Earth Unaware

By Orson Scott Card & Aaron Johnston

Earth Unaware - Orson Scott Card & Aaron Johnston
  • Release Date: 2012-07-17
  • Genre: Sci-Fi & Fantasy
Score: 4.5
4.5
From 663 Ratings

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.

At the publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management software (DRM) applied.

Reviews

  • Entertaining

    5
    By WimmerCP
    Great story, moves along very well.
  • A great read...

    5
    By 8bitme!
    This was a great precursor to the whole thing... Ready for he next in the series..
  • Don't bother until the third book comes out

    3
    By Croakus
    This is a great book, but don't bother reading it until the third one comes out; then plan to read the whole trilogy. The endings of these first two books are huge cliffhangers which will leave you as frustrated and annoyed as I am right now.
  • Earth Unaware

    4
    By Jank50
    For fans of Ender, this is an entertaining prequel that provides a description of how the Formic Wars began. Full of the usual Scott Card logical musings by protagonists - if only our real leaders were that thoughtful. Feasible tech and plausible space flight complexities. A worthwhile read!
  • Marvelous development

    5
    By George P Burdell GMU
    The authors took a few hints and fragments of the solar system before Ender's Game, and turned them into a fabulous story. Or half a story ... we still have a lot of remaining questions that I assume will be answered in the next book. Which I've already bought and am anxious to read.
  • Great story - dumped again

    4
    By Richard Blackwell
    I love OSC but I'm getting tired of great books ending before they are done. This story needed a hundred more pages and a mighty battle before we are just dumped. Crap !
  • A great book for a start

    5
    By Pinkpelt (Sunpelt)
    I think instead of the traditional style of writing of OSC, he has developed his books into more of a series, but I enjoy this way as much as the others. Though I agree the cliff-hanger was slightly disappointing, what is better than a cliff-hanger to keep us waiting? Now that the sequel has also come out, I say this was a great addition to the line of Ender's world.
  • Earth Unaware

    5
    By IC-Eng
    I have been reading sci_fi fifty five of my seventy years. I am a EE with a grounding in stellar mechanics. Scott is thurough In developing the character and places In all his great tales, and introduces a story direction Which drives a turn pager plot that is harder to lay down As one reads deeper into this book. This book must be followed by a sequel or three which I would purchase as soon as it was available. Please keep them coming Scott :-) ICeng
  • Hungry for the next one

    5
    By Meandwhatarmy
    Finished this book brushing my teeth. Couldn't put it down. Really looking forward to the next two!
  • Solid Read

    5
    By cashfreak
    Solid book
  • Wow! Next book please?

    5
    By EVIL VW
    Can't wait for the other books. I sure hope they come out with more in the series. There is a HUGE gap between this and Ender's Game. Hurry up and write them so I can buy them!
  • Fantastic BUT ...

    4
    By DangerMous3000
    Hurry up and release the next novel in this story!!! Geez, what an abrupt ending. I get the idea of a cliffhanger but this is some next level type of pause. Please don't keep your devoted Ender fans foaming at the mouth for too long ...
  • Nice addition

    4
    By jaymst
    First let me say I am a huge fan of the Ender universe and though I liked some books more than others, they created an alternate and believable reality that I cannot get enough of. That being said, I gave this book a four star rating because I didn't think a three was appropriate but then again neither is a four but I would rather side with a better rating than an average rating. There are no spoilers here, I'll speak in general terms. In this book they created a believable future with rich detail, vibrant and interesting characters, and enough of a back story on each to elicite the needed concern when necessary. My two problems with it is it is a little verbose to the point that I found myself skipping whole paragraphs, that I deemed unnecessary, to get to the next chapter and the end, though good I'm hoping it's only a cliffhanger to sell the next book, if not ... I did really enjoy it despite those minor flaws, just wish it had a little less verbiage on the characters' backstory and more of ending that didn't leave me wanting so badly for the next fix that I feel the disparate need to go to some dark, dingy, seedy part of town to get the next hit.
  • Very Good

    5
    By 84738476:847628874
    If they don't finish the story then I have been wronged... Finishes literally mid sentence.
  • Great, now where's the rest of the story? SPOILERS

    3
    By J Fillmore
    I bought and listened to the audio version of this book over a road trip last week. The story is generally well written, with great characters set in a universe ender fans already know and love. The readers in the audio version were excellent as well. The reason this book gets 3 stars instead of 5 is that it's only half a story. Unlike every other book in the enderverse, none of the stories major events are brought to any kind of conclusion by the last page. We are completely left hanging on every major issue. A lot of time is devoted to a mildly interesting and slow moving back story for quite a few characters who end up dead halfway through the book. I could have read a lot less about teenage angst, and a lot more about mazer, Luna, earth and it's politics, the development of the glazer, the perspective of the Formic queens etc. If there are eventually 3 books in this prequel series then I'll assume they will be meant to be read together, rather then as individual stories in their own right. In the meantime, this is a rewarding yet frustrating read (listen).
  • Earth unaware

    5
    By Rkdanger
    I very much enjoyed this book. Mr. Scott makes it all very believable. I wish had continued on from it's ending. Excellent read.
  • Not a traditional OSC novel, but thoroughly entertaining

    4
    By Bwhipp88
    I really enjoyed this book. More fast paced than others in the Enders series, not quite as thought provoking or profound, but a great ride and very enjoyable. I can't wait for the next installment!
  • Loved It!

    5
    By KeDIX1414
    Some people complain about how this is only "half of a book" and don't like the ending. Just so that anyone who is confused knows, this book is part of a trilogy on the Formic Wars. There will be more to come. I just finished the book a couple hours ago, and I cannot wait for the next one to come out. If you enjoyed the books about Ender and the books about Bean, you will love this new Formic War series. The characters and plot were very well developed, but I do not want to give any details of the plot away in the review. Just trust me. You should read this book. Even if you haven't read any of Card's books, still read this one. You will be able to completely understand it since it is a prequel. However, there is a character from Ender's game in this book that you won't be able to fully appreciate unless you read Ender's Game.
  • Amazing

    5
    By Zx86
    I just couldn't stop reading. A must read if your a fan of ender