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Orson Scott Card: Ender's Game

I read the Alvin Maker series just last year. I loved it. My wife read the first book, Seventh Son, at the same time I was reading it, so we had a lot of good discussions.
 
Definitely a Great Sci-fi book, my Marine Biology teacher recommended this and Ender's Shadow to me, told me not to bother with the rest though.
 
Sire V said:
Definitely a Great Sci-fi book, my Marine Biology teacher recommended this and Ender's Shadow to me, told me not to bother with the rest though.
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Odd, I don't think Ender's Shadow is particularly necessary, though it's quite entertaining. I'd say the best of the entire series is "Speaker for the dead". Later on I've seen complaints about it ending on a cliff hanger, but I have no memory of being irked by this myself. Frankly I felt the story closed up quite nicely, but had some "big things"(TM) quite literally hovering on the horizon. Maybe I just don't mind books that don't wrap up everything as much as some do.

I did end up reading the first of the follow-ups though, "Xenocide", which I don't particularly recommend. Never went to read the second half of it, which was released in a separate volume entitled "Children of the mind". In this case it's more or less like giving up on a book halfway.

Card himself has many times said he wrote the novelization of Ender's Game in large part as a setup for "Speaker for the dead". The book is less of a juvenile (in the SF Juveniles sense of the word) than Ender's Game though, which I think might be part of the reason some people dn't dig it. It's just a very different book both in tone and story. You don't get that warm "oh our hero is movin' on up!" feeling.

On that note, here's the original Ender's Game short story from '77:
Ender's Game short story
 
I started reading Ender's Game two days ago. I am on chapter thirteen and it is becoming one of the best books i have ever read. wouldn't it be cool if the battle game was recreated in real life (it would probably have to be done in space, it would probably be diffcult to build and run a large enough centrifuge :D)
 
Øystein said:
Card himself has many times said he wrote the novelization of Ender's Game in large part as a setup for "Speaker for the dead". The book is less of a juvenile (in the SF Juveniles sense of the word) than Ender's Game though, which I think might be part of the reason some people dn't dig it. It's just a very different book both in tone and story. You don't get that warm "oh our hero is movin' on up!" feeling.
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As much as I liked Ender's Game, I thought Speaker for the Dead was the best of the series. I liked the darker tone and the examination of the psychological effects from EG on the adult Ender. It's the same way I feel about the first two original Star Wars movies. I liked the first Star Wars (A New Hope) as a galloping space adventure, but liked Empire Stikes Back even more because of the darker, more serious tone.
 
There is going to be a movie of Ender's Game released next year, I don't think that i will go and see it because most of the movies that I have seen based on books have dissapointed me.
 
I read the first 4 original books in the Ender series years ago and loved all of them. I remember Ender's game the most. That book has always been considered to be one of the best SF books in my opinion.

Do the other books that have come out more recently compare to the original?
 
The first one, Ender's Shadow is damn good. It's basically Ender's Game told through the eyes of Bean. The others are good, but not as good as that one.
 
The Ender and Shadow Series' are my favorite books. However, I favor the Shadow Series (which follows the lives of Ender's Jeesh, and Ender's Family after Ender's Game) as I found it more humorous and less theologically/ethically oriented then the Ender Series.
 
I think it's great how Card has produced the morale/ethic dilemmas through the eyes of young characters. Read Ender's Game and plan on continuing with the series (although after reading this thread, I might be having second thoughts about that!)
 
jokewriter said:
I think it's great how Card has produced the morale/ethic dilemmas through the eyes of young characters. Read Ender's Game and plan on continuing with the series (although after reading this thread, I might be having second thoughts about that!)
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If you're like me, you'll find that each subsequent book in the series is worse than the previous one but yet you will feel compelled to read them all just to see what happens.
 
I thought Ender's Game was a very well written book. Clearly it was very well concieved by the writer - you can practically see the inspiration dripping off every word of every chapter in the book.

It's one of those books that is capable of slowing down time and making all the little things like getting dressed, going to work, eating dinner and going to sleep at night seem like little more than an intermitence to finishing what is undeniably a brilliiantly concieved plot.

Especially towards the end I was enjoying it so much that I started envisioning it as a cinematic. I can't wait to see the movie of this when it gets released - I hope it gets the presentation it deserves.

The less said about the other books in the series the better, with one exception (Ender's Shadow). For the writer - I believe Ender's Game represents the peak of his capabilities. It's the equivalent of Watchmen for Alan Moore or 1984 for George Orwell. I put this more in the entertainment catagory than the intellectual however.
 
Sure the idea of Locke and Demosthenes made perfect sense when the book came out back in the 80's. But seeing it explained like this makes it seem less plausible.

aimgs.xkcd.com_comics_locke_and_demosthenes.png

Oh xkcd, how I love thee.
 
sparkchaser said:
If you're like me, you'll find that each subsequent book in the series is worse than the previous one but yet you will feel compelled to read them all just to see what happens.
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Guess i am like you! I loved enders game, didn't care much for the rest of them. They were all enjoyable, but they just didn't hold the "magic" of enders game :)
 
I think it's great how Card has produced the morale/ethic dilemmas through the eyes of young characters.
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While a lot of the other books in the series aren't as good as Ender's Game many of them do have the ethical debate. That in itself was worth the reading for me because they made me think.
 
Ender's Game was an exceptional book.

Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide and Children of the Mind were IMNSHO progressively bizarre and difficult to read. I got through them all, but never really enjoyed them the way I did Ender's Game.

Ender's Shadow, Shadow Puppets and Shadow of the Hegemon however, I felt went right back on track as far as the original story. Much better books, and very good sequels for Ender's Game.
 
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