Comic-Con and Earth Unaware

In his column for the Rhino Times, Ender’s Game author, Orson Scott Card, wrote about recently released movies, his recent trip to San Diego Comic-Con and his latest book, Earth Unaware which was released yesterday.

On the topic of Comic-Con, Card mostly writes about the amazing cuisine in San Diego. If anyone’s heading that way for a family vacation anytime soon, read his full article here. He did however write,

“Maybe the best thing about Comic-Con in San Diego is San Diego. Warm during the day but not too warm – the Alaska current keeps it cooled off as long as the breeze blows in from the sea. At nights, the drier air cools off so there’s relief, and sometimes even a chill.”

If that’s not enough to convince Ender fans to try to snag tickets for next year’s Comic-Con, remember that the Ender’s Game movie will likely have a much bigger presence next year.

On the topic of Earth Unaware, he is quick to note that he cannot fairly review his own work, but that he continues to enjoy the story a year after it was written. (***Spoiler!) He also reminds fans that although Mazer Rackham doesn’t have a large role in this first installment of the Formic Wars, he will be a crucial character in the second novel in the Formic Wars trilogy.

I can’t fairly review my own work, but I am happy to tell you that the first Ender’s Game prequel, Earth Unaware, the first of the Formic Wars novel series, cowritten with my good friend and brilliant fellow-writer Aaron Johnston, is now on the stands. It’s the story of the people who have the first encounters with the aliens whose invasion of Earth gave rise to the story told in Ender’s Game. One character from the Ender series appears in this book – though only briefly (he returns big time in the next volume). Most of our time is spent with the people who are working in the Kuiper Belt, in the outer reaches of the solar system – the people who are first to see and first to suffer from the invaders, who seem to make no effort to communicate before they start killing. Aaron Johnston scripted the Formic Wars graphic novel series (Burning Earth; Silent Strike) from Marvel Comics; now we’re creating novel versions of the same story. In a novel, we have room to really flesh out the stories – the characters, the relationships, and a lot of what lies behind and around the action. What with lead time, it’s been a year since we finished writing it, but I got an advance copy of the audiobook and I’ve been listening to it for the past week or so. The readers do a great job with it – and I’m delighted with the fact that if anything the book is even more enjoyable a year later! I hope you’ll like it, too.

Who’s finished Earth Unaware already? Tell us how you’re enjoying it in the comments!