A griping series of stories, threads that weave and twist, that you know they'll connect in the future. Card is an amazing story teller. This books shows you his gift for building tension and excitement, loyalty and passion. He uses science and technology for story and character development, not as substitutes, as many sci-fi writers are accused of. While some sci-fi stories paint a future where all men are equal and money doesn't matter, Card understands the human condition, and man's weaknesses and the strengths that are shown when they are really needed. Good luck putting this book down.

Trite melodrama. Normally, I can handle that. However, the physics of spaceflight, is not like taking a taxicab downtown. When the authors showed only a rudimentary grasp of space science, I shut down.

Earth Unaware was not as good as Ender's Game or Ender's Shadow, but it's definitely up there with Speaker for the Dead and Shadow of the Hegemon.

The one issue I had with it was that it seemed like it changed the canon from the original book: Ender's Game was not set in a 21st century vision of the future, as you can see from the references to tension between the US and Russia, and the lack of any sort of portable computing technology. The impression I got from the original book was that the original Bugger (or Formic, or whatever they're calling them now) invasion took place at the end of Cold War, and humanity barely fought off the invaders with the technology that they had then, and, by the second invasion, had reverse-engineered Bugger technology to the point that they were able to build space ships, ansibles and so on. This is obviously not the case in Earth Unaware, but that's a small grievance about what's generally a pretty good book.

Ender’s Game and Speaker for the Dead were two monumental books of my youth. I always found it very amazing that the books were so different – one overflowing with action and one diving into difficult issues – yet there were by the same author and representing the same character. Now I’d say that the experiences of Ender’s Game are what made Ender who he was in Speaker for the Dead.

Since then, I have read a few more books from that universe. The one about Bean (Ender’s Shadow) was probably the best of those: I really liked seeing things that happened backstage when Ender’s Game was performed. Now I’m seeing how the universe progressed to the point of needing to fight the Formic Wars.

Things I note:
I want more Mazer Rackham.
The main characters in Orson Scott Card novels always seem to have exceptional abilities of some kind.
If I were an alien invading Earth and knowing it was inhabited, I’d avoid traveling along the planetary plane. If I were looking for life of any kind, then I’d travel the planetary plane.
Being able to make stuff work from parts and junk is the best ability.

Absolutely *love* this author! His writing style is fantastic and leaves nothing to be desired. Once in the book you develop a real concern for the characters and feel like you have a vested interest in how things turn out for them. Another great book by a wonderful author!

I'm not convinced Orson Scott Card had anything to do with writing this novel, with the exception of perhaps the idea itself. Not his style of writing; and although I enjoyed it, I didn't love it.

Interesting backstory for Ender's Game.

This is a story about many different people dealing with an impossible situation. Some are more exciting than others, but the final pages leave you interested in all of them.