Earth Awakens Sets A Stage For Ender

Set nearly a century before Ender's Game, Earth Awakens is the third installment of the First Formic War trilogy by Orson Scott Card and Aaron Johnston. The series tells the story of first contact between humans and aliens, beginning in the furthest reaches of the solar system and concluding in near orbit around Earth and on mainland China.

As much as the story is a science fiction prequel, it is also about the transformation of four protagonists, some of whom play prominent roles in future shorts, stories, and novels. They include the Venezuelan free miner and mechanic Victor Delgado, corporate raider and heir apparent Lem Jukes, the insightful 8-year-old Chinese prodigy Bingwen, and the half-Maori New Zealander military operative Mazer Rackham.

At the same time, the co-authors still leave room to develop supporting characters. Imala Bootstamp expresses her independence despite her obvious affection for Victor. Rena Delgado is slowly accepting her role as the matriarch of the Delgado family. Ukko Jukes walks a thin line between being the stereotypical near-omnipotent puppet master and a misunderstood interstellar visionary and entrepreneur. (Most people assume the stereotype rings true, but Lem is not a reliable narrator.)

The conclusion wraps up the trilogy tightly. The end. 

As the conclusion to the trilogy, there are far fewer surprises than in the first two books. And in an attempt to maintain continuity between the novels and graphic novels, Johnston takes fewer liberties with the story. There isn't enough room to do it, creating a relatively brisk place to align the events and characters with the greater Ender universe.

While there is nothing wrong with that, some readers will find the third book to be overly predictable despite the well-written, realistic descriptions of war and numerous philosophical inquiries into the moral and ethical execution of it. Still, Johnston and Card offset the rigid timeline with characters worth caring about.

Bingwen easily becomes a favorite as an innocent and super-intelligent child that is the hallmark of those who will eventually be recruited into the future Battle School. Lem Jukes undergoes a partial transformation from a ruthless industrialist struggling in the shadow of his father desire for his own successes into a man who is willing to place his home planet over profits. Victor and Mazer transpose each other's transformation with Victor becoming cooler and Mazer warmer as the result of their respective experiences. People learn different lessons from the same experiences.

Most of the action plays out against a surprisingly short timeline. As Lem Jukes works to ensure Victor and Imala may find a weakness in Formic defences, Bingwen and Mazer bide time in war torn China, where the bulk of the terraforming and mass extinction is taking place. It isn't until after a rogue mission to the Formic ship that the story lines find their natural convergence.

Orson Scott Card and Aaron Johnston wrap up Act I.

While Earth Awakens is weakest installment, it is also the tightest in that it required the most discipline to complete. The story evolves and concludes the way it does because there is only one way it may conclude. That in and of itself most fans will find satisfying, especially those really wanted the trilogy to remain intact without the year-long wait between publishing dates.

Where Johnston and Card excel in the telling of this installment is in solidifying our empathy for Bingwen, appreciating the dual complexity of Lem Jukes, and placing Mazer on the pedestal he will eventually ascend to in his career. In some cases, the foreshadow into the Second Formic War could not be made more clear.

Earth Awakens By Orson Scott Card Orbits 8.1 On The Liquid Hip Richter Scale. 

Earth Awakens is a necessary installment in the greater universe of Ender's Game. As such, it accomplishes what it set out to do but without the tension brought to bear in Earth Afire or the mystery of man's first steps toward the stars in Earth Unaware. The novel make a bigger impact as part of the trilogy than it does as a standalone. It's the perfect launch point for what's next.

While this trilogy is complete, Johnston confirmed last year that he will be working on a second trilogy focused on the Second Formic War. The completed manuscript is due this year, placing it on track for an early 2015 release date. Johnston and Card are likely to enjoy more freedom in writing it.

Earth Awakens (The First Formic War) by Orson Scott Card and Aaron Johnston is available on Amazon. Earth Awakens is also available for download for iBooks or as an audiobook via iTunes. The narrators of the audiobook include the same cast as the first two novels, making for a lively and entertaining production. You can also order Earth Awakens by Orson Scott Card and Aaron Johnston from Barnes & Noble.

Earth Afire Lights Up The Prequel

Earth Afire by Orson Scott Card and Aaron Johnston opens in China where an 8-year-old named Bingwen spends as much time as possible at his local library. It is the only place where he and other children who live in the river valley rice villages can self-administer their education.

A formal education is nearly out of the question. Space is limited at far-off schools and only a few students from the rice villages are admitted about once every six months. To even be eligible for the lottery selection, the child has to score in the top 95 percentile after their eighth birthday.

With such competitive pressure to be selected, it isn't very surprising that the librarian would rebuff a video rumored to be the first glimpse of alien life. She considered it a waste of time, especially when when a line of children were waiting to study. Bingwen saw it differently. He believed it was real.

Earth Afire chronicles The First Formic War.

In Earth Unaware, the first installment in a prequel trilogy set 100 years before Ender's Game, Card and Johnston dispense with first contact by painting a vivid depiction of life aboard the El Cavador, a deep space mining ship in the Kuiper Belt. The second book, Earth Afire, pauses just long enough to introduce Bingwen, a brilliant young boy who becomes bound to another heroic character.

The video he sees also sets up where Card and Johnston pick up the Earth Unaware cliffhanger. Victor Delgado had been sent ahead of the El Cavador to warn earth about the impending invasion.

Although his chances were improbable, he endured several months of space travel crammed in a mining transport that wasn't designed to carry people. And yet, his mission might have been for naught. Much like the librarian peering over a young child's shoulder in China, Luna and the rest of Earth think his footage is faked — a spook vid produced to entertain and alarm children like Bingwen.

Much like Earth Unaware, Earth Afire slowly draws together various characters and tightens the various character threads from several threads as new threads are introduced. The mechanism makes the entire story flow with usual ease, right up until the end with an equally abrupt break. It's patently clear that the trilogy really isn't a trilogy but rather one book broken up into installments.

Orson Scott Card And Aaron Johnston solidify their collaboration with a cohesive second act.

One of several notable shifts is the decision to mostly trade up the perspective of MOPS leader Wit O'Toole for the half-Maori New Zealander Mazer Rackham. Rackham (portrayed by Ben Kingsley in the upcoming movie) is an unconventional hero who has made varied appearances throughout Card's books and stories. In the science fiction classic Ender's Game, he is Ender Wiggins' mentor. O'Toole tested him as a potential MOPS recruit in Earth Unaware, which was the most disjointed story thread.

In Earth Afire, Card and Johnston right the thread by making Rackham active near the action in China. This also gives him a unique opportunity to be within proximity of Bingwen and foreshadows what will become his natural affinity for children. Meanwhile, above the planet, Victor Delgado is forced to create an uneasy alliance with Lem Jukes, prodigal son and heir of the largest mining corporation in history.

As these two primary story threads contract, Earth Afire comes to life with Card and Johnston working as a singular voice. It is exceptionally clear that they found the right pace that will carry the story forward while moving into the political and military arenas where Card in particular has always felt at home.

Earth Afire By Orson Scott Card Lights Up 8.7 On The Liquid Hip Richter Scale.

Anyone who found some fault with Earth Unaware will likely feel much more satisfied with Earth Afire despite the same sudden break at the end. Many readers have mentioned that they didn't expect to like the second book as much as they did. And it leads me to believe that once all the pieces are in place, the  entire prequel trilogy will become regarded as an important part of the entire saga.

Earth Afire, The First Formic War is available from Amazon. You can also find the novel on Barnes & Noble. The book can be downloaded for iBooks or as an audiobook from iTunes. The audiobook is read by eight different voices, which might even be an advantage over print in helping to further define various points of view. You can find our initial review of Earth Unaware here.

Earth Unaware Mines First Contact

There aren't any top science fiction lists that neglect Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. The high stakes game of interstellar conflict is a classic. The life and story of Ender Wiggin unforgettable.

Given that Ender's Game is also the most highly anticipated science fiction movie (November 2013), the timing for a new trilogy in the Ender's Game universe has never been better.

Earth Unaware is the story of first contact with the Formic. 

Set one hundred years before Ender's Game, humans still believe they are alone in the universe. Humanity is just starting to creep out to the furthest reaches of the solar system, hoping to mine asteroids in the remote and isolated Kuiper Belt.

There, in the cold vacuum of space, 30UA from the Sun (30 times the average distance of the Earth to the sun), a few families of free miners eke out an existence. Most of them have traveled this far out to avoid the petty squabbles and territorial disputes that frequently occur in the asteroid belt among themselves, space pirates and corporations.

Life on board the free miner ship El Cavador.

The work, however, is hard. Ships frequently travel for months before happening upon an asteroid with valuable ore. When they do, they tether their ship to it and send out suited miners to guide laser drills and collect the material.The worst environmental risk, besides the obvious loss of a life line (air and power) and a life spent in mostly zero gravity, is hitting a mining ice pocket that pitches ships off their axes. The worst societal risk is falling in love aboard a deep space miner populated by relatives.

It's a painful lesson for a young Venezuelan mechanic named Victor Delgado. In a preemptive move by ship seniors, his lifelong friend and second cousin Alejandra is to be quietly exiled to an Italian family of free miners. The decision creates an immediate and personal conflict, seemingly the most important in Victor's life until other threats materialize all around them.

Somewhere in deep space, traveling at near light speed toward their position, is the first alien ship ever detected by humans. Much closer to their position is the Jukes corporate ship under the command of Lem Jukes, who sees the asteroid claimed by the mining family to be the ideal target to test a new technology.

The handling of multiple story lines and the trilogy will baffle some.

Earth Unaware, The First Formic War, was released with several elephants between its pages. And because of this, it's best to dispense with them quickly because they've become sore spots for some.

It seems likely that the entire trilogy was written as one big book, making the decision on where to break the installments painfully suspect. It means Earth Unaware ends on an anticlimactic cliffhanger.

The cliffhanger feels especially disjointed because of the third storyline. It follows Wit O'Toole, the unsuspecting leader of an earthbound international peacekeeping force called Mobile Operations Police (MOPs) and made up of the world's military elite (and apparent predecessor to Wiggin's training camp).

It never also catches up to the primary story. Just one additional chapter could have made all the difference, even if O'Toole is properly poised to dominate book two.

Equally noticeable is that compared to the depth and prowess of Ender's Game, the novel feels considerably lighter than what Card fans are used to. However, the comic book thinness does evolve rather quickly. It reads like an opening flower, starting with the confined details of one mining ship and blossoming to include more and more of the universe as it existed 100 years before Wiggin.

The whole will be better than any one part of the trilogy.

The introduction will eventually pay off, especially for anyone being introduced to Ender's universe for the first time. It provides an opportunity to appreciate life before the constant threat of war and invasion.

It also shows why Card has always been astute voice in science fiction. His prose, even with the assist of author Aaron Johnston, is plausible enough to make science fiction feel physical and human enough to introduce characters who could exist in the present as they do in some far off future.

Specifically, Card and Johnston provide a glimpse of humanity at the predawn of interstellar travel, creating mining folklore not all that dissimilar to the American West. They also pen some vividly memorable characters. Delgado is a gifted but naive protagonist forced to grow up too early and Jukes is an exceptional transformative antagonist who is forced to grow up too late. 

Earth Unaware by Orson Scott Card Mines 8.2 On The Liquid Hip Richter Scale.

Although Earth Unaware isn't Orson Scott Card's finest work, it still outshines many other authors who are extremely talented except by comparison. As long as anyone picking up the book is prepared for a disappointing place to break the trilogy, Card's disposition toward scenic writing is well worth it.

Earth Unaware, The First Formic War is available from Barnes & Noble. You can also find the novel on Amazon. The book can be downloaded from iBooks or as an audiobook from iTunes. The audiobook is read by seven different voices, which might even be an advantage over print in helping to further define various points of view.