Earth Unaware [Hardcover]

I loved "Ender's Game". It's a science-fiction classic, and its sequels and associated stories are innovative, engrossing, thought-provoking and generally great additions to s-f literature. This one is not. In the first couple of pages, I was wondering how Orson Scott Card's writing had got so wooden and cliché'd, and I would never have read past the first chapter if it hadn't had OSC's name on it. Which explains a lot, really.

The story is set in OSC's "Ender" universe, but is written by co-author Aaron Johnston. It describes how a group of freelance miners working in the Kuiper Belt (outer edges of the Solar System) first discover the approach of alien invaders. Barely surviving an attack by claim-jumping Big-Business corporate miners and then by actual aliens from a scout vessel of the alien mothership, they set off for Earth to warn of the imminent peril. It could have been passable if unimaginative space opera -- but the writing is lacklustre, the characters are totally two-dimensional and the science is frankly appalling. (Does anyone really think you have to bring a spaceship to a "full stop" to be able to get out? Does the writer not realize that a spaceship uses exactly the same amount of energy to decelerate as to accelerate? And can you really believe that the "clearly insect-descended" aliens now have bones, muscles and fur, are warm-blooded and can exit from their spaceship into hard vacuum without any form of protection and still survive long enough to put up a creditable fight against a space-suited human? Oh come on ...)

I could go on. The whole book is so riddled with idiotic flaws and stock characters that I'm surprised Orson Scott Card allowed his name to be used at all. However, the Afterword to the book explains that the story started out as a comic book. Obviously it should have stayed there, as the reader was probably expecting a novel. On the other hand, the world is full of people who thought the movie "Avatar" had a gripping and totally plausible plotline. If you're one of them, go ahead and read this. Otherwise, don't waste your time.

Unfortunately, I also was fooled into believing that this was actually written by Card. It was not. It was written by someone who had apparently never had any interest in orbital mechanics, relative motion, basic newtonian physics, nor, come to think of it, the basic concept of space travel.

I should have given up immediately the first time a character thought about bringing their spacecraft to a complete halt in order to make it safe to go outside.

Nothing in this book makes any sense at all.

I remember reading the ender's game series in middle school and really really loved it. so when this book showed up I thought it would be wonderful. It is good, creates some back story and we begin to see the prelude to the little doctor, but honestly the plat was a bit flat, straight forward. The only surprise was mazer failing the mop when I thought he would pass, but I guess that's for book two.