Earth Awakens
Year: 2014
Author: Orson Scott Card and Aaron Johnston
Length: 896 minutes / 14.93 hours
Having read most of Orson Scott Card’s Shadow series that follows the events of the rest of the cadets after the events of Ender’s Game, it’s clear to me he has a skill in describing geopolitics. This skill is also on display in the third book of the First Formic War series, Earth Awakens. Acting as bookends to the Ender Saga, these two series give a plausible look into the world before and after the alien invasion of Earth.
There’s a challenge with prequels, though. How much does the author leave unsaid between the end of the prequel and the start of the original lore? I can appreciate how Orson Scott Card and Aaron Johnston wrapped up many of the threads in this trilogy, but there were also too many things left unresolved that the reader must assume wrap up between the end of this book and the start of Ender’s Game. I was a little surprised this book was the end of the prequel series because there was so much that hadn’t been resolved and I would have liked another book to wrap those plot points up.
Still, there’s plenty of action, most of which revolves around what this rag-tag group of humans is going to do about the alien threat. It feels a little like Star Wars in sections, mostly because the politics of Earth continually impede saving its inhabitants. It’s frustrating to read, also because it reflects reality so closely. Billions of people have to rely on a secret mission run by an independent entity with several untrained individuals. It’s fun to root for this underdog faction, but it honestly shouldn’t have been up to them to save the world.
An adequate end to a prequel series that left a few too many open ends, I give Earth Awakens 3.5 stars out of 5.
1/2
