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actually started, and from the first sentence, I was "hooked." If other science fiction is like this, I've been missing something. But of course it is obvious already (I'm about half-through) that you have an unusual and provocative approach I'm sure no one else has. And what an imagination! I can't wait to get back to it and finish."

From a female friend, an actor and healer: "I thoroughly enjoyed reading your books. They are very rich and full of light and shade, hidden depths, lots of things, that I felt they deserved more than a single reading. I kept noticing how you would pull the readers into a character, and then pull them out again, so we weren't allowed to just empathize uncritically with characters. I was left with complicated feelings about them - really liking them and then really disagreeing with them just like in real life! But not like in most novels where an uncritical empathy holds the reader to the text. They were very thought provoking and yet at the same time you did get hooked into the plot, keen to know what would happen next and where it was all heading. I think you're really good!"

From a girl at high school: "The Children of Arable is written is very visual and I have no problems picturing scenes or remembering them even after 6 months (that's when I 1^st read C of A) I could not forget some parts, no mean feat for a book I've read once as I've probably read well over 100 since (I read mega fast)."

"I recently read it (Children of Arable) and can honestly say I have not enjoyed a book so much in years. Thank you so much…
Now what did I enjoy most? Firstly, I related well to Martin, she was attractive and believable and you dealt well with her sexuality in a most acceptable way for me and I suspect most people, not an easy thing to do I would think… I often read feminist literature, I get so tired of reading about power struggles between men of huge ego. Martin was refreshing in that she could act on impulse, was warm and passionate etc.
I liked Jomo, he's probably like me, someone with enough vision to see possibilities but a great one for hanging back.
The structure of the book made it richer and more interesting and somehow you managed to make it quite complicated without confusing me. I was so often surprised by the direction the story took. I enjoyed Jomo's flippancy and his relationship with Nokomis.
…I am certainly lending the book to all those who enjoy it, you really have given such pleasure. …You provided an excellent escape and some very thought-provoking stuff."

Quotes from readers' letters about Children of Arable and To Warm the Earth
"Dear Mr. Belden…I studied English Lit at the U. of Michigan and have read mountains of literature over the years, but I always found sci fi disconcerting - it was like walking into the middle of a conversation I hadn't heard the first part of! I always felt "left out." But something made me pick up your book and as I read I grew more and more fascinated - I couldn't put it down. Apart from pure enjoyment at the tremendous imagination of the story itself, I was moved by what you were saying about people and life in general, including God. I was touched.  And inspired… I fell in love with the whole picture of the wraiths…"

"Dear David Belden,
Do you realize what you've done?
I'm sorry. That's a horrible way to open a letter. I'm afraid I don't quite know how to right a correspondence on a book of correspondences. Maybe I should have started with thank you. I'm sixteen, an impressionable age, and I was impressed. I have read many classics, science fiction and other forms of literature, but never before have I had such an urge to write to an author.
Let me try to make this clearer. About five minutes ago I finished reading Children of Arable, cuddled under a heavy blanket as snow piled up against my bedroom windows.  It was beautiful, what it said and the way it said it. For the past two weeks I have been savoring the time I have been able to spend reading it. Life seems much simpler if you can dream of Arable.
Please don't think I'm crazy, for writing to you and making it sound as though I have made reality of your novel. (Though I wish I could). You wrote with such optimism and love of life. When I was depressed it brought things back to perspective. That's why I'm thanking you, for keeping things in line.
P.S. Please finish the book that the "About the Author" in the back said you were working on. I'd be very excited to read it."

"I'm about 100 pages into your book (#2!) now, and getting to the stage where I'm hostile upon being interrupted! It's GREAT!"

From one of my mother's bridesmaids, in her eighties: "Dear David… "Arable" turns out to be the very first Science Fiction either of us have ever read! I admit I thought I would be bored out of my mind until I