Earth Unaware: 1 Author: Orson Scott Card | Language: English | ISBN:
B007IM0IIW | Format: PDF
Earth Unaware: 1 Description
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.
At the publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management software (DRM) applied.
- File Size: 2867 KB
- Print Length: 464 pages
- Publisher: Tor Books (July 17, 2012)
- Sold by: Macmillan
- Language: English
- ASIN: B007IM0IIW
- Text-to-Speech: Enabled
X-Ray:
- Lending: Not Enabled
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,917 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
- #35
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > First Contact - #50
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Alien Invasion - #68
in Books > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Movie Tie-Ins
- #35
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > First Contact - #50
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Alien Invasion - #68
in Books > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Movie Tie-Ins
Earth Unaware really reads like a stripped down action book which has more to do with its comic book roots than with its relation the larger Ender Universe, with its rich and complex layers of worlds and characters, of cultural and philosophical insight.
The book lacks the depth of the rest of the Ender's series and the parallel Shadow series. The world of the asteroid mining culture is fairly well developed, but could benefit by more depth. The culture of earth hardly makes an appearance at all. The story falls short of creating the backstory world the gave rise to Ender and his life. There is actually one character in this story who appears in the Ender's Game series, but he is given a very peripheral treatment. One key element of technology is also introduced. The formics are here, of course, but we learn nothing new.
The parenthetical subtitle, "First Formic War," creates an expectation that is never fulfilled. That's all I'll say about the ending. This was a squandered opportunity to provide us with a deep, rich view of the world where Andrew Wiggin grew up. Where are the insightful commentaries on human nature and society? None of the characters have the complexity of the Wiggins Family or Bean.
The overall structure of the book is difficult to follow. Each of the first three chapters is about a totally different set of characters in different worlds, and the book bounces among them with little natural transition. Of course this is a technique that Card uses in his longer books, but here in this shorter story I found it jarring. Two threads are connected about 2/3 of the way through the book, and the other thread finally comes into juxtaposition , but never fully connects.
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