Other OSC books?

[Stalker]

OSC's series "The Seventh Son" or "Alvin, the Maker" is a wonderful insight to alternate American history I ever read with elements of cryptohistory "or hidden history" and it is not worse than Ender's Game series (The Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide etc.). Y
ou probably know that that was particulary Takumse's brother Tesqatawa who imposed the curse on Harrison. When the latter became the US President in 1840 he died soon after that in all presidents after him with 20 years interval: Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley, Harding, FDR, JFK. The .38 revolver bullet passed close to Reagan's heart and at Takumse's time that was a mortal wound. Probably, Ronald Reagan with his injury took off the curse?

[The Time Traveller]

Has anybody read Lovelock by OSC and Kathryn H. Kidd? It was suppose to be the first book in a trilogy. The book was excellent. Definitely his must underated book. Wyrms is another excellent book that doesn't seem to be discussed much.

[Cyril]

I read the three first books of Ender but I don't consider them as his masterpiece even if I liked them. In my opinion, OSC's masterpiece is Songmaster, one of my favorite books ever, scifi or not, poetic, tragic and sooo beautifully written. I also loved the fantasy story Hart's hope.

[-Demosthenes-]

Originally Posted by I, Brian

How about the "Tales of Alvin Maker" series? The "Homecoming" series? How about some of his standalone novels?

Paswatch was amazing, I liked it a lot. I read the first Alvin Maker and quit there.

The Homecoming series was extremely odd. Card belongs to the LDS church, and this series is a clear retelling of the Book of Mormon, just in a scifi setting. Even the names are similar.

His short stories can be bought all in one book (Maps in the Mirror, The Short Fiction of Orson Scott Card). It's a collection of the four previous books of short fiction that he published. I have it, and have read every story, and the ones I like 3 or 4 times.

Originally Posted by knivesout

These are the 'Ender's' sequels that youve read, right, not 'Speaker for the Dead' and 'Xenocide'?

Ender's Game was a short story to begin with. Card was considering writing a book about some kind of Speaker of the Dead, and decided that Ender could be the speaker. So he rewrote Ender's Game into Novel form to set up the story for Speaker of the Dead (notice the first time you read it that when you think it's over there's still 50 pages left? Set up for Speak of the Dead). And the story evolved from there.

But the books are generally considered in series, Ender's Game as book 1, Speaker for the Dead as book 2, etc. And Some have Ender's Shadow (The first in the parallel series) as book 5, etc. which is interesting.

Originally Posted by littlemissattitude

Card is an extremely bright individual. That is obvious, not only from his writing, but from his comments and his manner in panels and talks I attended the year he was guest of honor at LosCon. Life can be hard for a child growing up bright in American culture - being smart is not an especially valued characteristic; fitting in is much more valued. Additionally, the religious tradition Card grew up in (and which I have some experience with, as well) values the intelligent individual even less. That tradition also is not especially nurturing of creativity. That tradition sometimes denies these things, but I know from close experience that what I say is true.

That is a rather grand generalization.

[littlemissattitude]

Originally Posted by -Demosthenes-

That is a rather grand generalization.

Sorry, Demosthenes. Just calling them as I see them. It is a subject I have had a lot of personal experience with, and I found that to be the case probably 95 percent of the time. If you haven't found that, then you are very lucky, indeed, and more power to you. Because we don't, as a rule, disucss religion in depth here, I won't elaborate on my own experience except to say that I was often told not to question anything and that I was doing something wrong to read anything not approved. I was also advised on more than one occasion not to think so much, and was often made fun of because I had interests beyond having kids and taking care of a house. It was not a positive experience for me.

Anyway, I didn't mean to cause offense. However, that was my experience within that tradition.

[-Demosthenes-]

Originally Posted by littlemissattitude

Sorry, Demosthenes. Just calling them as I see them. It is a subject I have had a lot of personal experience with, and I found that to be the case probably 95 percent of the time. If you haven't found that, then you are very lucky, indeed, and more power to you. Because we don't, as a rule, disucss religion in depth here, I won't elaborate on my own experience except to say that I was often told not to question anything and that I was doing something wrong to read anything not approved. I was also advised on more than one occasion not to think so much, and was often made fun of because I had interests beyond having kids and taking care of a house. It was not a positive experience for me.

Anyway, I didn't mean to cause offense. However, that was my experience within that tradition.

I have extensive experience in the religion as well, and I must express that this has not been my experience. It's been stressed that I should in fact question everything, and find out for myself if I believe it or not. There were no incidences where I was told not to think, quite the opposite, I was encouraged to critically analyze every belief and test them against my own. My creativity has never been discouraged in any way, I am encouraged to do whatever I want, to exercise my moral agency and make choices for myself.

So, as your experience my have been negative, not all have, and to state that all have been negative is an unearned generalization.

[Nesacat]

My favourite and the first Card book I ever read is A Planet Called Treason. I believe it's been revised and reissued under the title Treason.

Treason is a planet supposedly without metal to which the ancestors of the inhabitants were banished from a space-faring Republic. Through the ages, the descendants of each of the banished members (mostly scientists) formed nations which warred and allied with one another to gain an advantage over their rivals. Since Treason contained no hard metals, the nations were forced to trade for it with their off-planet jailers. A condition of their sentence on the planet was that they must stay until they could produce a ship to take them off planet.

It's intriguing what each nation has to trade and what is truly happening on Treason. It's a wonderful piece of story-telling and has a twist.

[Kettricken]

I've recently read two stand-alones, "Wyrms" and "Songmaster". I've especially enjoyed the last one, a wonderful and tragic tale.
Like in Ender's game, also in Wyrms and Songmaster bright, talented young people are the protagonists. As mentioned in this thread before, I think OSC must have had a similar childhood, otherwise he has the best empathic imagination I've seen in a long while!

[Brown Rat]

I read the initial three Alvin books when they first came out, then sort of lost interest.

More recently, I read Card's Lost Boys and Folk of the Fringe. Lost Boys is very scary; the realistic setting made the supernatural elements all the more suspenseful. And, not being a member of LDS, I was intrigued by the book's insights into that church. Folk of the Fringe, a collection of long stories linked by a few recurring characters and a postapocalyptic world, was less interesting to me--but still worth reading for Card's ability to create believable characters.

[Leonardo]

Originally Posted by Lacedaemonian

How are the kids so clever? Is any indication ever given?

Well, the reason behind Beans intellect is explained thoroughly in the Shadow series. As for the Wiggins family, they have a history of brilliance - Both Enders parents, his sister and his brother are all geniuses. And if brilliance isn't a genetic trait, it's certainly a societal one.

Apart from Bean and the Wiggins, I don't think most of the kids are overly intelligent. Overly mature, maybe. But then, who wouldn't be in a situation like that.

According to the story, the Battle Academy only has a few hundred students, and only 40 are part of the group that make up Enders "jeesh". I don't think the possibility that there might be 40 ingenius kids in all of the world is completely unrealistic. : )

[Anthony G Williams]

I seem to be in a small minority, in that while I thought that the first Ender book was OK enough for me to read the next two volumes (IIRC) I stopped there, and didn't keep any of them for a re-read. I also only read the first of the Alvin Maker series and didn't like it.

OTOH, I thought that A Planet Called Treason was terrific - I must re-read it soon. I also kept Wyrms, but those are the only two of his I now have.

[Timewalker]

Has anyone here read any of his "Women of Genesis" books? They're novelizations of the lives of the female characters in Genesis: Sarah, Hagar, Rebekah, Rachel, Leah, Zilpah, and Bilhah.

I've only read the one about Rachel and Leah... and quite frankly, it's not very well written. While it's fascinating to read Card's speculations about what sort of background and lives these characters led (he begins the story when they are all in their pre-teen/early teen years), the quality of the writing itself is just... bad. It's clumsy and repetitive (how many times in the same chapter do we need to be told that Leah has "tender eyes?"), and could have used at least a couple more thorough edits before being published.

[gully_foyle]

A Planet Called Treason is on my "to read" list, because I remember being engrossed in it some 25? years ago. I haven't read the novelisation of Ender's Game, I don't think. I thought I read it as a short story back around the same time. But the first, last and only Orson Scott Card book for me is Songmaster. That is one of the few books that I clung onto from those years. It is yellowed and dog eared and looking very beaten up, but I still love that book. Maybe I found alignment with a few themes when I was a young man, but it still has a hold on me.

Hmmm... Must read it again soon.

Orson is definitely one of my favourite mormons.

[Connavar]

I found Ender's Game great and was wondering if i wanted to try more of him before finishing Ender series which ones would be good?

I specially liked the end of Ender's Game cause it got more space SF then.

It sounds like A Planet Called Treason like something i might enjoy.

Anything else of that are very good? Some short story?

[Ragnar]

Originally Posted by Connavar of Rigante

I found Ender's Game great and was wondering if i wanted to try more of him before finishing Ender series which ones would be good?

The rest of the Ender series are very different from the original novel - no less brilliant (Speaker for the Dead is awesome) but Card takes them in a completely different direction & I guarantee they won't be what you are expecting. According to the man himself, the real sequels to Enders Game are the 'Shadow...' series - the first of which parallels the original novel but from Bean's perspective & then follows on from there.

The Alvin Maker series is very readable alternative history/fantasy but it does sometimes get a bit preachy