Earth Afire

This is the middle book in the First Formic War trilogy, the prequel to Ender's Game. I read the first book, Earth Unaware, when it was first published, almost four years ago. It was good - lots of excitement - but it left us hanging for the second book. Now that I've finished the second book, I see that this is really a very long novel divided into three parts. If you read it, I recommend that you read all three in fairly close succession. I've immediately started the third book. It continues exactly where the second left of, without a pause.

There are a number of concurrent stories, some continued from the first book and some of which have converged. I expect that the still separate story tracks probably will converge in the third book.

From Ender's Game, we know that New Zealand pilot Mazur Rackham saved the humanity. He was introduced in the first book. His story continues in the second as he repeatedly narrowly escapes from certain death. He hasn't defeated the formics yet, so I guess that's coming in the third book. One of the heroes, Mazur's young companion, is an 8 year old boy. Card continues his fascination with exceptional young children, like Ender and his cohorts.