Earth Afire

By: Orson Scott Card, Aaron Johnston

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

Length: 15 hrs and 13 mins

Publisher's summary

One hundred years before Ender's Game, the aliens arrived on Earth with fire and death. Earth Afire by Orson Scott Card and Aaron Johnston is the story of the First Formic War.

Victor Delgado beat the alien ship to Earth, but just barely. Not soon enough to convince skeptical governments that there was a threat. They didn't believe that until space stations and ships and colonies went up in sudden flame.

And when that happened, only Mazer Rackham and the Mobile Operations Police could move fast enough to meet the threat.

©2013 Orson Scott Card (P)2013 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

“The gifted Stefan Rudnicki leads a team of talented narrators who do an excellent job of keeping vivid and focused the two-dozen or so characters and multiple locations…Orson Scott Card remains a master storyteller, and each narrator is right there with him as he mixes hard science and psychological insights – right up to the cliff-hanger ending.” —AudioFile Magazine, Earphones Award Winner

“With a stellar cast of narrators, this prequel to Card's sci-fi classic Ender's Game is a rollicking, rollercoaster ride of an adventure…From the very beginning of this audio edition, the almost nonstop action is delivered perfectly, keeping listeners on the edge of their seats. At the same time, the narrators manage to bring a large and diverse cast of characters to life with a sharply realized array of distinct voices and accents.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review

Very good

Very good, but not quite as good as Earth Unaware. The first half of Earth Afire loses all of the tension and momentum that had built up over the previous novel, as new characters are introduced and the driving force of the first novel takes a backseat for a time. Overall the second title suffers from having less focus on the science fiction characteristics that make the universe so interesting.

Too much of this novel is focused on a boy living in a rice-paddy village in rural China. His setting isn't interesting, the dialog around him is rife with stereotypes and clichés, and you get the impression the authors learned everything they know about Chinese culture from watching American television shows marketed for children. The narrative tends to stall while dwelling on ridiculously unimportant details in all of his scenes.

I could listen to the lives of deep-space miners living on a ship roaming the Kuiper belt all day. Peasants on a farm in China arguing about dishonoring their elders? Not interesting at all.

The Formic s I Tell You

This moved along rather well until they described a piece of equipment. That was a long chapter. That why it's only 4 stars.

Great story, with a few flaws.

It's a great story but the author shows that he hasn't reasoned out some of his plot points. I will only go into one, since I wouldn't want to spoil the story for you.

One of the persistent plot points is a strange interference that is blocking out all long range communication in the solar system. No one can send out transmissions past about 100,000 kilometers. One of these includes "laser lines" which for the purpose of the book is a tightly confirmed microwave beam. The interference some how is stopping the radio waves from propagating. That's fine, but what isn't explained is why no one bothers using a real optical laser for transmission. Clearly visible light propagation isn't a problem, the characters can clearly see stars and planets much farther than 100,000k, so who not send your communication on a beam of laser light? If you can see earth, then earth can see you, so light would have done the trick.

It's a small problem that doesn't really detract from the plot, but it still shows a certain lack of forethought on behalf of the author. you'll probably find more as you read, but I'll let you figure those out for yourself.

I love Orson Scott Card his books are really amazi

This book is in some of the other books is written I think it's really great like I said Orson Scott Card is really an amazing writer.

Well written piece of the story.

I enjoyed this story once I learned about all of the characters. I'm glad to have chosen it.

Great 2nd book in the series!

Great follow-up book to the first one. It kept me hooked until the end and then I couldn't believe the book was finished; I wanted more. Can't wait to read the next one in the series.

Just wish that the story followed Mazer Rackham and the MOPS team more and Victor and Lem less.

love it!!!!!

this is my 4th time listening to it. it gets better everytime and its just....wow

Did not disappoint!

I loved the story. Very well thought out the performance was great. The only parts of the performance that throw me off would be the narration of Lem sounding like a 90 year-old man, and the fact Mazer is supposed to have a Kiwi accent. Very minor things though. Highly recommend this whole prequel series.

Great characters!

I listened to it at 1.3 to keep the action parts moving. Great set of stories, with battles everywhere

Great, Like the Original

I can't believe I got sucked into this series. I just love the story, particularly Victor & Imala. I am not well-versed in military terminology, but the author is able to explain most terms sufficiently for me to picture what they are talking about. While I don't like the ending, I realize it is a series so the author must have a cliff- hanger in order to get people to purchase the next installment. The narrators, as in the 1st book, are very good & quite believable as the characters they are playing. Overall, great sequel - except maybe the ending.