There are no more Enderverse books left to read. This summer, another will come along in the prequel trilogy, but for now I have to read something else. I just finished Earth Unaware, the first in said prequel trilogy about the first alien invasion. It was the first of the Enderverse to be coauthored, so if I were to give my suspicions, the concepts were Orson Scott Card's, but the story was put into words by Aaron Johnston.

What to say, I finished a couple of weeks ago, so some of it is escaping me. The story starts with a family of "freeminers" mining for ore in the Kuiper belt. It sets up an interesting culture of clans who travel and remain in space their entire lives, given the difficulty in covering such vast distances with our relatively slow speeds (near light-travel is not yet attainable). One clan discovers an alien vessel approaching the Sol system, and as they prepare to get a message to earth, a corporate mining ship with its own (unrelated) agenda damages them. As a result, it becomes drastically more difficult to sound the alarm, and the good guys have to figure out an alternative while also attempting to interfere with the aliens' approach.

I won't provide any real spoilers in this one. I'll just say that the book pulls no punches. You grow to care about these new characters, and the authors feel little guilt killing off some of those you hope most to live, while allowing scumbags to survive. The brutal realities of the dangers of space travel are made quite apparent. In fact, I'd say this book is the most scientifically in-depth and accurate and descriptive (with believable technobabble) I've read in all the Enderverse's stories; I suspect this was a major contribution from Johnston. For those who enjoyed Ender's Game but felt all subsequent books were too cerebral and lacking in excitement, this one might better appeal to you--it really is action-packed and frightening at times. I recommend it.