Once Scott and I had a basic framework of the world, we began populating it with characters. We knew from the get-go that we weren't writing Ender's Game. This wouldn't be the story of a single hero; it would be the story of many.
The challenge was, we were writing a comic book. And comic books, in case you've never counted, are generally twenty-two pages long. You can only squeeze so many panels of art onto a page, and the more dialogue you write, the more art you cover up. So it's best to be extremely economical with words. Some of the ideas and characters that Scott and I were developing simply wouldn't fit in the comics.
Around this time Marvel introduced Scott and me to the art of Giancarlo Caracuzzo, who blew us away with his environments and characters and style. The immensely talented Jim Charalampidis joined as colorist, and in no time, beautifully vibrant pages of the comic began popping up in our inboxes.
Creating comics is much like filmmaking in that's it a highly collaborative process. Ideas can come from anywhere, and the contributions of each individual shape the outcome for everyone. The character of Victor Delgado, for example, will always exist in my head exactly as Giancarlo drew him. And the muted earth tones that Jim gave El Cavador are the colors I see whenever I think of the ship.
There were other people involved in the comics, of course, but the person who deserves the most credit and a lifelong standing ovation is Jordan D. White, our editor at Marvel, who had a hand in every aspect of the comics and who may be the nicest person working in the industry today. (You should follow him on Twitter at @cracksh0t. That's a zero, not the letter O.)
Additional thanks go to Jake Black, Billy Tan, Guru-eFX, Cory Petit, Jenny Frison, Salvador Larroca, Aron Lusen, Bryan Hitch, Paul Mounts, Arune Singh, John Paretti, Joe Quesada, and everyone else at Marvel.
As Scott and I continued to develop the stories for each issue, we continued to create story elements that simply wouldn't fit in the comics. To give you a sense of what I mean, this novel only includes the story contained in the first three issues of the comics. And not even the complete story of those issues; there are bits of issues two and three that won't exist in novel form until a subsequent book.
So Scott and I had to make some concessions and exclude people and events from the comics that we knew would only exist in the novels. If you've read the comics as well as this book, you've likely noticed some of the changes. Scott and I think of it this way: The comics are an adaptation of the novels even though the comics existed before the novels. Or perhaps it might be more accurate to say: The comics are an expansion of the backstory of Ender's Game and an adaptation of the novels that followed them. Hmm. Think about that too much and you might get dizzy. Of course, this practice of evolving a story is nothing new to the Ender universe. Remember, Ender's Game began as a novelette.
As for this novel, thanks goes to everyone at Tor, especially our editor, Beth Meacham, whose wise counsel was critical in bringing the novel to life. Additional thanks go to Kathleen Bellamy, Kristine Card, and my wife, Lauren Johnston, for their careful reading of the manuscript and constant encouragement. Thanks also to the children still living in the Card and Johnston homes, for their patience as Scott and I closed ourselves in our respective offices to make this novel happen. Thank you, Zina, Luke, Jake, Layne, and little Meg. We couldn't have done it without you.
By Orson Scott Card from Tom Doherty Associates Empire
The Folk of the Fringe Future on Fire (editor) Future on Ice (editor) Invasive Procedures (with Aaron Johnston) Keeper of Dreams
Lovelock (with Kathryn Kidd) Maps in a Mirror: The Short Fiction of Orson Scott Card Orson Scott Card's InterGalactic Medicine Show Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus Saints
Songmaster
Treason
A War of Gifts
The Worthing Saga
Wyrms
THE TALES OF ALVIN MAKER
Seventh Son
Red Prophet
Prentice Alvin
Alvin Journeyman
Heartfire
The Crystal City
ENDER
Ender's Game
Ender's Shadow
Shadows in Flight
Shadow of the Hegemon Shadow Puppets
Shadow of the Giant
Speaker for the Dead Xenocide
Children of the Mind First Meetings
Ender in Exile
HOMECOMING
The Memory of Earth
The Call of Earth
The Ships of Earth
Earthfall
Earthborn
WOMEN OF GENESIS
Sarah
Rebekah
Rachel & Leah
From Other Publishers
Enchantment
Homebody
Lost Boys
Magic Street
Stone Father
Stone Tables
Treasure Box
How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy Characters and Viewpoint
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the authors' imaginations or are used fictitiously.
EARTH UNAWARE
Copyright (c) 2012 by Orson Scott Card and Aaron Johnston All rights reserved.
A Tor Book
Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC
175 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10010
www.tor-forge.com
Tor(r) is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.
ISBN 978-0-7653-2904-2 (hardcover) ISBN 9781429946568 (e-book) First Edition: July 2012
Orson Scott Card, Earth Unaware
(Series: The First Formic War # 1)
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