The Hive (3/5)
This is the second installment in the Second Formic War trilogy. You might recall awhile ago that I reviewed The Swarm, the first installment in said trilogy. When I did so, I ranked it as being among the best Enderverse novels. This however, I rank as being among the weakest. Which is kind of odd, because The Hive doesn't really do anything differently from The Swarm. It's effectively more of the same. However, having read said book, there's a number of shortcomings I feel can explain why I was less enamoured with this book than its predecessor (apart from familiarity breeding cotnempt I suppose):
-Throughout the book, we're constantly reminded that the war against the formics is going very poorly for the IF. However, we don't actually see much of that. We're told, rather than shown it, with the protagonists mostly being far away from the fighting bar a few exceptions where we see the action up close and personal. Again, this isn't really a bad thing. The Swarm didn't do much close quarters combat, and the Enderverse has never really been based around action. In Ender's Game, the final battle is Ender simply giving orders to a fleet from Eros. However, I think the constant barrage of bad news within the book kind of got me to drown it out. I already know what the ending is, because this is a prequel, and how that ending will come about, plus what will happen in the hundred years between this trilogy and the events of Ender's Game. Is "prequelitis" a word? Cause this book may have it.
-There's a core plot point (or at least theme) that the IF is beset by incompetent commanders, while a number of individuals on Earth want to pursue political/personal gain over all else. Now, this isn't too bad a plot point, but it's a tired one, and rammed home a lot. Also, maybe I'm idealistic, but if humanity was faced with alien invasion, one that would presumably result in human extinction if it succeeded, I think most people, even those in power, would put the survival of the human race over personal gain. Yes yes, I know, climate change, but the formics are a tangible threat that can be defeated in tangible ways (guns, bombs, bullets). Thing is, there's arguably an in-universe precedent for this, considering that the IF is a new space force, and if you're drafting 'grounders' from Earth's armed forces to fight in a new environment, then not everyone's going to be up to snuff, but still, it hammers it home.
-National stereotypes are a thing. Now, they've arguably always been a thing, but here...well, let's see. The Russians want control of the Hegemony. Ukko Jukes wants an American as hegemon because America is just so damn awesome (there could be intended self-deprication here, but if so, it's damn subtle). Also, Somali space pirates. They're a thing. They were a thing in the past book, and they're a thing here, and of course they're brutal fuckers who have multiple women, who raid, space stations which they call New Somalia, and ugh. I mean, look. The setting's always had an emphasis on nationality, which remains a thing throughout much of its in-universe history, but these are stereotypes, and tired stereotypes at that. Which is odd, because when you consider the First/Second Formic War trilogy material up to this point, it's actually been pretty good with the nationality thing. The characters come from a diverse range of nationalities/ethnicites, but that never felt like the be all and end all of their characters. So when you get Somali space pirates, it feels out of sync with the rest of the book, but again, feels very, very tired. Or I dunno, maybe Somali pirates will still be a thing in the year 2118, and this book predicted the future.
-Not really an issue, but y'know in prequels how there's sometimes a tendency to name drop, or have stuff that only fans will recognise? Like, if I wrote a Star Wars prequel set thousands of years before the films, and name dropped a character after a period of time as being "Bob Skywalker?' Yeah. That thing. This book knows it's a prequel to Ender's Game, and as we get closer and closer to the book's events, we start to see the beginnings of Battle School, of the toon armies, and towards the end, Eros is dropped as a bombshell. Now, this works. Mostly. What doesn't work however, is when Ukko and Lem discuss the Third Invasion. As in, invading the formics' homeworld, foreshadowing the events of Ender's Game. This is kind of bizzare, because they're discussing an invasion using technology that doesn't even exist yet, against a world that they don't know the location of, in the midst of a war that they'll very likely lose. Lem, as if voicing the "huh?" reaction of the reader, points this out, and all Ukko can say is that he lacks vision. I mean, again, "huh?"
-There's a fair bit of filler in the novel, or at least what feels like filler. I suspect that this might be due to it being the second book in a trilogy, and therefore in a space where it needs to pad things. A lot of conversations go on way longer than they feel they need to, and a times, there aren't even conversations. For instance, there's a point where a character has to decide between Option A and Option B. The stakes are high. Fair enough. Only this is a period of self-reflection that takes up almost the entirety of a chapter, the only 'covnersation' being with his shipboard computer.
That aside, the strengths of the novel remain from the previous one, in that the characters remain engaging, the writing is good (filler aside), and it does have its space mechanics down pretty good, or at least I assume so. As in, accounting for transmission time, G-forces, fuel consumption, etc. Also, it conveys that the Sol system is really, REALLY big in a setting where FTL travel doesn't exist yet, and even then, space is still big. Also three-dimensional, as the IF and formics engage 'above' and 'below' the Sol system as opposed to a more traditional 2D war among planet rotations. But still, I didn't like this book as much as the last one. Might be because it has noticable flaws, while its strengths were already established in the previous novel. But it's a damn sight better than Children of the Fleet, and hopefully I'll be able to get the third book in the trilogy when it comes out.
