Book: The Ender Series

[saman]

I'm pretty sure there are a lot of people around here who have either heard of this series, read it, and/or are fans of it. This thread is therefore devoted to the discussion of these books.

For those who don't know, this series, and particularly the first book, Ender's Game, is one of the most prominent science fiction set of novels in this day and age. The author is Orson Scott Card.

Andrew "Ender" Wiggin thinks he is playing computer simulated war games; he is, in fact, engaged in something far more desperate. The result of genetic experimentation, Ender may be the military genius Earth desperately needs in a war against an alien enemy seeking to destroy all human life. The only way to find out is to throw Ender into ever harsher training, to chip away and find the diamond inside, or destroy him utterly. Ender Wiggin is six years old when it begins. He will grow up fast.

But Ender is not the only result of the experiment. The war with the Buggers has been raging for a hundred years, and the quest for the perfect general has been underway almost as long. Ender's two older siblings, Peter and Valentine, are every bit as unusual as he is, but in very different ways. While Peter was too uncontrollably violent, Valentine very nearly lacks the capability for violence altogether. Neither was found suitable for the military's purpose. But they are driven by their jealousy of Ender, and by their inbred drive for power. Peter seeks to control the political process, to become a ruler. Valentine's abilities turn more toward the subtle control of the beliefs of commoner and elite alike, through powerfully convincing essays. Hiding their youth and identities behind the anonymity of the computer networks, these two begin working together to shape the destiny of Earth-an Earth that has no future at all if their brother Ender fails.

Newsday said of this novel "Card has done strong work before, but this could be the book to break him out of the pack." It was. Ender's Game took the sf world by storm, sweeping the awards. It won both the Hugo and Nebula, and rose to the top of national bestseller lists.

After Ender's Game, the series continues to become a quartet. The rest of the books in the series, in order, are:

Speaker for the Dead.

Xenocide.

Children of the Mind.

OSC has also written a quartet series of books paralleling the Ender series, known as the Shadow series, which is set in the same universe, but has a different protagonist. This thread is only to discuss the Ender series. If you wish to discuss the Shadow series, please make a new thread about it.

[Ryllharu]

I wouldn't say they parallel, only the first does. The remained of the Shadow series take place between Ender's Game and Speaker.

Xenocide was always my favorite of the original four, though after I got a little older I warmed up to Children of the Mind a lot more, and now that may be my favorite. I suspect that I didn't fully understand it back when I read it. However, after taking a class in college that included Buddhism and Hinduism, Children clicks together even more.

I also recommend reading the afterwords written by Card. They illuminate a lot more about the books.

[Munsu]

Finally someone took the plunge and started a book discussion!!

Will keep this in mind for after I finish the books I'm currently reading and planning to read.... they're quite a few, about a fifteen or so. Certainly looks interesting and something I would enjoy.

[darkmetal505]

I've read both series, but I barely remember anything past Ender's game, just vague details about the piggies, buggers, and Jane.

I remember enjoying them all thoroughly, albeit the latter ones, like Ryllharu pointed out, require some more in depth analysis.

[saman]

I wouldn't say they parallel, only the first does. The remained of the Shadow series take place between Ender's Game and Speaker.

that's a good point. card himself has called ender's shadow a novel parallel to ender's game, but the rest of the series' don't match up in timelines.

i will admit, i'm not crazy about children of the mind or the end of xenocide, although most of xenocide was amazing, with the asian planet that had the ocd. the parts about jumping "outside" and stuff seemed really farfetched to me, and osc didn't really seem to mind that he didn't elaborate further on how that was possible. then again, i read it a while ago, so it's possible that i just didn't understand.

darkmetal, osc's currently working on a novel that's supposed to bridge the gap between the two series. it's called "shadows in flight". you may want to brush up on both series if you're interested in that one when it comes out.

bud, here's a link to the first chapter of ender's game, if you're interested.

[TheBladeChild]

OMFG finally, someone mensioned this series! This is my favorite book series of all time.

[Paulyboy]

How can you forget the Home series they were bad ass as well, Nafai is like a god in that book basically. I suggest it to everybody.

[Sapphire]

I read up to Shadow of the Hegemon, but I forgot everything that happened, so I'll reread.

I remember emailing Orson Scott Card asking about an inconsitency of the plot in one of his books 5 years ago, but he never replied back, LOL.

[saman]

How can you forget the Home series they were bad ass as well, Nafai is like a god in that book basically. I suggest it to everybody.

i didn't. the homecoming series is one of my favourite series by OSC. but this thread isn't to discuss everything ever written by him, just the ender series. if you want to discuss the homecoming series, i suggest you make another thread about it.

[TheBladeChild]

Well I have read all the books with the exception of "War of gifts"

Anyway some news that I forgot to post a while back but a graphic novel adaptation was announced by marvel comics.

you can see the interview here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mESAXtS672M

Now is only the movie will come out eventually -.-

[Sapphire]

They have been literally trying to write the movie for at least 5 years. It makes me sad.