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    Earth Unaware
    Earth Unaware
    Earth Unaware
    Audiobook14 hours

    Earth Unaware

    Written by Orson Scott Card and Aaron Johnston

    Narrated by Stefan Rudnicki

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    A hundred years before Ender's Game, humans thought they were alone in the galaxy. Humanity was slowly making their way out from Earth to the planets and asteroids of the Solar System, exploring and mining and founding colonies.

    The mining ship El Cavador is far out from Earth, in the deeps of the Kuiper Belt, beyond Pluto. Other mining ships, and the families that live on them, are few and far between this far out. So when El Cavador's telescopes pick up a fast-moving object coming in-system, it's hard to know what to make of it. It's massive and moving at a significant fraction of the speed of light.

    But the ship has other problems. Their systems are old and failing. The family is getting too big. There are claim-jumping corporates bringing Asteroid Belt tactics to the Kuiper Belt. Worrying about a distant object that might or might not be an alien ship seems…not important.

    They're wrong. It's the most important thing that has happened to the human race in a million years. This is humanity's first contact with an alien race. The First Formic War is about to begin.
    Earth Unaware is the first novel in The First Formic War series by Orson Scott Card and Aaron Johnston.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMacmillan Audio
    Release dateJul 17, 2012
    ISBN9781427221551
    Earth Unaware
    Author

    Orson Scott Card

    Orson Scott Card is best known for his science fiction novel Ender's Game and its many sequels that expand the Ender Universe into the far future and the near past. Those books are organized into the Ender Saga, which chronicles the life of Ender Wiggin; the Shadow Series, which follows on the novel Ender's Shadow and is set on Earth; and the Formic Wars series, written with co-author Aaron Johnston, which tells of the terrible first contact between humans and the alien "Buggers." Card has been a working writer since the 1970s. Beginning with dozens of plays and musical comedies produced in the 1960s and 70s, Card's first published fiction appeared in 1977--the short story "Gert Fram" in the July issue of The Ensign, and the novelette version of "Ender's Game" in the August issue of Analog. The novel-length version of Ender's Game, published in 1984 and continuously in print since then, became the basis of the 2013 film, starring Asa Butterfield, Harrison Ford, Ben Kingsley, Hailee Steinfeld, Viola Davis, and Abigail Breslin. Card was born in Washington state, and grew up in California, Arizona, and Utah. He served a mission for the LDS Church in Brazil in the early 1970s. Besides his writing, he runs occasional writers' workshops and directs plays. He frequently teaches writing and literature courses at Southern Virginia University. He is the author many science fiction and fantasy novels, including the American frontier fantasy series "The Tales of Alvin Maker" (beginning with Seventh Son), and stand-alone novels like Pastwatch and Hart's Hope. He has collaborated with his daughter Emily Card on a manga series, Laddertop. He has also written contemporary thrillers like Empire and historical novels like the monumental Saints and the religious novels Sarah and Rachel and Leah. Card's work also includes the Mithermages books (Lost Gate, Gate Thief), contemporary magical fantasy for readers both young and old. Card lives in Greensboro, North Carolina, with his wife, Kristine Allen Card. He and Kristine are the parents of five children and several grandchildren.

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    Reviews for Earth Unaware

    4/5

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    • 4/5
      One of the pleasures of listening to science fiction audiobooks over the years has been hearing Orson Scott Card's Ender series. Besides being expertly narrated by an ensemble led by Stefan Rudnicki, these audiobooks are entertaining because Card isn't delivering the same book over and over. In Earth Unaware, Orson Scott Card and Aaron Johnston take the series in yet another direction.I know, I know. It's been proven time after time. When a book series gets to the point where [Original Author] picks up [Insert new author here (often a relative)], the results are just... not good. I'm happy to report that Earth Unaware is an excellent novel. I thoroughly enjoyed it.Aaron Johnston and Orson Scott Card created and are telling the story of the First Formic War in the comic format. I haven't read those, so I can't say how similar this novel is, but Aaron Johnston says in the Afterword that Earth Unaware draws from the characters and events in those comics.The subtitle (First Formic War) implies that we're in for a military SF novel, but that's not what this is. This novel is a tense near-space adventure set in the not too distant future and peopled with characters I cared about. The opening reveals the thoughts and feelings of teenager on the El Calvador, a mining ship in the Kuiper Belt. Close by, on a different ship, is a man who has invested much time and effort into the invention of a gravity laser. He needs to prove his worth to his corporate employer. And back on Earth, an elite military unit is being formed. These lives, some entwined, move forward as normal until all interests are altered in the face of the arrival of an alien ship in the solar system.Even though the cover doesn't say it, this is Book 1 of at least a few. I look forward to the continued development of the concept of difference. On Valentine Wiggin's Hierarchy of Foreignness is Varelse. True aliens, aliens so alien that we can't even communicate with them or even hope to understand them. How could war with such a race be avoided? Difference also extends to human beings, who seem so content to drop their conflicts in the face of greater danger. Why is that what it takes?The audiobook is performed by multiple narrators in the style that fits Orson Scott Card's stories so incredibly well. The narrators (all excellent) change with the POV of the story. Reading the story were: Stefan Rudnicki, Stephen Hoye, Arthur Morey, Vikas Adam, Emily Janice Card, Gabrielle de Cuir, and Roxanne Hernandez. Top notch!
    • 2/5
      Meh. Interesting back story but not really compelling on its own.
    • 5/5
      This is an awesome prequel to the Ender saga, without Ender of course. This is background for several of the characters you meet later. It is creatively written with a well imagined asteroid belt mining operation, complete with independant miners trying to exist against corporate guys.
    • 3/5
      Not too bad, seemed to bog down at spots over details, explained many aspects of Enders universes in earlier times.
    • 5/5
      I don't know who the co-author is here... but... Orson Scott Card was the selling point for me. Turns out the story is really good, which isn't really a surprise. If you like OSC's work, you should like this one. It is very typical of his writing style/topic/characters.No sex, nothing graphic, no swearing. Just lots of space/alien activity and the tweaking of our "justice" strings... (i.e. we want justice to be served, but you will have to finish the story to find out if it is or not). Bit of a cliffhanger, but it is a multibook series, and I don't mind "having" to read more OSC.
    • 3/5
      When I first opened this book, I wasn't terribly concerned that one of the main POV characters was a teenager. After all, Orson Scott Card wrote Ender's Game, which has an awesome child protagonist. Unfortunately Victor and many of the adult characters, just fall flat. I'm interested in the alien threat the characters face, but I couldn't name a single one that I would have felt sad or angry if they had died. They just don't make enough of an impression on the reader to really develop the kind of emotional connection that would make their death the gut punch Card and Johnston clearly expect it will be.
    • 4/5
      This is a prequel to the Ender's Game series. This one goes back to the very first appearance of the Formics in our solar system. I thought the technology and culture to be appropriate and accurate, it both fit into the tech of Ender's Game and fit into what could possibly be coming in the near future, with the possible exception of the lack of robots and AI's.
    • 3/5
      Some good interaction between characters, between adolescents and young men and women, parents and children. An interesting intersecting plot. (just wanted to use those two "i" words in the same sentence together, that's why I reviewed this book).

    • 4/5
      Earth Unaware is a scary 1st contact story. It's set in the Ender's Game universe. Unlike Ender's Game which focuses on the second war between the ant like aliens nick named the Formic's this book deals with mankind's !st encounter with them.

      Card does a good job describing the structure, culture and economics of Earth's and the solar system's spacefaring civilization. As a reader I had the sense that this could happen if we ever went in mass to colonize space. Taking the time to do that made the story accessible. There is hardly any technobabble . This is science fiction that has a good balance between the need to explain the science, and the need to present the culture. Card spends most this book allowing us to get the look and feel of this universe. The action takes place on both Earth and in space. In fact the Formic's don't appear until the last third of the book.

      Earth Unaware is a good first act in a three act play. I loved Card's writing style, and his ability as a world builder. I am looking forward to reading Earth Afire, the next book in the series. Even if you have already read Enders Game, this story is worth reading. For those who have not read Ender's Game this book is a perfect introduction to the series.

    • 5/5
      This was a great book for what I was doing: moving from a place I raised my kid back to the town when I was a kid. I have read 11 Orson Scott Card books, and all of the Ender ones have five stars. I checked out Earth Afire the day I finished this novel. When I am old and can't think for myself, I hope someone will read me these books. Actually any book in my LibraryThing collection I rated five stars will be great. 511 members; 3.66 average rating; 3/29/2017
    • 3/5
      Orson Scott Card and Aaron Johnston have collaborated to tell the story of the Formic War. So whilst one knows how it will end, flesh is put on the bones of the 'Ender's Game' backstory. 'Earth Unaware' is the first installment of a trilogy, and begins in the icy depths of the Kuiper Belt, where free miners first detect a fast moving object. First Contact does not go well, and this fast paced tale follows the trail of destruction toward the inner solar system and Earth...


    • 2/5
      Well, I'm more than half way through this thing, so I guess it's time for some while reading notes:-- If this was the first Ender book one had read, with no other details, it might be good. The reveals, for anyone having read the original, are expected and obvious.-- I don't see why this was made a novel. So far, too many characters, not enough forward progress in the plot. And to this point too many throw away characters. Not seeing the point of all these points of view yet. (Further research shows this is a trilogy?!?!? WHY?!?!?)On disc 8 of 12. More to come when complete.
    • 3/5
      Written as a prequel to "Ender's Game", "Earth Unaware" tries to fill in some of the holes and unexplored history that led to Battle School. It's almost boring in places. Tthe first chapter, for example, is all about teen age angst...not what I expected. We meet the formics, but the story is all told from the perspective of the humans. As I've read most of the sequels, we don't get introduced to the "rest of the story" until several books later--sad. Readers are introduced to several characters, only one carries through the rest of the books--Mazur Rackham. At the end of this tale, nothing is tied together; the story feels like it was just hacked into three books at an arbitrary spot or one dictated by the evil editor. Altogether, a decent enough entry in the Ender saga.
    • 4/5
      Not as good as the Ender series. As always Cards character development is top notch. The Earth Unaware, Formic War, had too many slow spots. In the second book Card was back where I expect to see his writing. Even at that it's still a four and I would highly recommend it.
    • 2/5
      The story is ok, but the numerous major basic space mechanic errors were just too bothersome for me. When I read that the secondary author was a comics writer, that explained a lot...
    • 4/5
      Actually, not that bad at all.

      Earth Unaware by Orson Scott Card (Ender’s Game) and Aaron Johnston (producer, collaborator).

      These guys put together one heck of a story. The book starts out a bit slow and seemed to be a prelude to a soap opera. The asteroid miners are working the asteroid belt and fire back to Luna Station minerals for sale which they use to support their families. Victor is a part of said family, making a living in outer space, which some bigoted people call “space borns” and look down on them.

      Card creates a world with new rules of society levels that is clearly a condemnation of the current social strata of rich/poor, have/have not.

      Victor and Janda are cousins and yet they’re falling for each other. To handle this, the families separate them, sending Janda on a trip with the Italian fleet.

      At this point I thought there was going to be a soap opera plot. Janda though is never developed as a character. Instead, the main character is Victor, who has a talent for machines and space mechanics and lacks a lot of social skills which is at times humorous.

      Fathers and Fathers:

      Victor respects his father (“father” is always initial caps when spoken by a son, interestingly) and Father has taught him everything he knows. When an alien spacecraft is discovered, Victor and Father go into action to find out what it is and what to do about it, at times to deadly result!

      Lem is the son of the manufacturing conglomerate Jukes Enterprises and runs a ship that is testing a “glaser”, a machine that destroys matter with an energy field.

      Lem is also a result of a fatherly upbringing. Unlike Victor, Lem feels controlled and manipulated by his father and wants to prove the father wrong by making a show of himself and how he operates his ship. Turns out that his father has manipulated the ship and crew to Lem’s shock and dismay.

      Themes of family, fathers and sons, and ultimate sacrifice for the good of the group (and certain characters who say heck with the group, look out for yourself) are in constant conflict, which makes the book interesting, thought-provoking and intelligent.

      Lastly we have the military MOPs, (Mobile Operations Police), an elite corps of soldiers, and in the training cycle we meet Mazer Rackham, who you might remember as the guy who beat the Formics in the Ender’s Game trilogy of books. Here he is new and he is trying to get into this elite corps. I won’t spoil it, but let’s say he has less than great luck to make this happen.

      We meet Wit O’Toole, the commander of this unit who acts as a “father” of sorts to his crew but puts up with nothing and expects all to meet a set standard. Similar to Victor’s father and Lem’s sire, Wit takes on the role of forcing standards, demanding obedience and getting it or else.

      Conclusion:

      Great start to hopefully a good series of books on the Formics and how the invasion started and what happens when people who are in the know and want to warn Earth are scoffed at and invalidated while the Formic threat draws closer.

      I would have liked more characterization with some people in the book as I did not feel a lot of love for them: “Imala” the accountant who hates her job, Janda, the girl who dies early in the book (and who also has father issues, it turns out) and her sister, the astronomer who discovered the alien craft.

      The “tech” of the story is realistic and could happen as we continue to struggle with machines and computerized gadgets, as well as the money-grabbing corporations that Card clearly is gunning for.

      Recommended.


    • 4/5
      I find it enjoyable to read the "back story" created as a prequel to the Ender series. A light read - easy to follow - shifting from character to character creating the story line where all are intertwined.
    • 3/5
      This book certainly has issues with what can only be described as excuses to have the plot proceed in the direction the authors wish.A couple examples:1) There was a need to send an 'urgent message' to let Earth know about the aliens, but deemed impossible as so much traffic is marked as 'urgent' that it wouldn't get through. To think that someone in command at the base station can't be contacted and the message relayed through high level channels is laughable.2) To think that the Formic ship would allow approach to within 100 meters and seemingly not know anyone is there is absurd as is the idea that the aliens have the identical type of air hose arrangement with such superior tech shows a lack of imagination.I think the best way to describe the plot is very contrived.
    • 4/5
      *Book source ~ Local libraryEarth’s denizens have been moving off Earth and onto mining ships to mine metals and minerals from asteroids out past Pluto. The mining ship El Cavador has spotted something on their ‘eye’ or telescope that is approaching Earth’s system and fast. It could be a comet or some such thing, but since when does a comet slow as it approaches a system? That’s the worrying thing. However, when a corporate ship captained by Lem Jukes bumps them from their claim on an asteroid El Cavador forgets about the incoming object in their attempt to survive the damage to their ship. The destruction and death that is about to happen rests squarely on the corporate ship. If they hadn’t been greedy and bumped El Cavador then they would have had much more warning about the danger bearing down on them. Meanwhile, back on Earth, Captain Wit O’Toole is recruiting for the multinational MOPs (Mobile Operations Police), taking only the best of the best. Their motto is “Train for any contingency.” After seeing some really good faked alien invasion footage on the internet, Wit decides that an alien invasion falls under ‘any contingency’, so he gets his men training. Let the First Formic War begin.Guest reviewers today:My 16-yr-old daughter AMy 14-yr-old son TMy 13-yr-old son KThis is the first time we’ve listened to an audio with more than one narrator and it’s a hit. Everyone loves the narration of this audiobook, but they especially love the narrator who does Wit’s voice (though he also does a few others).Everyone also agrees that the beginning was slow and boring. They didn’t like all the whining Victor did about Alejandra having to go to another ship because they seemed to be getting a little to close for being cousins. However, once Lem bumps El Cavador the action picks up until the end.Also in agreement is their opinion that Wit is an awesome character with mad skillz and that he was pretty smart and not crazy for training his men to fight an alien invasion. They can’t wait to see the MOPs kick some alien ass in the next book.They believe Victor was pretty brave to take a quickship to Luna base. A & T said they aren’t ever leaving Earth (me either for that matter), but K said he’d go to outer space in a heartbeat. Well, he does love astronomy, so I shouldn’t be surprised. The 7 month trip in the quickship lead to the discussion of bone loss and zero gravity vs bone density and gravity. I hope I explained it right. We were in the car and I had no Google to consult. lolAll-in-all a great sci-fi book. The kids are looking forward to listening to Book 2, Earth Afire.
    • 4/5
      After Card and Aaron Johnston began writing the Ender's Game comic book series, the began to see that what happened prior to Ender's story deserved a story of their own. Hence, Earth Unaware, having to do with the events leading up to the first Formic War. Vico is young, but a master mechanic. He and his family have a small ship, El Cavador, and they mine asteroids out in the Kuiper Belt. They are the first to discover an anomalous ship heading their way. Lem Jukes, heir to Jukes Unlimited, a ruthless corporate mining operation, is also in the area testing a new technology that uses gravity to explode asteroids so the ores inside can be collected instead of traditional mining, which involves a lot of costly and cumbersome digging with drills. Captain WIt O'Toole is on earth, putting together an elite fighting squad culled from the best of the best of the world's armies and designed to respond to "skirmishes" the governments and mainstream military can't handle. One soldier he becomes interested in is Mazer Rackham, whose name Ender's Game readers will recognize. The action skips back and forth between the two vessels and Wit's team on Earth. It's pretty slow going in the beginning, and I lost interest several times. This just didn't really grab me like a lot of Card's other work, such as Ender's Game and Seventh Son. Once the Formics were met and the action heated up, I became more invested, though. The book ended rather abruptly, I thought, so I assume there will be sequels. Sadly, knowing Card, we'll probably have to wait a few years for the next one.
    • 4/5
      Great prequel! Sets up the intro to the Formics nicely. Good characters, good action.
    • 4/5
      Excellent read for pre-teens and teenagers, but also a good read for adults.
    • 2/5
      I've read Ender's Game two or three times, and I love it. Needless to say, the fact that it was getting a prequel series filled me with curiosity and trepidation in about equal measures. While finding out about first contact with the aliens could be interesting, Card could definitely much it all up with his asshole opinions. Turns out, though, that this was mostly neither. Card didn't assault me with a religious message, but this book also just was not that good.

      The first chapters of Earth Unaware are simply interminable. I cannot for the life of me fathom why Card and Johnston thought that it would be an awesome idea to start the book the way they did. Up until the time the aliens make an appearance and the action scenes begin, this book was incredibly boring.

      The entire novel is told in alternating third person limited. Most of the time, the narration follows three main characters: Victor, Lem, and Wit. However, interspersed between these are brief sections from the points of view of other characters. These I found a bit obnoxious, particularly when the novel lost the nice orderly method of starting a new chapter for each new perspective. Also annoying is the fact that Wit's storyline never really syncs up with the others, though I do know why he's included.

      Alright, now that you have the gist of it, you need to hear about the first chapter. We begin with Victor, a teenager and accomplished mechanic.When we meet him, he is in the midst of all of the angst. He and his second cousin, Alejandra, have been accused of inappropriate feelings for one another, much too close for cousins. Because of their improper closeness, Alejandra is being zogged, married off to someone on another mining ship.

      Victor at first whines about the unfairness of this accusation, pissed off that no one understands that they are but friends. Then, he thinks of a time when Alejandra gave him 'a look,' and decides that she did have feelings for him. As he continues to ponder this, he decides that he too loves her, and that she has been sent away for the best, and that he too must leave El Cavador, their family's mining vessel, sometime soon because he cannot get over her surrounded by memories of her. Also, I feel like they must be trying to make some sort of statement, since, otherwise, the same feeling could have been established without their being related.

      That is the entire first chapter. Honestly, I have NO clue whether Card and Johnston want people to root for the two of them or to be disgusted at the thought of second cousins in love or what. Worse still, it became apparent that this incredibly unpleasant plot device had been put in place solely to up the melodrama of the novel. This gives everyone a reason to mope about and be sad and do stupid things in an attempt to find her. All they do with her character is kill her off, without the reader ever meeting her. Later in the book, Victor even realizes that he didn't love her like that after all, a revelation that incensed me even more after having had to listen to so much of his weepy angst over their separation.

      Another thing that bothered me about this opening and the novel in general was the sexism. When charges were brought against the two, Alejandra was sent away from her home to be married off hastily as punishment, and Victor had no change in status, except for extra sympathy from some and anger from Alejandra's father. Really? Apparently, future humans do not believe in the strength of women at all, having regressed from the current climate. With the notable exception of El Cavador's captain and a teenage girl who works the eye (which watches for threats to the ship), the women all stick to traditional female roles, like parenting. None get to help defend the ship. Two strong female characters do not make up for suggesting that in the future most women will be forced back into a powerless role. Also, both of the strong female characters, along with all the men, die because of the emotional decisions of the female captain.

      Lem, too, is annoying; all of his sections consist of his bitching and moaning about his daddy issues. *yawns* Wit was my favorite perspective, but it felt like Card and Johnston continually forgot he was there. Much was made in his introduction of the recruitment of Mazer Rackham, a name I recognize from Ender's Game, though I do not remember the significance, but nothing else is made of him for the rest of the book, which is incredibly sloppy.

      If, however, you feel compelled to read everything set in the Enderverse, then I recommend audio over print, because I definitely think I would have had to DNF the physical book.

      Narration:
      Macmillan Audio procured an almost full cast for this production, using a different voice actor for the different third person perspectives. Most of them do a pretty good job, though I really think they could have chosen better voice actors in several cases and done a better job with accents. The worst casting error in my opinion was Victor. He's supposed to be a teenager, but the voice actor sounds much older. The crew of El Cavador is hispanic, but only some of the voice actors used an accent when reading. In the cast of accents, it should really be all or nothing.

      The best narration was done by the guy who voiced Wit. He has this incredibly deep voice that perfectly matched the gruff soldier. However, he also was a whiz with accents and could change the depth of his voice to match the different characters. It seems as though the producers knew this guy was the best, because he, for some reason, voiced for two characters' perspectives, while everyone else just voiced one. Sure, one of them only had a very short section, but, still, couldn't they hire someone for that?


      Find more of my reviews, and other fun stuff, at A Reader of Fictions.
    • 4/5
      Earth Unaware, by Orson Scott Card and Aaron Johnston, is the first volume of the First Formic War series. It’s a prequel to Card’s Ender’s Game, which won the Nebula Award in 1985 and the Hugo Award in 1986. The current epic tale begins about one-hundred years before Ender’s Game begins. Victor Delgado, a young mechanic, lives and works on El Cavador, an old and rickety asteroid-mining space ship. Most of the asteroid miners and their families were born in space and live their entire lives on ships like El Cavador, where all on board are considered one big family. The El Cavador family is mining valuable materials from an asteroid in the Kuiper Belt beyond Pluto. These asteroid-mining ships are held together and maintained through the ingenuity and determination of their family members with whatever supplies and equipment they can salvage and adapt. Although Victor and his family don’t know it, even deeper in the Kuiper Belt, a technologically superior corporate mining ship commanded by Lem Jukes is testing a new piece of mining equipment that can blast asteroids to dust and then gather the valuable materials from the floating debris. These corporate mining ships are state-of-the-art vessels and the materials they retrieve bring unimaginable profits to their stockholders. Meanwhile, one of the family members on El Cavador sights a strange rapidly moving object far on the edge of deep space. They determine that its movement and course make it highly probable that the object is an alien ship headed toward Earth. They cannot determine whether aliens are on board or whether it is a drone. They also cannot determine the intent of the unexpected visitor. However, the miners realize that they must warn all Earthlings about the potentially dangerous craft. On the corporate ship, Lem Jukes and his crew know nothing of the approaching alien ship. Commander Jukes decides to test their asteroid blaster on the asteroid that the El Cavador miners are working. He surreptitiously approaches El Cavador and “bumps” it away from the asteroid, damaging El Cavador and making it impossible for the family to communicate their fear of the approaching alien vessel to anyone. However, eventually, the El Cavador family realizes they must work together with the crew of the corporate ship to warn humanity of the approaching alien vessel. However, something about the alien ship blocks all long-range communication with Earth or any other human outposts. There is no way to warn Earth of the approaching alien vessel. The desperate people on both ships decide they must join forces to intercept the alien ship and try to destroy it if necessary. That meeting is the frightful beginning of a deadly struggle. Card and Johnston have created a fascinating environment where humans live and work in space. They also provide a ruthless enemy and heroic efforts by the corporate and family miners to try to warn and protect humanity from an approaching catastrophe. This book provides much suspense and violence for the reader. In addition, I found the characters to be richly portrayed, including some who are heroic and others who are ethically challenged. Although the alien invasion premise is nothing new, Card and Johnston add some unique twists that I enjoyed. This is the beginning of the expected First Formic War trilogy, and the authors used it to introduce the readers to the environment, the society, the technology, the villains, and the many characters, including some that I expect will play important roles in future volumes. It’s not easy to do that, while including gripping suspense and action to keep the reader entertained. However, I believe they did an excellent job and I look forward to future volumes in this series.
    • 4/5
      Glad to see the beginning of a prequel series for "Ender's Game" beginning. The book is narrated by Stephen Hoye, Arthur Morey, and Stefan Rudnicki; with Vikas Adam, Emily Janice Card (daughter of the author), Gabriel de Cuir and Roxanne Hernandez. The variety of voices allows clear differentiation between the characters.To summarize, I'd say this volume is for those who are already fans of the "Ender's Game" group of books and who are willing to spend the time to get a fuller picture of how Ender's world came to be. Those who read this without that history may well be left feeling that the book is simply incomplete with too many dangling stories.Enjoyed the book once I adjusted to its somewhat leisurely pace (typical for today's multi-volume, somewhat padded series). Have always wondered how the Formic Wars started and definitely more about the aliens themselves. Mazur Rackham appears briefly, a critical character in "Ender's Game." Am hoping for more details that explain and expand on what long-time Card readers already know about his universe. In the meantime tho, this volume contained more than enough trivia and explication to keep me absorbed and reading. Particularly enjoyed the details and explanations related to deep space mining as I can see our planet eventually having to head out to the asteroids for just that purpose.His co-author has added some depth to Mr. Card's usual fairly straightforward narrative but at the cost of almost cringe-worthy passages with the internal thoughts of one character in particular. Am hoping some of this unnecessary material will be condensed in future volumes.Should you read this book? If you read only a book a month, no. If you're a voracious reader of scifi as so many Orscn Scott Card fans are, pick this up and have fun.
    • 4/5
      This novel begins the back-story to the excellent "Ender's Game." As such, it introduces a number of characters with distinct story lines whose lives will intersect in this trilogy. It is the beginning of the Formic War, as our race makes first contact. The story is tight and fast-paced, and plausible. Deep space-mining is essentially a commercial enterprise, but there is a bit of a gold-rush feel as some clans set off on their own to the Kuiper Belt. One ship with collision-avoidance sensors detects a massive object moving at near light-speed, and decelerating. Now they must race to warn an unsuspecting earth. There is plenty of tech here and reasonable explanations of physical principles indicating how we might adapt ourselves to space travel and the behavior of ships, humans, and aliens.Often such books are bloated with detail, but here the characters are well-enough developed and
    • 3/5
      Plot moves along, interesting Characters. The plot, though interesting it was predictable and I hated the cliff hanger endinging.