Earth Afire

This book continues where “Earth Unaware” left off. The Formics arrive at Earth and start decimating China. China of course wants no outside help dealing with the Formics, which parallels how China tends to deal with natural disasters today.

Victor (Vico) continues to be a hot head at times but is also putting his frustration to better uses and has matured some. I am starting to wonder if there will be a romantic interest for him, like there was Bean. An interesting note as compared to the Ender line of books as opposed to the Shadow line and the prequels is that there are a lot more loving and human relationships than were present in the Ender books.

Mazer Rackham is fantastic. The continued exploration of his character and motives are wonderful. It is really filling out the man in the short stories and in Ender’s Game.

And, generally speaking, if you’re a fan of the Enderverse I do not think you’d be disappointed. The book is fast paced and carries on well. It’s not necessarily chocked full of action but it is a compelling read. I look forward to the next installment.

Also, if Orson Scott Card is grooming Aaron Johnston to take over, this will probably go over pretty well.

And, another note, having read a fair amount of William Gibson and especially how he likes to character and story hop in the Sprawl Trilogy, I see a lot of similarities in the Formic Wars. At the same time though I prefer Gibson’s ability to so intricately weave the different stories. In the Formic Wars stories merge, in the Sprawl Trilogy the stories make a tapestry weaving before your eyes. I like the latter more.