[1] In a future where Earth is highly polluted, an alien race evacuates humans to distant planets via sentient spacecraft called Beastships.

The book begins long after the evacuation has occurred, when a secret group of humans seek to return to Earth to find if it is now habitable.

[2][3] In 1992, Booklist said the novel showed Lindholm's "excellence and versatility",[4] and the Chicago Sun-Times called her "a skilled hand" in both fantasy and science fiction.

[5] Describing Alien Earth as a "marvelous book" with likable characters, 2AM magazine compared it to the works of Frederick Pohl and Sherri Tepper.

According to John Clute, the Beastships of Alien Earth share resemblances to liveships, sentient nautical ships in the author's later work as Robin Hobb.