Earth Awakens

Philosophical inquiry and harshly realistic descriptions of war reverberate throughout Card and Johnston’s third Formic Wars novel (after Earth Afire), a pulp-inspired alien invasion scenario that continues the prequel series to Card’s bestselling Ender’s Game. Shortly after Maori spaceship pilot Mazer Rackham’s bold attack against Formic invaders, engineer Victor Delgado and bureaucrat Imala Bootstamp camouflage a shuttle to allow them to investigate a Formic ship, backed by enigmatic industrialist Lem Jukes, while war heroes Mazer and Capt. Wit O’Toole are enlisted in the Chinese army. As industrial greed and cultural misunderstanding spread, Lem tries to stop his father’s deadly vanguard drones from attacking the ship where Victor is about to find a revelation—or death. Will Earth finally fight back, and at what cost? Card and Johnston intensify their complex intergalactic mythos with emotional intensity and widening thematic scope. Everyday desires are as deadly as the Formics’ flesh-eating acid in this collision of space opera and big-bug epic. This breakneck thriller is a dark and lively addition to the Enderverse. (June)