Book Review | Earth Unaware by Orson Scott Card and Aaron Johnston (The First Formic War)

Throughout the Ender series, various characters make references to the two previous alien invasions many decades earlier.  While some of the events of the second war become a key plot point in Ender’s Game, the first war is only touched on very lightly.  I always wanted to know more about the back story, especially the mysterious First Formic War.

By the time I first heard that Orson Scott Card was writing a trilogy of books about the war, Earth Unaware was a few days from being released.  I got on the waiting list at the library right away, and picked it up a few weeks later.  At first I had some reservations, as I hadn’t enjoyed Card’s recent work as much as his older books.  Even more concerning, Earth Unaware had a co-author, Aaron Johnston, and I had no idea what to make of that.  I got home from the library, sat down with the book, and couldn’t stop till I had finished.

For a thrilling story of an alien invasion, Earth Unaware starts off rather slowly.  Most of the book focuses on asteroid miners in the Kuiper Belt.  And for a good chunk of the book, most of what we read about is mining.  And yet because it’s well-written, I actually found it all very interesting.  Whether it’s the interpersonal drama or the struggles to get the best yield from mining, I enjoyed this first part of the book a lot.  I honestly would have been perfectly happy to have a full book just about the mining.

Of course, eventually the aliens show up to get the plot moving.  Even then, the action is often very minimal.  Most of the conflict at that point centers on the efforts to get word out to the rest of the human race.  It’s not full of the exciting space battles that I had imagined, but as it turned out I enjoyed the quiet mystery billions of miles from Earth far more than the action-packed story I’d expected to be reading.  One of my favorite pieces of the plot is a series of vignettes about an elite peace-keeping military force that simply doesn’t seem to have any bearing on the rest of the story.  Obviously at some point they should do something amazing and crucial to the plot, so it kept me wondering what their story had to do with the events at the edge of the Solar System.

Speaking of the edge of the Solar System, the setting is part of what I enjoyed so much about Earth Unaware.  Most of the story takes place on a mining vessel owned by a family of miners who have been extracting minerals from asteroids for decades.  Many of the family members were born on the vessel and have spent their entire lives there.  Reading about the culture of these and other mining families and how they spend their time on these tiny ships, you get a strong sense of claustrophobia that works well with the plot of the story.  And I particularly enjoyed the near-future look at where the human race might be in the next century.  The world-building in this story is excellent.

I also enjoyed the characters a lot.  The various cousins and second cousins in the main family each have their own interesting quirks, and I found them to be a very believable group.  Their efforts to look out for each other and keep their ramshackle ship running were relatable and even heartwarming at times.  On another mining vessel, run by the biggest corporation in the world, we have a very different group including various scientists and security personnel led by the son of the CEO.  Most of the main characters are fairly deep, with complex motivations and interpersonal struggles.  At times one or two characters feel a bit cartoonish, but that’s fairly rare.

At first glance, I felt like Earth Unaware lacked the major themes and big ideas that I’ve enjoyed so much in the other books in this series, but on further reflection I began noticing that it ties into many long-running themes, often in an understated way.  For instance, Ender’s Game is built around the idea that children can be remarkably capable in situations normally reserved for adults, and almost every book in the series features at least a few such child geniuses among the central cast.  Earth Unaware is no exception, but I didn’t notice as quickly because the idea isn’t explicitly discussed.  Unlike Ender’s Game and Ender’s Shadow, each of which feature numerous passages expounding on the morality and efficacy of having children take on adult responsibilities, Earth Unaware simply introduces children taking on such responsibilities.  Honestly, it empowers these characters that we can feel like they are taking on advanced roles because of their obvious competency rather than because the adults in charge are giving them responsibility based off of controversial psychological research.

Another interesting theme that I first noticed in Earth Unaware, but have since picked up on throughout the series, is the idea of individuals or small groups performing at high levels of efficacy despite isolation.  Both the family of miners and the peace-keeping force on Earth demonstrate this very well.  Again, this theme isn’t openly discussed in the same manner as in the other books, but it’s still there.  While I do miss the deep philosophical discussions, their absence in no way reflects a lack of thematic planning.

The biggest departure from the rest of the series is in the continuity.  Aspects of the First Formic War as explained in Ender’s Game simply do not match at all with Earth Unaware, but I’m surprisingly ok with it.  I like that the authors didn’t limit themselves by sticking rigidly to the small descriptions written decades ago when Orson Scott Card likely did not anticipate ever-expanding the history.  As originally recounted, the events would have made for a less suspenseful and intriguing story.  Here, the continuity issues stem from an effort to improve the story, rather than the sloppiness with numbers or chronology that I criticize in other books.  Along the same lines, I appreciate the thoughtfulness with which the authors introduced technology that would lead to what we see in later books.  Clearly they made a strong effort to try to keep to the continuity and only branch from it when it made the story more compelling.

Overall, it’s a great read.  If you’re expecting a prequel in the same overtly philosophical vein as Ender’s Game or Speaker for the Dead, then you’ll be disappointed.  But if you want a solid science fiction book with a bit of mystery and a lot of suspense, Earth Unaware fits the bill rather well.  While it departs from the story we’ve seen thus far, both in style and in continuity, I don’t feel like it detracts from the series in any way.

After finishing the book in one day during my first reading, I was desperate to know what happened next and couldn’t wait for the next two books to come out.  Luckily for me, the trilogy is based off of some comics that Orson Scott Card and Aaron Johnston collaborated on some years previous, so I ordered those online and read them right away.  And now, all three books are out so you don’t have to wait at all.

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Title: Earth Unaware
Series: The First Formic War
Author: Orson Scott Card and Aaron Jonston
Genre: Science Fiction
Publisher: Tor Science Fiction
Release Date: April 30, 2013
Pages: 464

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