In the future, mankind has been united - more or less - under a global government. It has been united even more by the arrival of the buggers, insectlike aliens who
have twice nearly defeated Earth's primitive space defense forces. With a third invasion imminent, the Interstellar Fleet searches for a new commander like the legendary
Mazer Rackham, who rose from obscurity and rallied a handful of battered ships to victory during the Second Invasion. With six-year-old Ender Wiggins, they believe the
search is over.
Ender is an anomaly, and has been since birth. A child genius, he is also a rare, government-sanctioned third child in his family, permitted to be born because both his
brother Peter and sister Valentine were so close to what the Fleet wanted. His childhood, never normal, ends the day Colonel Graff tells him he's been selected for
training. Now, he's on his way to Battle School, the orbiting training center where boys (and a few girls) from the world over are being trained for the wars of the future,
wars with no gravity, no boundaries... and no rules.
Review
I don't read many sci-fi novels that don't wander into the realm of science fantasy, but I thought I'd make an exception after this book was recommended to me. I'm very
glad I did. Though the science is sound (for the universe, at least) and reasonably-well explained, the main focus here is Ender, and how the making of humanity's savior
leads to the near-total destruction of a human. The games he plays aren't limited to the battle sims, and are just as interesting to read about as his null-gravity war games.
An excellent tale, and the start of a series that many consider a sci-fi classic. If the second book is any indication, the Young Adult tag (for the Starscape edition,
marketed to teens and preteens) doesn't apply to any but the first in the series.
It has been three thousand years since the end of the Bugger Wars and the beginning of humanity's era of interstellar colonization. In that time, the name of Ender Wiggins
has become an epithet, the boy himself branded the Xenocide for his decisive and devastating conclusion to the Wars that wiped out the bugger species. And it is only now,
three thousand years later, that humans have encountered another sentient alien life form.
The "piggies", as they're colloquially called by the colonists of Lusitania, are primitive hunter-gatherers, not a space-traveling species or threat to the human race, but
nobody wants to make the same mistakes that led to the extinction of the buggers. Unfortunately, the piggies have started to kill the xenologers sent to study them in an
extremely gruesome manner. It will take a very special person - a Speaker for the Dead, in the tradition of the anonymous author of the book that made people realize the
truth behind the buggers after their slaughter - to unravel the mystery of the killings and the piggies themselves. A person who, through the time dilation effects of
interstellar travel, is still alive after three thousand years, though no one but his sister knows his true identity. The original Speaker for the Dead himself: Ender
Wiggins, the Xenocide.
Review
This one definitely won't be earning the Young Adult marker. Card weaves a fantastically complex story set on a larger scale than Ender's Game, yet with a stronger
look into the humanity (and alienness) of the characters. Though humans have spread to the stars, partially on the back of relic bugger technology, they bring their old
habits, superstitions, and prejudices with them. An excellent and memorable tale.
The Starways Congress has sent a fleet of destroyers to the breakaway world of Lusitania. Here, humans live in uneasy coexistence with the only other known sentient life
form: the pequeninos, or "piggies," who have evolved to depend on a dangerously destructive virus known as the descolada. Also, unknown to most, the last queen of the bugger
race has been revived by Andrew "Ender" Wiggin on Lusitania, and she is slowly rebuilding her species. Congress fears the descolada, which infects all life forms and, unless
controlled, destroys them utterly... but without it, the piggies would die and Lusitania's ecosystem would collapse. The piggies want to follow humanity into the stars, and
the hive queen has made no secret of her own desire to send offspring to other worlds, but with them they would always carry the devastating descolada, as do all humans now
living on the world. It was to save the piggies that Lusitania cut itself off from the rest of the Hundred Worlds. It is to destroy the piggies that the Hundred Worlds has
sent its fleet. The ships carry with them a Molecular Disruptor device, powerful enough to destroy the very matter of the planet of Lusitania. Also being threatened is Jane,
the unique sentient entity that has formed along the vast ansible networks of the Hundred Worlds' computers. All of these events are part of a great puzzle that may best even
Ender's talents to solve.
Review
I knocked this one down a point for spending a little too much time on talk and philosophy and not quite enough on actually doing anything. To be sure, Card's prose is
well written, but after a while I was getting antsy for something to happen to advance the plot. Still, this is a very interesting series of books.
Jane, the self-aware electronic life form, has developed a way to bypass lightspeed barriers by transporting vessels instantaneously from one location to the next, an
ability she will lose when the Starways Congress cuts all ansible connections and reboots their systems from scratch, with protocols designed to prevent the "subversive
virus" from infiltrating the computers again. As the three species of Lusitania - human, piggy, and bugger - race to exploit Jane's ability and transport as many colonists
to other worlds as possible in the time they have, Ender finds his own life fading away. During his first trip Outside, where Jane takes vessels between locations, his
subconscious created two "mindchildren": a young, idealized replica of his sister Valentine, and an equally "idealized" version of his long-dead brother Peter, who once
rose to rule all of Earth despite a streak of brutality. Ender's life-force cannot sustain three bodies for long, but while they exist they are being put to good use. Young
Val and Miro, one of Ender's adopted children, are scouting colony planets. The mindchild Peter, having completed his first mission to the Taoist world of Path, is out to
stop the fleet sent by Starways Congress from destroying Lusitania by any means necessary - just the sort of task the original Peter Wiggins excelled at. The final
countdown is on...
Review
This one drifted too far into the underlying sociological, political, and psychological struggles. It made for interesting reading, but more than once I felt like
reminding the characters that, while they were arguing points of politics and playing mind-games with one another, there was a fleet on its way to Lusitania that intended
to blow the planet and anyone left on it out of the stars, and perhaps that should be worth a little more of their attention at the moment. On the whole, I think the Ender
quartet ran about half a book too long, though the prose was usually good enough that I didn't care. (I now see that there's a fifth book; between the story running out of
steam and the author's increasingly abrasive politics, which trickle into his works, I won't be reading on.)
Bean is a puny kid from the streets of Rotterdam, a calculating genius in a four-year-old body. Here, he has learned to survive, but until Sister Carlotta
recognizes his potential and gets him into the Interstellar Fleet's legendary Battle School, he never found a true reason to live. In Battle School, among other prodigies being
groomed for future command of Earth's forces, Bean proves himself to be a genius among geniuses, but there is one person here he considers his superior. One person better suited
to lead Earth against the looming Third Invasion of the alien Buggers. One person who combines genius like his own with the people skills and power of personality that he lacks.
That boy is Ender Wiggins, and Bean is determined to help him succeed. The fate of Earth may very well depend on it.
Review
This is a parallel novel to Card's Ender's Game, but is far more than a simple retelling of Ender's story. Bean has his story, and he tells it brilliantly here.
His intelligence is a boon, but hampered by his inability to really understand other humans, whom he sees as impossibly obtuse on many levels; even Ender earns his contempt,
until Bean figures out there's a lot more to life, and to war, than raw intellect. This book is also published by Starscape as a Young Adult title, and intelligent young
adults should be fine with it.
The Enderverse series: The Shadow series, Book 2 Orson Scott Card Tor Fiction, Sci-Fi Themes: Altered DNA, Epics, Space Stories ****
Description
The interstellar Bugger War is over, as is the brief planetside League War that followed. At last, the young commanders from the orbiting Battle School have been sent
home, including the members of Ender's team (except for Ender himself: considered too valuable a tool, he was shipped off to humanity's first interplanetary colonies.)
Soon, those elite strategists start disappearing, kidnapped by various governments seeking to turn the loss of an alien enemy into an opportunity for long-suppressed
national dreams of power and glory. At last, only Bean, the least physically impressive (but most intelligent) member of Ender's group, is left, and he comes to suspect
an old enemy as being behind the abductions.
Achilles was a cripple on the streets of Rotterdam, a psychopath who was briefly admitted to Battle School - before Bean got him to confess his many crimes, confessions
that got him expelled. Now healed, he's intent on uniting the world under his rule. With Earth's top strategists in his grasp, it seems he will win, but Bean isn't about
to give up. In desperation, he turns to the one person who may have enough influence to help him: Peter Wiggin, Ender's slightly sadistic older brother, who is determined
to take up the office of world Hegemon for himself.
Review
Bean's story continues to grow in a different direction than Ender's. Both have their own tragic pasts to overcome, but both handle this handicap in different ways. This
is a great story, with intelligent people acting intelligently on a consistent basis. International struggles are nicely balanced with personal struggles, in such a way that
I never felt that the story was too large to understand. I am looking forward to the next two books, promised by the author in the afterword.
Bean, the once-tiny genius, has grown into a giant: the altered genes responsible for his prodigious intellect and nearly-preternatural intuition also cause him to grow
perpetually, dooming him to a premature death. Though he has fallen in love with fellow Battle School graduate Petra, he has vowed never to pass on his mutation to a new
generation. It's not like he has time for a family, anyway. Peter Wiggins, in his latest move as Hegemon, has decided that Bean's arch-enemy Achilles needs to be under
closer surveillance, and orchestrates the traitor's "rescue" from China. While Peter studies Achilles, however, Achilles isn't about to pass up this chance to manipulate
his way back into the saddle of world events. By the time Bean's warnings sink in, it may be too late.
Review
This book bogged down in the whole Bean's-baby mess, likely an extention of the author's (rather vocal) religious views. Essentially, the idea behind the whole subplot
is that any human who fails to reproduce early and often - despite incredible risk to offspring of debilitating disease - is a waste of life. Petra the genius suddenly
decides that her life will have no meaning if she doesn't bear Bean's children. Bean the genius decides he's being selfish withholding that fulfillment from her. I wonder
if Card got paid extra for each time he used the phrase "making babies." It grew to take over way, way too much of the story for my tastes. I read these books because they
are about intelligent people acting intelligently, not intelligent people playing fertility games. It might have been less annoying had I been convinced that Bean and Petra
had some sort of emotional bond, but the book itself states that they mainly got married so they could legally seek out fertility options. All the time spent on Bean and
Petra fretting over reproduction detracted from the other story... the minor little subplot about the entire world being on the brink of war. Call me crazy, but the latter
plot seemed to deserve a little more page count than the former. I no longer have any interest in pursuing the fourth and final installment of Bean's saga.
The Genre Writing series Orson Scott Card Writer's Digest Books Nonfiction, Writing *****
Description
What does it take to write a good sci-fi or fantasy story? Do you just throw random characters onto an alien world or into an enchanted forest and call it quits? Do you
spend years designing the perfect starship and leave the rest to fall into place? Is it easier or harder to get published in this field? Orson Scott Card, a successful
author, offers advice and pointers for the aspiring sci-fi/fantasy author.
Review
This is an excellent book (Card's personal politics notwithstanding), possibly the best I've read on the specific needs of specfic writing. Card's approach isn't as cold
or academic as some writing instruction books I've seen. In addition to general hints on how to construct (and fix) a story, he discusses things the author should keep in
mind, traps to avoid in writing and in the writer's lifestyle. He offers overviews of things to keep in mind when constructing specfic stories and worlds, as well as notes
on character creation and other cross-genre issues. I see myself as he describes many problems and pitfalls of the amateur and novice writer. Now, let's see if I have the
discipline to follow his suggestions to find a way out...
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