Please tell me someone has read this book, because it has to be one of the best book (series) ever written... Discuss
I love Enders Game. Sadly Card is just a one hit wonder cause everything else He's written that I've read isn't that good. But I'll be darned if Ender's Game isn't one of the best pieces I've ever read.
Ender's Game was probably his best, Lordofhats, but have you read Ender's Shadow? I personally loved that one just as well, probably because Bean was my favorite character in the original (other than Ender himself) and because it gives a much more detailed account of life on Earth before he's recruited. There's also a splendid subplot not even hinted at in EG, which is really worth checking out. I've read a few of the Ender sequels, but I don't quite like them as well. Hmm... I think I'm due for another reread of those two books... I've only read them like... seven times?
I've read all 8 of the books- the 4 Ender books and the 4 Bean books- and am eagerly awaiting the next one, Shadows in Flight, which is supposed to tie the two storylines together. I think the reason people didn't like the other books is because they were dramatic genre shifts. Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow are both action-y, psychological-y sci-fi, "fight the aliens", type stuff. But the other 3 Ender books are much more slow-paced and thoughtful- very hard science fiction, mostly about genetics. These also have gripping conflicts, they just take place over a longer period. Meanwhile, the Bean books, while closer to the original genre, are still different in that they are very political thrillers- the suspense takes place in the form of nations and psychology. It's something you have to really sit yourself down for, and requires a longer attention span that the first books of both cycles.
I'm loving Ender's Game, reading it for the first time, if the others are anything like it I'll read them as well.
True, true. That could explain why I got bored with them. I was only twelve, after all. Maybe I should try to get back into them... By the way, what was the second Ender book? I vaguely remember it--something about the native aliens trying to grow trees with dismembered bodies... and the buggers turned out to be semi-not bad... I need to track that one down.
The book you're thinking of is Speaker for the Dead. In the far, far future, an adult Ender, now shunned for killing the buggers (Who were revealed to be sentient beings), winds up on a distant colony and must a) reunite a family and b) solve a long-standing biological mystery involving another race of sentient beings on the planet, with the help of his new companion, the computer-girl Jane.
Ender's Game is a fantastic book. I just hope the film they're making of the book won't destroy it for me. Fingers crossed.
I normally go out of my way to avoid science fiction/fantasy writing, but I did really enjoy Ender's Game when I read it. I've heard that the rest of the books in the series are awful, as lordofhats said, but I'm willing to read one or two of them before I subscribe to that.
Its been in production limbo for a long long time. They keep writing and dumping screenplays adn the movie doesn't have any capital backing (Money kills in the movie industry). I don't think its ever going to make it. Normally a film that is in limbo for this long never survives and those that do often suck. I'm not looking forward to it.
"Ender's Game" is one of my favorite books. Unfortunately, I don't think the rest of the series quite lives up it to.
LoH...you changed your avatar. Anyway, yeah, I see how it probably won't happen. If they ever do get around to making it, they'll probably make so many directorial edits that it won't be what I envisioned anyway. So I won't get my hopes up.
if its any consolation to the movie issue apparently they're making an ender's game game. I totally forgot about this thread 0_o
Yeah, but from what I heard it's going to be based on the Battle Room... and let's be frank, the Battle Room is pretty bland. Although nothing would please me more than throwing on a flash suit and leading Dragon Army to victory, I think this game and genre would lend itself better as an RTS. I can totally see the game being based on the Commander school that Ender was sent to at the end, and the player would be able to take up Ender's role and command a fleet of pilots.
read this, a nice little interview with card on gaming etc. http://news.filefront.com/gaming-todays-exclusive-interview-with-author-orson-scott-card/
I'm quite mad now. My library has Ender's Shadow, Speaker for the Dead, Shadow of the Hedgemon, and Xenocide.... but no Ender's Game. I know I don't technically have to read it again (Having read both it and Shadow three or four times), but I really want to...
I'm actually a bigger fan of Speaker for the Dead. I guess I'm one of the few.... It's a lot slower, and I think switching from the (comparatively) action-heavy Ender's Game to Speaker can be weird. I didn't like it when I first read it (12?), but it's grown on me. It speaks a lot more to me about life: dealing with death, family, acceptance of others -- odd things coming from a Mormon author. The third and fourth are definitely not as good. On the movie, I have a friend who actually works for Card. Apparently, Card has been flying out to California to "talk" about the movie, so something may be happening. I also read and saw a rehearsal for a play that Card wrote and directed recently. The mighty have fallen....
