This is the first book in the second Ender’s Game prequel series which covers the Second Formic War.
What I am really enjoying about these prequel series
(relating to the First Formic War and the Second Formic War) is that they are
filling in a lot of history. In the original books we know that there are two
formic wars, that Mazer Rackham is supposedly responsible for killing the Queen
and winning the second formic war, but also having previously been severely
demoted and not in a combat ship. Somehow we need to get there (or get an
explanation for why it has been told to us differently before).
As someone who likes to read plot summaries of movies,
books, manga, etc. before I go through them I like to have a sense as to
whether or not I would find the story interesting before I devote time to
exploring it. And the present books are awesome to me in that they fill in the
details of this previously told story, but told in an extremely skeletal form.
As for the book itself I do not really want to give
spoilers. But, what we do get is we finally have some inkling of the origin of
the ansible and its early usage. Similar to Earth Unaware the Formics play a
very minimal role early on.
None of the books in the Ender’s Saga have been particularly
kind in their framing or opinion of military bureaucracy. I would say this
books is probably the least kind to date.
If you like science fiction, particularly if you are hooked
on the Ender Saga I would read this. One day I hope to read the whole series in
chronological order and then I would hopefully have a good opinion as to
whether the series is best read chronologically or with the prequels as a
supplement once you’re already immersed in that universe.
