Earth Afire (book two in the First Formatic War): a Review

Ender’s Game has been my favorite book for years now, and I think that everything that Orson Scott Card has written for the Enderverse series has been amazing, and Earth Afire is no different. It is the second book in a trilogy that details the original attack by the Formatics on Earth and the initial battles that took place. This second installment follows the path of multiple characters, all whom are in different places when the Formatics arrive at Earth.

Victor was one of the first to spot the Formatics while working in space, once back on Earth he tries desperately to get the video feeds he recorded onto the nets, but very few people believe him. Only Imala believes him, and risks her job and reputation to try and help him. Knowing his family died trying to stop the Formatics from invading Earth, Victor refuses to give up, eventually teaming up with Lem Jukes, the man who killed his uncle.

Lem Jukes was in space heading one of his father’s new mining vessels when the Formatics first entered the Solar System. Rich, snobby, and overly self assured, it is only in the midst of the inevitable destruction of Earth that Lem goes against his father, and his upbringing supporting Victor as they try and find a way to blow up the seemingly impenetrable alien space ship.

            Rena was once apart of Victor’s family, back before he fled to Earth with the video feeds and nearly all of the space miners were killed. Her part of the story is little, and bears nearly no importance to this third installment. My guess is that Rena and the remaining women will have more involvement in the third book since they are far out in space, and will probably have an active role in attacking the incoming Formatics. Although, that is just my opinion.

            Those are the main characters who were in space, seeing the Formatics first, warning Earth, and trying to stop incoming ships. Earth is a totally different story. The Formatics have landed, and bug-like creatures have poured out of the Lander in the hundreds, possibly the thousands. The Formatics begins spraying some sort of chemical over all the plants and waters of Earth, killing everything it touches, including melting the skin off od any person who is in the vicinity and has exposed skin.

            Bingwen is a young Chinese boy who believed the videos of incoming aliens and took precautions when the vidfeed from space first came via satellite. It was good that he did, because the Formatics landed near his home village, and Bingwen is the only member of his village and the surrounding area that manages to make it though to the end of the book. Although, part of that is because he is rescued by Mazor Rackham.

            Yes, Mazor Rackham who is credited as defeating the buggers during the first invasion of Earth in Ender’s Game, makes his appearance in this novel. Mazor was deployed as a pilot, and hired by the Chinese government to teach their soldiers how to fly the new aircrafts being built by Juke Limited (the same Juke family that Lem is from). While the Chinese don’t want him to help, he happens to be in the right place at the right time when the aliens attack.

            The last of the characters is Captain DeWitt Clinton O'Toole, commander of the Mobile Operations Police. He disobeys all orders from the UN and the Chinese government and enters the country in an attempt to put humanity and the stopping of the alien attack ahead of petty earthly disputes. He eventually teams up with Mazor, and together they begin a gorilla attack on the Formatics, the only attacks that seem to hurt the Formatics in any way.

            I thought that this was an absolutely amazing book. I couldn’t put it down, there were a couple of moments on the airplane when I laughed or gasped aloud and the people looked at me like I was crazy. It wasn’t quite as well written as many of the other books, but that is often what happens with a co-author. I loved how all the stories paralleled each other (the character stories that is), and then ended up together in various places trying to save Earth from the Formatics. I would give this book 4.5/5 stars. Cannot wait for the final installment in this pre-Trilogy to Ender’s Game.