Earth Unaware

The first worry about this book is that it was co-authored and in the Enderverse. Turns out that the worry was unwarranted.

Secondly, there were some minor things that bothered me. The fact that the main character Victor has so much insight about humans and how his actions will be perceived by them but does not contemplate how an action of revenge (which he does not take) would be perceived by a visiting (invading / colonizing) alien species. It just felt weird having a character full of so much insight and yet having this major drop off.

Another issue was Lem. Bright guy, son of another bright guy, but his inner thought process always concludes people’s thoughts are one or two dimensional compared to his deep and multifaceted thoughts. Again, kind of making a deep character and then leaving big holes in him.

These holes are annoying. Granted some of Orson Scott Card’s characters in these series are larger than life, sometimes inhuman (especially Bean). But this thing of delving into the depths of an individual’s mind, exploring their conscious and cognitive pathways, the character being aware of this exploration (as opposed to a dive into a character’s psyche in Douglas Adam’s “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”) and then having these gaping holes in their thoughts about others is really annoying. Either all the characters are way more arrogant than they are written to be, or this is a flaw in the book.

That being said…

I know the title is “Earth Unaware.” But in reality it is about a disorganized, greedy, and infantile humanity who is much like we are now, though they have a city on the Moon and are space borne.  The only person who really seems to understand humanity is Wit, who is a soldier, and likely to bite it in a future book.

It is nice to see humanity outclassed in every possible way by their enemy in this book. Not just being the underdog, but at the moment, royally and completely screwed.

The MD device is hinted at and its origins explained which I found pretty cool. The hero Mazer Rackham is shown to be able to think outside of a box and think himself into a box. In fact, almost all the characters are flawed, far more so than they were in the other Ender Saga and Shadow Saga books.

So yeah, if you’re a fan of the Ender Saga and Shadow Saga I suggest reading this.

I do not suggest reading this as the first book. In fact, I suggest you read the entire series in chronological order starting with Ender’s Game / Ender’s Shadow. Then, once you’re done with all that you should start the prequel series.

Why do I suggest this?

Books like “Xenocide,” “Children of the Mind,” and “Shadows in Flight” tell you a lot about the Formics and so you better understand both sides of the encounters between humans and Formics even though only the human side is told. The insight granted by having read everything else adds even more depth to this book.

Conclusion: good and enjoyable read.