The Hive (The Second Formic War #2) by Orson Scott Card and Aaron Johnston
ISBN: 0765375648
Publisher: Tor Books (June 11, 2019)
Publication Date: June 11, 2019

The Hive is the next to last book in the runup to Ender’s Game. If you haven’t read the earlier books, what you need to know is that Ender’s Game was set in the Third Formic War, when we took the fight to the aliens, and Card has gone back to fill in the backstory of the First and Second wars to lead up to the classic Ender’s Game trilogy.In the first war, aliens invaded China and Mazer Rackham, who you probably remember as the hero of the Second Formic War meets up with a pack of Chinese orphans drafted into the resistance by a Colonel Li. Bingham, or “Bing.” is a sort of stand-in for Ender, insightful and just charismatic enough to lead his band of orphans into combat, and he’s developed a close relationship with Mazer.

I found the writing slow at first, but after a few chapters found myself hooked by Bing’s story, as well as the other main characters in separate storylines.

The First Formic War was fought against a scoutship and its troops, the second, starting with The Swarm and about to finish up in this and the next book, about a mothership approaching the solar system. In this book, we find that the “Buggers” have been mining asteroids to make stealth “blinds” for their ships to hide behind and the command of the International Fleet defending the solar system is rife with incompetent officers who have been promoted through favoritism and political intrigue.  It’s not just that they’re incompetent, it’s that this breeds conservative tactics when we’re facing an enemy that learns quickly and comes up with tactics that are, well, alien to us.

At fourteen, Bing has seen enough war to last a lifetime, but he’s been mercilessly trained by the Chinese Colonel Li to be a brilliant analyst and strategist, and the sort of leader the war will need. He’s formed a close bond with Mazer, whose experience and confidence adds to his own, and like Ender, in times to come, he’s able to see what the incompetent and hidebound command can’t.

Really, there are two wars being fought in this book. While the fleet battles against the aliens, a handful of people work to do something about the rot in the fleet and to provide the front lines with new ideas that they can put to work immediately, because the mothership is coming, and it’s not waiting for us to get our act together.

I’m not normally a fan of prequels for classic works, which all too often struggle to match the power of the original and wind up robbing it of its mystery and power. Yes, I’m thinking Star Wars is a perfect example. On the one hand, the Card/Johnston collaboration can’t help but do some of that, but on the other, Ender’s Game has a pretty firmly established reputation, bolstered by the movie, and I’m not too worried.

Besides, I’m looking forward to seeing how this all winds up in the final prequel: The Queens.