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Earth Unaware (The First Formic War) Mass Market Paperback – April 30, 2013

by Orson Scott Card (Author), Aaron Johnston (Author)
4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 2,245 ratings
Editors' pick Best Science Fiction & Fantasy
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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.

THE ENDER UNIVERSE

Ender series
Ender’s Game / Speaker for the Dead / Xenocide / Children of the Mind / Ender in Exile / Children of the Fleet

Ender’s Shadow series
Ender’s Shadow / Shadow of the Hegemon / Shadow Puppets / Shadow of the Giant / Shadows in Flight

The First Formic War (with Aaron Johnston)
Earth Unaware / Earth Afire / Earth Awakens

The Second Formic War (with Aaron Johnston)
The Swarm / The Hive

Ender novellas
A War of Gifts / First Meetings

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  1. Book 1 of 3
    The First Formic War
  2. Print length
    464 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Publisher
    Tor Science Fiction
  5. Publication date
    April 30, 2013
  6. Dimensions
    4.12 x 1.26 x 6.78 inches
  7. ISBN-10
    076536736X
  8. ISBN-13
    978-0765367365
  9. See all details
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Amazon First Reads | Editors' picks at exclusive prices

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

A Reading Guide for Ender's Game.

THE ENDER UNIVERSE

Ender's Series: Ender Wiggin: The finest general the world could hope to find or breed.

The following Ender's Series titles are listed in order: Ender's Game, Ender In Exile, Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, Children of the Mind.

Ender's Shadow Series: Parallel storylines to Ender’s Game from Bean: Ender’s right hand, his strategist, and his friend.

The following Ender's Shadow Series titles are listed in order: Ender's Shadow, Shadow of the Hegemon, Shadow Puppets, Shadow of the Giant, Shadows in Flight.

The First Formic War Series: One hundred years before Ender's Game, the aliens arrived on Earth with fire and death. These are the stories of the First Formic War.

Earth Unaware, Earth Afire.

Ender Novellas

A War of Gifts, First Meetings.

The Authorized Ender Companion: A complete and in-depth encyclopedia of all the persons, places, things, and events in Orson Scott Card’s Ender Universe.

Review

“Orson Scott Card made a strong case for being the best writer science fiction has to offer.” ―The Houston Post on Xenocide

“Card has raised to a fine art the creation of suspense by means of ethical dilemmas.” ―Chicago Sun-Times on Xenocide

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Tor Science Fiction; First Edition (April 30, 2013)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Mass Market Paperback ‏ : ‎ 464 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 076536736X
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0765367365
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 7.2 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 4.12 x 1.26 x 6.78 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 2,245 ratings

About the authors

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  1. Orson Scott Card

    Orson Scott Card

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    Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

    Orson Scott Card is the author of the novels Ender's Game, Ender's Shadow, and Speaker for the Dead, which are widely read by adults and younger readers, and are increasingly used in schools. His most recent series, the young adult Pathfinder series (Pathfinder, Ruins, Visitors) and the fantasy Mithermages series (Lost Gate, Gate Thief, Gatefather) are taking readers in new directions.

    Besides these and other science fiction novels, Card writes contemporary fantasy (Magic Street, Enchantment, Lost Boys), biblical novels (Stone Tables, Rachel and Leah), the American frontier fantasy series The Tales of Alvin Maker (beginning with Seventh Son), poetry (An Open Book), and many plays and scripts, including his "freshened" Shakespeare scripts for Romeo & Juliet, The Taming of the Shrew, and The Merchant of Venice.

    Card was born in Washington 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 teaches occasional classes and workshops and directs plays. He frequently teaches writing and literature courses at Southern Virginia University.

    Card currently lives in Greensboro, North Carolina, with his wife, Kristine Allen Card, where his primary activities are writing a review column for the local Rhinoceros Times and feeding birds, squirrels, chipmunks, possums, and raccoons on the patio.

    See more on the author's page
  2. Aaron Johnston

    Aaron Johnston

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    Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

    Aaron Johnston is a New York Times bestselling author who often collaborates with science-fiction legend Orson Scott Card. They are the creators and executive producers of the science-fiction television series EXTINCT from BYU TV. Aaron was also an associate producer on the film Ender’s Game. His comic book credits include Ender in Exile, Speaker for the Dead, Formic Wars, League War, and Mazer in Prison, all for Marvel. His screenplay adaptations include Alvin Maker, Sarah: Woman of Genesis, The Multiple Man, Feed the Baby of Love, and others. He and his wife are the parents of four children.

    See more on the author's page
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Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
4.4 out of 5
2,245 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

FloridaMark
5.0 out of 5 stars Great series, interesting plot twists
Reviewed in the United States on September 10, 2015
Verified Purchase
Interesting question that I hadn't though about, "How is the story narrated". I think it was mostly second person, "Victor did this...", "Lem did that..." didn't really pay attention, sorry.

Yes, really there was a lot of violence in the book I guess, but given the theme (Earth gets toasted by aliens) what would you expect. It was definitely not gratuitous violence and was handled well.

Great series, interesting plot twists, a few huge technical flaws that are pretty glaring (if you are a physicist or a rocket scientist and are obsessive compulsive about technical details you may want to skip it, drifting up to the alien ship in a cloud of debris while in orbit? Not sure I buy that but it makes for a good story), A lot of the routine technical stuff is detailed in creative ways that I found interesting and probably somewhat prophetic (which I like about SciFi). I really, really liked the character development (again not perfect but creatively done and very interesting). The political, cultural and human commentary I found extremely interesting (which I like about SciFi). Card is really interesting about the human factor and human interaction.

Very interesting story. Good series. I would definitely recommend reading these in order (I didn't and so read the third book again which I thought was the best of the three books).

I started reading these because one of my kids was reading Ender's Game and recommended it to me. He told me that I would really like it and I did. The book (Ender's Game) was much better than the movie, they had to leave way too much out of the movie robbing it of the character development which was unfortunate.

Yes, some of the stuff in his book is a stretch but so what, its fiction remember? The stories and character development and situations are really interesting. One of my favorite authors.

Mark
2 people found this helpful
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Ryan Knebel
4.0 out of 5 stars Good Story, Alright Execution
Reviewed in the United States on August 27, 2013
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This novel, of course, is a prequel to "Ender's Game". So my review, like most, is going to compare the novel to "Ender's Game". I'm going to assume you've read "Ender's Game". If you haven't, what are you doing here? Go read that book! It will be one of the better you've read. As for the rest of you, I'm sure you understand that these are all new characters... except for the one. And When I read his name, I almost cheered. Mazer Rackham. He is why I bought this book. I wanted to read about Mazer Rackhacking kicking some Bugger ass, but I'm not going to lie; he is mentioned little in this installment. This is meant to be a trilogy, and his shining moment has not arrived.

Instead, this novel builds up other characters. And this is where my complaint lies. Orson Scott Card (and Aaron Johnston, who obviously buys into the same) has decided that this series is about children. It is about gifted children who make grown up decisions and are smarter than any person you've ever met. I understand that was what "Ender's Game" and the subsequent books were about, but they were based on the IF finding gifted children from across the globe to play war games. This book just happens to find other gifted children, who just happen to find themselves in the way of history. I'm sorry, but it just gets to be a little much. I'm all for gifted kids, but it is a reoccurring theme in this whole series that just gets a bit old.

And it is not just this extension of the series, either. "Speaker for the Dead" just happened to find over-intelligent children (the cousins who had a thing for each other), as did some of the children in Bean's adventures, and "Ender in Exile". All I'm saying is that it makes for a good story occasionally, but building an entire (very large) series of books over one theme (that turns out to be a coincidence in many of the stories) just starts to wear on a reader at some point. I have read the great majority of the stories in this series, and I have to say, it's wearing down.

That being said, I think Aaron Johnston has blown a little life into the series. The nitpick of the last few paragraphs aside, I think this was actually a good read. It builds up the backstory and leaves you wishing for the next book. I think my main concern with this novel, was that it was going to cater way too much to the "Ender's Game" crowd, but it actually has its own story. Someone could pick up this book, having no knowledge of "Ender's Game" and still enjoy it. I think that give it a few points.
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Dustin L. Dopps
5.0 out of 5 stars FANTASTIC hard sci-fi from one of the best authors of our time
Reviewed in the United States on July 25, 2012
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"Ender's Game" changed my life. That sounds like hyperbole, but it's true. Over the years I've read every book (and poem and essay and...) that Card has written and almost every bit of it is fantastic. There have been a couple of books that I didn't totally enjoy, but mainly because of the subject matter, not the writing.

When I heard about "Earth Unaware" I was nervous. The comic book version of The Formic Wars was decent, but slightly underwhelming. Due to the medium, it lacked the depth (mainly in the characters) that I expect from an OSC book.

But having just finished "Earth Unaware," I am glad to say that it is completely awesome. Fantastic. Engrossing. And classic Orson Scott Card.

The characters feel real. The technology is plausible. The stakes are high. And the drama is genuine. The links to "Ender's Game" are there, of course, but Ender's story is so far in the future that it doesn't feel as if we are rehashing old material. Instead, we are experiencing the same thing the space miners are when they realize they have found aliens: wonder, awe, fear, curiosity, and dread.

This is my favorite OSC book in a long time, which says something. If you are an Ender fan, I can't recommend it enough.

Two last notes: I don't know how much Aaron Johnston worked on this novel, but kudos to him too. Also, the book *does* end on a cliffhanger as other reviews have pointed out. If you can't handle that, you might want to wait for the next one before reading this one.
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Top reviews from other countries

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Kindle-Kunde
5.0 out of 5 stars An outstanding novel which has me craving more.
Reviewed in Germany on August 6, 2019
Verified Purchase
Mr. Card and Mr. Johnston have created a work that I found myself unable to put down. I‘m glad I didn‘t get this book when it was first written because I could not stand to wait for the sequel to come out. Now I can continue with the sequel right away and hope the next book is waiting when I‘m finished.
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Greg McKone
5.0 out of 5 stars Back story for enders game
Reviewed in Canada on October 16, 2016
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Enjoyable. Believable universe.sorry it was so short. The writing is consistent with the sequels, where strategic thinking and politics play as important a role as heroism.
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David Agullo
5.0 out of 5 stars Alucinante
Reviewed in Spain on April 7, 2015
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muy buena la historia los personajes y todo en general, casi tanto como el juego de ender. Voy a por el siguiente
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Chris
5.0 out of 5 stars Super livre de SF
Reviewed in France on September 13, 2013
Verified Purchase
L'univers de Ender est toujours aussi sympa à lire.
Orson Scott Card est vraiment un très bon écrivain et a très bien compléter cet univers avec une préquelle très intéressante.
J 'attends avec impatience la sortie du film Ender's game en fin d'année...
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AJ
5.0 out of 5 stars Earth Unaware
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 28, 2013
Verified Purchase
I have read all of Orson Scott Card and I am currently working my way through the graphic novels. At this point I wouldn't be surprised if I were to get bored with the Ender thread, but apparently not. This novel held me spellbound as usual. In particular, because this is a back story, I can enjoy the foreknowledge of what will happen next, and Card's skill as a writer meant that this knowledge enhanced my reading. I would highly recommend this to someone who is familiar with the series. If not, then the book will be a good read, but I would suggest going back to Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card and read through the novels from there. You will most certainly not be disappointed.
3 people found this helpful
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