, exile, and return — into a far-future setting. Readers familiar with Card's broader work will recognize his interest in moral dilemmas, leadership, and the social consequences of technological control.

Reception and Place in the Series

The Call of Earth is regarded as a central installment that advances the arc begun in the first book and sets up later developments; it is followed by the next volume which continues the group's voyage and evolving relationship with the Oversoul. The novel appeals to readers who enjoy speculative worldbuilding combined with philosophical and religious questions. For more on the series, see the Homecoming Saga.