Earth Awakens

It is possible to write an interesting fast paced adventure without having every protagonist endangered past any reasonable expectation of survival every time there is a conflict. However that's what this book sets you up for and well, it gets tedious when you know who will survive. OSC can do brains and planning and there is some, but this depends more on luck and impossibly fast and accurate engineering. An uneven ride.

Overall a good book and a fine conclusion to the current trilogy. The growth of the characters was interesting to read, particularly that of Lem's. I did feel that this one was a little drawn out in places which for me slowed things down. Almost as if trying to read a particular word count or length. This would be the only reason I gave it 4 stars instead of 5 like the previous books. I realize that part of that feeling could simply be series fatigue which I get with almost every series without exception. I am unsure if I will start the next and final trilogy of the story line or not. The third book has not been released yet so I am hesitant to start until that is out.

I actually really enjoyed the first two of these books. But this one rolled around to the climax...and, wait, what? Where's the logic? There's no logic to this. Nobody's asking the dumb-ass "but isn't this putting all our eggs in one really flimsy effing basket?" questions. And I got partway through and just noped the eff out because...just no. Nope. Very disappointing, very disappointed, and somebody needs a better editor who is willing to ask harder questions. Not impressed.

This is review of the series as a whole. I held off on reading this series because it was co-authored. But when I started listening to it, Card's voice shines through immediately. Fans of the Ender's Shadow series will enjoy this too. My favorite character in this series is Lem Jukes, son of the world's richest man. He might be a rich, entitled scumbag who act atrociously, there more depth to his character. The second two books also go into the background of Mazer Rackham, Ender's Mentor/Torturer from the first book which is interesting.

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Title: Earth Awakens
Series: Enderverse: First Formic War #3
Authors: Orson Card & Aaron Johnston
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 341
Words: 136K

Synopsis:

From Wikipedia.org

With an alien invasion in progress in China, humanity is divided on how to defend itself. The Chinese government is determined to go it alone, despite suffering catastrophic losses. Captain Wit O'Toole of the Mobile Operations Police (MOP) and Mazer Rackham have managed to show more destroy one of the three alien landers, but because they achieved the first significant human victory of the war without official approval and using a nuclear warhead obtained without authorization, they are in the custody of Chinese General Sima. During the invasion, Mazer Rackham saves Bingwen, a very intelligent eight-year-old Chinese boy who now comes up with a clever ploy to get them released: he spreads word over the internet that they were acting under Sima's orders and gives Sima full credit.

Meanwhile, Victor Delgado and Imala Bootstamp drift to the alien mothership in a ship disguised to avoid being destroyed. Victor manages to enter and explore the vessel. They survive a failed drone attack on the alien ship and, after getting away again, confront Lem Jukes, whom they suspect of involvement in the attack. Actually, it was launched by Lem's father, Ukko. Lem tried to stop or delay it.

Based on what he has learned, Victor devises a plan to capture it, and reluctantly accepts Lem's help in carrying it out. The MOPs, including Wit and Mazer, are recruited to become the rest of Victor's boarding party. Despite Victor's objections, Imala volunteers as well.

When the Formics detect the intruders, all of their forces on Earth leave to go to their ship's defense. Lem leads a force to hold them off, resulting in a fierce space battle. Aboard the Mothership, Wit has to sacrifice his life, exposing himself to quickly lethal levels of radiation, but Victor's plan succeeds, and the ship is captured intact. However, Victor's cousin, Edimar, backtracks the path of the alien ship and discovers that it was only a scout ship; the real Mothership is reconfiguring itself into a battle fleet that will arrive in about five years.

My Thoughts:

Overall, I enjoyed this final book in the First Formic War trilogy. But much like the slide from the first book to the second, there was something missing from the second to the third book. I simply can't put my finger on what it is, but that enjoyment factor just wasn't as high. Still a good read at 3.5stars though.

There was a LOT more politics involved in this book than in the previous and so depending on if you like political thrillers or not, that will shape your enjoyment of the book. There is also a storyline about the survivors from Victor's old spaceship (all the women and children) and it should have been cut or tied off in the previous book. It felt like it was added simply to justify the very end of the book where one of the women discovers that the “mothership” at earth is actually just a scoutship and the real mothership is on its way and will arrive in about 5years. That could have been done with one of the Juke scientists and had several chapters removed from the story, thus streamlining the story and the number of POV's.

Bingwen is definitely an Ender prototype. He ends up going to secret school run by the Chinese and is treated like absolute crap by his “mentor”. This is the beginning of the Space School and you see its mindset clearly here. It is sad but at the same time it is good to see how the world went from what we would consider normal to the world where Ender grew up and what was considered normal then.

This trilogy was good enough that I am going to try the entire Ender quintet next. I've read Ender's Game multiple times and read Speaker for the Dead once back in 2000 but never got past that. Now that I've got a better handle of how Card writes (having read some of his Ender's Shadow series, the Pathfinder series, the poorly executed Alvin Maker series and his absolutely atrocious Homecoming saga which I abandoned after the first book) I think I can take the complete change in tone. Plus, the Second Formic War trilogy isn't completed.

In regards to that. This trilogy was released in 3 years. One book a year, bam, bam, bam. That's the power of having 2 writers. OR they pre-wrote it. However, the Second Formic War trilogy was started in '16 and book 2 was released in '19 and there is no release date yet for book 3. I really want to read it but won't until it is complete, so reading the original Ender books is probably the best way to keep my toes in the Ender pond while I wait.

★★★✬☆ show less

Formic Wars, Earth Awakens


Victor Delgado makes it to Earth in the second book and no one believes him except a soon-to-be ex-employee of Jukes Limited, a corporate giant with megalomaniacs at the helm. The story is about how whiney, pessimistic and a very naive Victor finally does something right and saves the say.

It’s mostly a story about how Mazer Rackman got started and how the Hegemony of Earth began which is later in the Card novels written in the 1990s.

Plots and Plans:

I liked it overall. I could have skipped Vic’s mom dealing with Somali traders as she attempts to make something out of a pack of jealous, irresponsible women and men aboard a ship that miraculously is missed in the Formic space war of the previous novel. The show more soap opera I hope was not written by Orson but by his co-writer, who is not bad at all.

The focus on Bing Wen was interesting. Our eight year old boy genius had his whole family and village wiped out and avoided Formics at every turn. Through some amazing coincidences he somehow found himself on a train to be trained by a captain more interested in running a dictatorship than any semblance of human kindness. This is the beginning of using kids as a weapon as elaborated in Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game.

Also focusing on the romance with Mazer and his ex-girlfriend/doctor/Bing Wen’s pal was cute and thankfully not more than a couple of pages worth. If you like that kind of thing. :)

Lem Jukes and his father issues got really, really old in this story. His paranoid nature and devious dealings with women who turn out to be the innocents and Lem the bad guy are made apparent. He saves himself in the last chapters but leave more questions than answers about his love life.

The Moon is its own government and this is fun to read about but again, not a lot of dwelling on politics in this book. It’s all about the bugs and their destruction and how Earth perceives it as “over there” rather than a threat to their planet.

Endings:

The endings tie up some things and leave a lot of questions in others. The end also opens the door to further storytelling. It could be a clue to reading the Enders’ Game series or it could mean the start of a new novel series. Keep searching to find out!

Recommended for the Mazer Rackman influences on a very young boy genius and a very naive Victor Delgado! show less

I read science, sci-fi, fantasy, and horror for the most part. When I read science, I take notes and try to understand concepts. When I read the other genres, I read for pure enjoyment and that's what Justin Tew delivered in this story. I raised 5 boys and I have 22 grandkids and Justin's children characters were right on- sometimes I was amazed at how mature they seemed to be and at other times they seemed to be so immature, just like real life. I found myself pulling for the home team in their battles. There is a good presence and an evil presence that seem to be fighting for control. As the main character Theodore begins to mature he seems to be trying to understand his true role his life will play. The story kept me guessing and show more made me wonder where we would wind up... I was sorry to see the book end, but luckily Justin had already written book two of the series. I bought it. show less