Earth Unaware

By: Orson Scott Card, Aaron Johnston

Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki, Stephen Hoye, Arthur Morey, Vikas Adam, Emily Janice Card, Gabrielle de Cuir, Roxanne Hernandez

Length: 13 hrs and 59 mins

Publisher's summary

A hundred years before Ender's Game, humans thought they were alone in the galaxy. Humanity was slowly making their way out from Earth to the planets and asteroids of the Solar System, exploring and mining and founding colonies.

The mining ship El Cavador is far out from Earth, in the deeps of the Kuiper Belt, beyond Pluto. Other mining ships, and the families that live on them, are few and far between this far out. So when El Cavador's telescopes pick up a fast-moving object coming in-system, it's hard to know what to make of it. It's massive and moving at a significant fraction of the speed of light.

But the ship has other problems. Their systems are old and failing. The family is getting too big. There are claim-jumping corporates bringing Asteroid Belt tactics to the Kuiper Belt. Worrying about a distant object that might or might not be an alien ship seems…not important.

They're wrong. It's the most important thing that has happened to the human race in a million years. This is humanity's first contact with an alien race. The First Formic War is about to begin.
Earth Unaware is the first novel in The First Formic War series by Orson Scott Card and Aaron Johnston.

©2012 Orson Scott Card and Aaron Johnston (P)2012 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

“The somber basso voice of Stefan Rudnicki and two well-chosen players march through the story, with a young man's voice particularly effective in segments featuring the angst-ridden teenager. This is an outstanding job, with more to come.” —AudioFile Magazine

“As the narration passes from character to character, the talented cast... easily keeps listeners intrigued with skillful characterizations that feature unique voices, accents, and dialects. And by the time the huge alien ship arrives and the story kicks into high gear, listeners will be utterly captivated by this exciting adventure.” —Publishers Weekly

Not what I expected!

I am reading this for my book club so I expected a lot of science and tech jargon. There was plenty of tech jargon but it was usually explained with the notable exception of some of the anacronyms that I am still clueless about. I also knew in advance that this book was the prequel to Ender's Game which I never read and was barely able to stay awake for the movie. So..
I was not expecting to like it. I was wrong!

Maybe it is because I listened to it on Audible which usually brings any book to life. Maybe it was the fact that all the characters were fully developed which is usually omitted in hardcore science fiction. Bottom line: I loved it! I loved Victor and Edemar. Hated Lem Jukes but I usually hate corporates with little or no conscience. I still have no clue as to why Wit & the MOPs were included in this book, but I guess they are involved in the next installment - here again military anything makes my eyes roll back in my head. The actors reading the different parts of this book were extraordinary and each character was consistent throughout the book.

Lastly, while I usually hate cliffhangers where you are left hanging until the next book comes out in a couple of years, I was not disappointed with the ending of this book. I can imagine what happens next because of how well developed the story was. Still I will definitely have to read the next installment which I assume is Ender's Game. I guess Google can tell me.

Really a surprise...a good one!

A good opener to what is hopefully a great series

This book is clearly just the opening barrage of character development, plot setting a bit of dramatic irony. A great listen, designed to make you want more. Can't wait to start the next book. What can you say, Card is an amazing storyteller.

Magnificent sci-fi series

The Ender's Game prequels are some of the very best sci-fi I've ever read.

Great story, but diff narrators cause confusion

Really great story that entertained me and was thought provoking. Details make the story and this book certainly wasn't lacking. I was impressed how Card was able to balance technical information with his story telling that didn't overwhelm me with data.

Amazing

love all of his books, anyone who liked the ender books needs to listen to the swarm wars

Great book

if you like enders game this is another great book. The readers are all great.

enderverse fans must read

As a prelude to the entirety of the enderverse, this starts the explination of so many prelude gaps the second series doesnt even bring up. well worth the read.

Lots of fluff.

This book is mostly fluff that sets up the next book. It has great character building and the performance is SO good. Just know that this is like a whole book that is basically a prologue for the next one.

Enjoyable

The pacing of the story definitely kept me engaged, however the scientific inaccuracies bothered me a good deal. I'm normally able to suspend my disbelief for sci-fi stories, but the absolute wrongness for how space travel was handled left me disappointed.

I just recommended this to everyone

Well written, well told and cannot wait to read the next one in the series.