I just finished Children of the Mind, which brings me up to all the books written so far, including the Bean books. So I thought I’d start a thread about them.
Ender’s Game is of course a huge crossover classic. I envy anybody reading it for the first time.
At the moment I’m far more interested in the Speaker For The Dead trilogy. I thought they were fantastic books, an exploration of the morality of confronting alien races, with all the philosophy added in.
Speaker for the Dead being the beginning. Excellent characterization. The book tugged at all my heartstrings, followed by Xenocide the philosophical book of the bunch.
I wasn’t as satisfied with Children of the Mind. The books have always had the problem of devolving to two people arguing over a ethical point, and Children I thought did so at the expense of character. The splitting of Ender into three beings I never really bought into, along with the fact that it didn’t really end. I liked it, but not as an end to the series.
The Bean saga, started in Ender’s Shadow was a great reinterpretation of the first book. Interesting to see the first story told from another viewpoint. I liked Shadow of the Hegemon, but it also devolved into a mere retelling of political affiliations and “what would happen”. That story hasn’t ended, so I’m waiting to see what will happen.
Umm, Moderators? I somehow pruned the “Ender” section out of the thread title. Could you please add Orson Scott Card’s Ender Universe to clarify the thread? Thanks if you do.
Ender’s Game and Speaker for the Dead are superb stories, and should be on anyone’s reading list.
…but Xenocide and Children aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on, IMO. The sharp change in style and quality (for the worse) is so total that it’s almost as if they were written by an entirely different person. They mutilate the story so much, I regret reading them, and would have preferred to have the story trail off with the excellent Speaker.
I haven’t mustered the willpower to try the two new ones yet.
I recently found Ender’s Shadow at my library. It had been about 8 years since I had read Ender’s Game, so my memory of all that was to happen was not very sharp. Obviously, I remembered the main points, but, I didn’t even remember Bean’s role. After I finished, I went through my stack of paperbacks and found Ender’s Game. It was interesting to read it in reverse. I think that the story was just as entertaining knowing the BIG SURPRISE. I look forward to the second and third Bean novels.
The original Ender’s Game was a bracing novelette that appeared in Analog a number of years ago. (Sorry, I’m at the office before work starts. If I were home, I’d be able to grab the exact issue for you).
It had a tremendous impact, and I started looking for other work by this fellow Card. When the novel came out some years later, I was concerned that he would just pad it out, diluting its impact. As it turned out, he expanded it in the rarest of fashions, by adding depth. Masterful stuff.
I have almost always loved Card’s first book in a series. Ender’s Game was no different, a great story. Speaker was far less impressive to me, despite the fact that I speak Portuguese. I thought it was a solid book but not overwhelming like Ender’s. The last two were just flat for me. The series as a whole left me rather unsatisfied and I wish I had just stopped with Ender’s.
I seem to approach almost every series Card does almost identically. I start off in love with the concept and writing style. I am usually in awe by the end of the first book. By the second book he starts to wear on me. Latter books in the series are almost never as well done or as original as the first. And I generally end the series feeling very disatisfied.