Earth Afire

by Orson Scott Card, Aaron Johnston

Overview

One hundred years before Ender's Game, the aliens arrived on Earth with fire and death. This 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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250356710
Publisher:	Tor Publishing Group
Publication date:	04/29/2014
Series:	First Formic War Series , #2
Pages:	400
Product dimensions:	5.06(w) x 7.81(h) x 1.21(d)

About the Author

Orson Scott Card is best known for his science fiction novel Ender's Game and its many sequels that expand the Ender Universe into the far future and the near past. Those books are organized into the Ender Saga, which chronicles the life of Ender Wiggin; the Shadow Series, which follows on the novel Ender's Shadow and is set on Earth; and the Formic Wars series, written with co-author Aaron Johnston, which tells of the terrible first contact between humans and the alien "Buggers." Card has been a working writer since the 1970s. Beginning with dozens of plays and musical comedies produced in the 1960s and 70s, Card's first published fiction appeared in 1977—the short story "Gert Fram" in the July issue of The Ensign, and the novelette version of "Ender's Game" in the August issue of Analog. The novel-length version of Ender's Game, published in 1984 and continuously in print since then, became the basis of the 2013 film, starring Asa Butterfield, Harrison Ford, Ben Kingsley, Hailee Steinfeld, Viola Davis, and Abigail Breslin.

Card was born in Washington state, and grew up in California, Arizona, and Utah. He served a mission for the LDS Church in Brazil in the early 1970s. Besides his writing, he runs occasional writers' workshops and directs plays. He frequently teaches writing and literature courses at Southern Virginia University.

He is the author many science fiction and fantasy novels, including the American frontier fantasy series "The Tales of Alvin Maker" (beginning with Seventh Son), and stand-alone novels like Pastwatch and Hart's Hope. He has collaborated with his daughter Emily Card on a manga series, Laddertop. He has also written contemporary thrillers like Empire and historical novels like the monumental Saints and the religious novels Sarah and Rachel and Leah. Card's work also includes the Mithermages books (Lost Gate, Gate Thief), contemporary magical fantasy for readers both young and old.

Card lives in Greensboro, North Carolina, with his wife, Kristine Allen Card. He and Kristine are the parents of five children and several grandchildren.

AARON JOHNSTON is the coauthor of The New York Times bestselling novels Earth Unaware, Earth Afire, and other Ender's Game prequel novels. He was also the co-creator and showrunner for the sci-fi series Extinct, as well as an associate producer on the movie Ender’s Game. He and his wife are the parents of four children.

Hometown:

Greensboro, North Carolina

Date of Birth:

August 24, 1951

Place of Birth:

Richland, Washington

Education:

B.A. in theater, Brigham Young University, 1975; M.A. in English, University of Utah, 1981

Website:

http://www.hatrack.com

Editorial Reviews

The story progresses nimbly, with plenty of tension and excitement and Card's usual well-developed characters.” —Kirkus Reviews

“Card's gift for strong, memorable characters combined with screenwriter Johnston's flair for vivid scene-building results in a standout tale of SF adventure that gives Ender series fans fascinating backstory to the classic Ender's Game. It should also please readers of military SF.” —Library Journal, starred review

From the Publisher

Second entry in the prequel series (Earth Unaware, 2012), set many years before the deeds of the Ender's Game novels. In China, young genius Bingwen ponders an Internet file seeming to show hostile insectlike aliens. The file was distributed by Victor Delgado, last survivor of a space mining family destroyed by those same invaders, in a futile and desperate effort to warn Earth of the approaching menace. Instead, Victor's treated like an unimportant minor criminal, while his evidence is ignored. Lem Jukes, meanwhile, heir to a powerful space mining corporation, with whom Victor tangled in space, reaches Earth just days ahead of the alien vessel. He knows precisely the danger the aliens represent and intends to use the situation to wrest control of the business away from his coldly indifferent father, Ukko. Despite everything, the authorities decide the Formics probably aren't hostile and send an official delegation into space. The Formics contemptuously blow the delegation to atoms and launch massive projectiles toward the planet. Mazer Rackham of New Zealand's Special Air Services happens to be in China on a training mission when the projectiles arrive and transform themselves into vast invulnerable fortresses, against which the Chinese defenders are helpless. Capt. Wit O'Toole's Mobile Operations Police desperately seek a way to enter China and join the battle against the Formics. The sections that feature highly intelligent, self-reliant children--Card's trademark--are as excellent as ever; elsewhere there's plenty of solid action, well-developed characters and prose that's often disappointingly clumsy. Another solidly engrossing installment, where the aliens are really just a sideshow: What we're witnessing is how and why Ender's child armies came to be.

Kirkus Reviews