Orson Scott Card

[cyborg_cinema]

Originally Posted by pearce

I'd hate to think they were dumbed down...

...Ender's Game had plenty of profanity to deal with, before even thinking about making the story any simpler.

[cyborg_cinema]

Originally Posted by pearce

I very recently read Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead...

...I hope Speaker for the Dead was more mature than Ender's Game as novels.

[ScottSF]

I liked Ender's Game enough to go on to Speaker for the Dead and for me, Speaker for the Dead is several orders of magnitude better than Ender's. I am really wishing I had started reading this book on a holiday break because I do not wan't to put it down. After I finnish I'll look deeper into what other's thought but right now I"m just buzzing from the "this is the book I have been waiting for" feeling.

[alicebandassassin]

enders game is ok and somtimes i think we all wont more no matter how mutch we get i like to think if i read a book and i dont wont to stop till the end then its done its job evan if there are beter examples about you get somthing different from every book you read

[bitteroldhag]

I sort of questioned the precociousness of the children in Ender's Game, but I didn't care. It's a great read. I am reading Shadow of the Hegemon now, and it's pretty unbelievable with regard to what children can do, but Card makes sure that we understand that these kids are the ultimate geniuses. Their IQs are off the scale. I find it very interesting that the kids think like adults, or possibly like smart adults should think. Most of us don't think like that, and I like the fact that Card allows us to see kids (adults) really thinking. As a teacher, I don't see that very often. But I like to think, and I like to try to stay ahead of Bean in Shadow of the Hegemon. I haven't managed it yet although I tested out in the 99 percentile on the MAT. I don't think any of us are as smart as these kids. That makes these kids intriguing. Bean, particularly, is the product of eugenics which is becoming more and more possible with DNA studies. But overall, I just think these books are good reads. I like OSC and Kristine Kathryn Rusch almost as much as I like Terry Pratchett, and I'm a major Pratchett fan. My, as an old person I've noticed that science fiction has changed a lot over the years. I'm considering adding a Pratchett book to one of my classes and we already teach Ender's Game in young adult literature. But I'm glad to see such good critical thinking on this site.

[Commonmind]

Card's revisiting of his Ender universe is not to be blamed on a need for commercial success. He - if I'm not too out of date - still works as a professor and enjoys his work. If that is still the case, it pretty much rules out his want for financial gain. There are arguments to be made otherwise, but I don't believe that, in his case, money is the motivation behind his writing; some of it is too ephemeral, and too thematic - two concepts that do not generally sell well to the mainstream. What card does is really no different than most sci-fi and fantasy writers, he's created an epic. The absence of a numerical system seems to do him an injustice, however, as he's constantly accused of dipping into the same pot. If each book had been given a number within the series, we might not have that issue.