Children of the Fleet (2017)
Children of the Fleet is a 2017 fiction book written by Orson Scott Card.
With the Formic wars over, the old Battle School has become Fleet School, training bright children not for combat but to lead colony ships to the terraformed worlds the aliens left behind. Dabeet Ochoa is brilliant, prickly, and certain he has no path into the Fleet, since he has no connections there. That he knows of. Then Colonel Graff arrives to interview him, and Dabeet's careful assumptions about his own past begin to crack. Card returns solo to the Enderverse with a story set among the recruits who inherit the peace Ender Wiggin secured, running parallel to the Ender's Shadow books.
Quick answers
What is Children of the Fleet about?
With the Formic wars over, the old Battle School has become Fleet School, training bright children not for combat but to lead colony ships to the terraformed worlds the aliens left behind. Dabeet Ochoa is brilliant, prickly, and certain he has no path into the Fleet, since he has no connections there. That he knows of. Then Colonel Graff arrives to interview him, and Dabeet's careful assumptions about his own past begin to crack. Card returns solo to the Enderverse with a story set among the recruits who inherit the peace Ender Wiggin secured, running parallel to the Ender's Shadow books.
When was Children of the Fleet published?
Children of the Fleet was published on 10 October 2017.
Who made Children of the Fleet?
Children of the Fleet was written by Orson Scott Card.
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Children of the Fleet in our writing
A few thoughts on Children of the Fleet
The gifted-kids-under-pressure setup and Fleet School's psychological tests make the film Ender's Game a natural next stop, showing the Battle School station these recruits inherit. For the colony-founding future they are being groomed to build, Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri turns terraforming and ideological factions into strategy. In print, Ender's Shadow remains the closest companion.
The Shadow series that runs in parallel to this book
Children of the Fleet is set to run parallel with the Shadow books, following Fleet School while Bean's own story, first seen in the original Ender's Game, plays out elsewhere in the timeline. Ender's Shadow puts Bean through the same Battle School Dabeet only hears about secondhand, and Shadow of the Hegemon, Shadow Puppets and Shadow of the Giant carry him into the political fallout the Fleet's newest recruits inherit.
The First and Second Formic Wars that made Fleet School necessary
Dabeet trains at Fleet School because two wars against the Formics already happened. Earth Unaware, Earth Afire and Earth Awakens trace the first invasion from a lone mining ship's warning to a desperate strike against the alien scout. The Swarm and The Hive follow the second conflict from the opposite side, filling in exactly why the Fleet needed an entirely new generation of leaders.
Leading colonists to the worlds a war left behind
Fleet School trains commanders for colony ships bound for terraformed Formic worlds, not for more combat. Card's own Homecoming saga, from The Memory of Earth through The Ships of Earth, Earthfall and Earthborn, follows a different group of colonists learning to lead a fresh settlement after fleeing a dying world. Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri hands you that same job directly: governing a new civilization far from a ruined Earth.
Ender's own path once the fighting is over
Children of the Fleet unfolds among the peacetime recruits who never knew Ender Wiggin personally, training in the school built on his legacy. Ender in Exile picks up Andrew's own story right after the war ends, and Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide and Children of the Mind follow him decades further, long after Fleet School's newest cadets have grown into the leaders this book is training.