Ender’s Shadow is and always has been one of my favorite books in this series. Bean, even smarter than Ender and not hindered by all those guilty feelings, just fascinates me. As with the others, I listened to this on audiobook and the narrators continued their awesomeness. Ender’s Shadow acts as a companion novel to Ender’s Game — you don’t need to read Ender’s Game first, but I still recommend that you do. Ender’s Shadow works best to flesh out that already existing story. “That was interesting, to find that […]
Resolution for Lusitania
The final book of the Ender quintet finally provides some resolution for the planet of Lusitania (which has had an armed fleet aimed at it for the last 2 novels). It also wraps up some other storylines nicely, and gives us a good taste of one of my favorite power couples — Si Wang-Mu and the reincarnation of Peter Wiggin. “Changing the world is good for those who want their names in books. But being happy, that is for those who write their names in the […]
So. Much. Talking.
Orson Scott Card wrote Xenocide after the original Ender’s Game, and Speaker for the Dead. Then he went back and wedged in Ender in Exile between the first two, so I guess technically this is the fourth book…but it’ll always be third in my heart! It’s also third in my list of favorites of the original quintet. “The wise are not wise because they make no mistakes. They are wise because they correct their mistakes as soon as they recognize them.” So the fleet is still on its way […]
Speaker Andrew
In his introduction to Speaker for the Dead, Orson Scott Card explains that THIS was the book he wanted to write all along, and while he’s very pleased that Ender’s Game has done so well, that he really just intended it as an introduction to Speaker for the Dead. I remember being really confused by that as a kid, because while I liked Speaker for the Dead and Xenocide just fine, I didn’t think they were as good as my beloved Ender’s Game. As I’ve gotten older and reread the […]
Let’s go to battle school for a while
I read Ender’s Game for the first time when I was maybe 8 or 9 years old. I remember distinctly that my mom borrowed it from the library for herself, but I thought it was for me and had the whole thing read by the time she noticed I stole it from her bag. That’s the appeal of the Ender books — particularly the first — children and adults can both enjoy and learn from them. I’ve reread Ender’s Game and its sequels every few years […]
It’s the end of the world as we know it…
Ender’s Game arrived in my inbox from JB with this note: “Read this now…better than whatever you are currently reading.” Since I was reading Every Day, I can’t agree with that statement, but I can say that once I finished Every Day, I blew through Ender’s Game in just a couple of days and loved it. Ender’s Game is the first book in what eventually became a quintet about Andrew “Ender” Wiggins, the youngest of three brilliant children, who is chosen for Battle School, an […]