Earth Afire (The First Formic War, 2) Mass Market Paperback – April 29, 2014

Ok, so the books in this series are getting better. They're not quite there yet, but I do see good improvement. With that in mind, let's get to the chase:It's a (semi) hard science fiction book. That said, much disbelief is to be suspended as many fantastic things happen. This is the case here. Also, some of the problems with physics that were seen in the first book in the series have not been repeated. Outstanding! So, on to the fun parts:a) The bad guys (buggers in "Ender's Game") go there merry way and trash everyone in their path. Then they get really ugly & attack China. Meanwhile, the good guys either end up in China on assignment beforehand, or bully their way in after things start to get ugly as the shooting begins. Needless to say, the Chinese take a really bad set of hits & the good guys strive to help them, but are pretty much overwhelmed. Don't be worried, the usual political & bureaucratic claptrap gets in the way (just like it does in the real world) and is just plain fun to read about.b) The best part of the story is when the exterminator crews (in their zillions) come out with the bugger version of Roundup (those guys must have their own version of Monsanto on their home planet(s)) and start zapping everything and everyone in sight. It's kinda like that ad on TV with the guy in Cargo Shorts zapping anything that's green on his driveway, only better.c) Meanwhile, others are trying to get around egos, more bureaucracy, and other problems of note to either survive, or attack the bad guys.d) The story ends with a small victory and a series of cliff hangers worthy of the Saturday matinee serials that were rebroadcast on TV in the '60s. You know, the guy's on the speeding and out-of-control train as it speeds to the canyon with the trestle out, and... Tune in next week folks for the exciting conclusion.....So, why 4* instead of 5*? Two points:1) One good guy gets injured in the fight & has to be saved. Knowing the injury & the necessary surgery to repair this, it just doesn't pass muster, even with high tech goodies. The authors could have done better here as there are dozens of other injuries that could have been sustained that would be much more plausible for field surgery. Also, the good guy performs serious feats of physical activity only a few days after surgery. Not possible! Suspending disbelief doesn't work with this because the injury is common in combat & is also not repairable, or recoverable, in the timeframe used in the book. Sorry guys! -1/2*2) The good guys use a piece of Chinese gear in their fight. Without being a spoiler on it's use and function in the book, the one problem is that there was no clean explanation as to "why" the Chinese designed this hardware in the first place. It's just presented as an item & we go on from there. A simple and useful explanation (even one paragraph long) would have easily closed the loop. It's really simple. Something like: good guy, "Wow! That's wild! What are you using it for? Chinese guy, "We're building/digging/whatevering an xxxxx with it & yyyyying with it right now." -1/2*This is an editorial note. The book is obviously an extremely long, plotted out space opera. The problem with this is a function of the publishing world & long books. You see many trilogies & etc. because the whole story is just too long & no one in this day & age is going to buy a variant of "War & Peace" because, it's just too long. Trilogies like "The Lord of the Rings", "Cyteen", and etc. that make it in the publishing world are far and few between. And, they were originally published as three separate books, only to be combined later as one large volume. Most have an ending wrap-up chapter to allow one to provide a clean finish. This puppy sets up multiple cliffhangers and is obviously written in this manner. If you like it, great. If not, suffer.

Interesting question that I hadn't though about, "How is the story narrated". I think it was mostly second person, "Victor did this...", "Lem did that..." didn't really pay attention, sorry.Yes, really there was a lot of violence in the book I guess, but given the theme (Earth gets toasted by aliens) what would you expect. It was definitely not gratuitous violence and was handled well.Great series, interesting plot twists, a few huge technical flaws that are pretty glaring (if you are a physicist or a rocket scientist and are obsessive compulsive about technical details you may want to skip it, drifting up to the alien ship in a cloud of debris while in orbit? Not sure I buy that but it makes for a good story), A lot of the routine technical stuff is detailed in creative ways that I found interesting and probably somewhat prophetic (which I like about SciFi). I really, really liked the character development (again not perfect but creatively done and very interesting). The political, cultural and human commentary I found extremely interesting (which I like about SciFi). Card is really interesting about the human factor and human interaction.Very interesting story. Good series. I would definitely recommend reading these in order (I didn't and so read the third book again which I thought was the best of the three books).I started reading these because one of my kids was reading Ender's Game and recommended it to me. He told me that I would really like it and I did. The book (Ender's Game) was much better than the movie, they had to leave way too much out of the movie robbing it of the character development which was unfortunate.Yes, some of the stuff in his book is a stretch but so what, its fiction remember? The stories and character development and situations are really interesting. One of my favorite authors.Mark

Like the latter half of the first instalment of the new series, this second book races past and the action doesn't let up until the end. While the first book was about how easy it would be to mistake the intentions of any approaching alien race - in this second part we are in no doubt that the formics are hostile and deadly to the human race.The series has made the most of the new characters and we find out how they all play a part and they are fleshed out well in this continuation. Probably not the best place to start, but it is now all about the way we as a a species or society, deal with the threat. It's clear that most institutions would be paralised and useless - weighed down with bureacracy and red tape, to prevent any resistence. It's only those working outside of any constraints that can actually mobilise to do anything.Of course, as the plot moves on, we realise that we are with the only groups of people who can make a difference and this is in no way a big spoiler, as it's pretty clear from the start that these are no ordinary people and some, like Mazer Rackham, have their stories pre-determined from events in the "Ender's Game" series. This is a very enjoyable series and while this one may have less philsophical depth, it moves us into the world of all-out war, where this is no room for doubt of hesitation - it's them or us - and no room for communication or scientific method.In a way this is quite a sad outcome - but the writers are quite convincing in their portayal of the inevitability of the idea that any contact with an alien species, will be about a battle for resources and that we will be at war, rather than sitting down to talk and swap ideas. Personally, I would like to hope that humanity could be more rational and conciliatory - but our history tends to show this is unlikely. Also, these ideas are explored further in the later books of the "Ender" series and maybe we do have to grow further as a society before we are ready for a different outcome?All in all a good read and I can't wait for the next one.

Bought the first part of this as a cheap, time filling read and based on seeing Enders Game as a prequel to that movie.I haven't read sci fi for years but enjoyed the setting, build up and secondary stories; Yet another book had me ordering the sequel from here - why are these so 'can't put down? I actually looked forward to commuting so I could get my daily fix of Vico and the Formics!As with another series of book I've reviewed here, the downside is now I have to wait for the next published book some months from now.

Another amazing book from Orson and Aaron. I first read Ender's Game about 10 years ago and instantly fell in love. I didn't know there were sequels but I now am on a mission to read the whole Ender Saga. I love reading the prequels, Mazer Rackham is a wonderful character and I find the Earth books great because we can relate to them more closely! Due to them being set a closer time to ourselves. I'm excited for the last prequel that will finish Mazer's story and give light as to why everybody talks about him in Battle School.

A good prequel to the Ender series, however it is very simply written in that many people have to be idiots, although in positions of power, to allow the plot to work. This is now becoming common in our fiction writing. Well worth the read, particularly at this price. I had the first one out as a library book and this one on Kindle was a great experience. As a result I now have 40 books on my Kindle.

Orson Scott Card continues the Ender's prequels creating two new star characters along the way. Yes, they both appears in the first installment in this new series but here they really come to life leaving you wanting more.Mazer Rackham and Victor are both fully fledged and the ending here is as abrupt as it's logical.A real cliff-hanger. Now all I need is the publishing date of the sequel.