Name: Earth Unaware
ISBN: 9780765367365

Aaron Johnston

Orson Scott Card

Struggling with outdated systems and claim-jumping corporate interests in the deeps of the Kuiper Belt, a family on board the mining ship El Cavador spots an object moving toward the solar system that triggers a catastrophic war.

Earth Unaware

Kirsten Simkiss

My true rating for this book would be 3.5 stars, but for the purposes of Goodreads I have rounded down to make the overall average rating inch closer to my ideal rating for it. I also just didn't feel like it was good enough to qualify for that fourth star.

There are things I really liked about this book and things that really made me roll my eyes. So, first, let me start with what I liked.

Seeing the culture of the world prior to the war is something we really didn't get much of a feel for in the Ender's Game book and following stories. Technology had improved so rapidly because of the Formic Wars that only brief references were made that I can recall. This is a real example of how the world was when the Formics attacked. The mining ship culture was really interesting and I found myself appreciating the aspect - to an extent, I'll explain a little more when I go into what I didn't care for. I have always admired the female characters being well rounded, strong characters. Concepción was an awesome character and I enjoyed her leadership qualities, but I also enjoyed Dr. Benyawe and Edimar and Rena. Very few authors treat their female characters as true equals in their stories and this one does a great job. Also of note, the amount of diversity of race that gets stuffed into these books is fantastic.

Now, to what I didn't care for.

Some other reviews say that the science, and specifically the physics, is very off. But, as an art major, I didn't have much knowledge of the physics errors and was able to get by that without it bothering me. No, my biggest gripe is that all the characters read with roughly the same flat emotional range. If names weren't attached to their characters, you could easily interchange most of them without any difficulty. They were flat and while the story line was interesting enough to carry them, none of them were particularly impressive as characters on their own aside from the 15 year old main character Victor. Which leads me into my next point. Victor is 100% a grab at that nostalgia in Ender's Game. A kid way smarter than the majority of humanity? Smarter than every adult in his ship despite limited training in his field? Yeah, it's definitely got the movie trope issue of "Adults Are Useless." That theme permeates the El Salvador culture and undercuts adult characters that are making really intelligent decisions, only to get outsmarted by a teen. Also in the vein of grabbing at nostalgia was the character of Wit O'Toole, whose program is basically choosing people for a battle school that are already trained adults already in various global military programs. I actually had a separate bone to pick with this character being in the book as he has no real effect on the story in this book at all, save giving us a glance at Mazer Rackham (suddenly made Maori likely for diversity reasons) who we know to be important at later points in the Formic Wars. Adding in that extra vantage point also made the book drag on uselessly, making the pacing feel slower because Wit's perspective added nothing to the developing issue in space.

My gripes with Orson Scott Card as a person aside, this book is readable though a bit flat. If you enjoy Ender's Game, it's worth a read. Just don't expect it to be nearly as good.

Cindy Lieberman

After starting -- and stopping -- several other authors' books due to lack of interest (mine) or skill (author), I decided to return to a writer whom I know can tell gripping, human stories. I was not disappointed and am now shotgunning the trilogy on audiobooks.