Anybody ever read Ender's Game?

[flash9286]

I just finished the first book, thought it was pretty good and was wondering whether the rest of the series lives up to the original Ender's Game.

[Hot Mustard]

They're okay - but like most series, it is hard to live up to the original.

[Wycoff]

I read them (Ender's Game, Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, Children of the Mind) as a teen and loved them. The sequels have a more adult tone to them than Ender's Game, but they're well worth reading.

[Koyaanisqatsi]

The earlier ones are better, he strays into moralizing for a while, but the latest shadow book was good.

[Kuciwalker]

Anyone ever see Star Wars? I heard it was pretty good.

[Lorizael]

Originally posted by Kuciwalker
Anyone ever see Star Wars? I heard it was pretty good.

Thank you.

[Sikander]

I got bored and frustrated with all the sequels I read except for Ender's Shadow.

[Ecthy]

I have read the first book, found it pretty good. Reviews for the sequels were average so I didn't go further.

[connorkimbro]

I thought they were fantastic, up through Children of the Mind. He gets a bit preachy at times, but if you can stomach that, I'm sure you'll enjoy them. I haven't read any of the "shadow" sequels, so I can't comment on those.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Originally posted by Ecthy
I have read the first book, found it pretty good. Reviews for the sequels were average so I didn't go further.

Speaker of the Dead (the first sequal) is supposed to be very good. It got great ratings and won the Hugo.

[Ming]

The "original" Enders Game was a novelette/short story that appeared in Analog magazine back in 1977. The expanded version was written many years later. I liked the original far better. It was your classic short story with the whole point being the punch line at the end, that it wasn't a game. The expanded version, IMHO, was a waste of additional effort, because at the end of the day, the whole story was still "a one trick pony"... the game wasn't a game... it was real.

[Lorizael]

(There might actually be people that haven't read either story, Ming.)

[Ming]

Originally posted by Lorizael
(There might actually be people that haven't read either story, Ming.)

While that might concern me if it was relatively new... the original was written in 1977, and I think the novel came out in 1985. This thread was asking for opinions... if you haven't read it yet, it's pretty dumb to be looking at a thread on it

[Bosh]

Original book is good, the old sequels (Xenocide, Speaker for the Dead, etc.) are OK but not great by any means. As for the Shadow books, Ender's Shadow is pretty good but the later ones blow as Card's grasp of international politics isn't the best (it reads like a freaking Risk game) and he has a hard time writing Bean's increasing intelligence in a well thought-out manner.

Also Ender's Game is great for teaching my korean kiddies, the middle school boys eat it up and read more than I assign them

[germanos]

I read 'Speaker for the Dead' first, and found it very impressive. I followed up with Ender's Game and liked it, though I found it not as good as 'Speaker'.
Xenocide became a bore so I left it at that.

[Bosh]

Originally posted by germanos
I read 'Speaker for the Dead' first, and found it very impressive. I followed up with Ender's Game and liked it, though I found it not as good as 'Speaker'.
Xenocide became a bore so I left it at that.

Stupid piggies.

To be honest, except for Ender's Game I haven't really liked ANY of Card's books (Ender's Shadow coming the closest). Either boring, unrealistic or full of Mormon moralizing (Alvin Maker, blech blech blech).

[Imran Siddiqui]

The interesting thing is that Card expanded the original Ender's Game short story into a novel because he wanted to use Ender for "Speaker of the Dead". Seems like it was a good call, because he is still the only person to win the Hugo and Nebula awards in back to back years .

[Lord Avalon]

I first encountered Ender's Game in There Will Be War (Vol I?), edited by Jerry Pournelle. I really liked it. I also read the novel when it came out, and all the sequels (and liked them).

If you like Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, and Children of the Mind, it will be for different reasons, as they are not like Ender's Game at all.

[Darius871]

I thought the Bean arc was far superior to the
Speaker-Children arc, but looking at some threads on the subject I see I'm in the minority.

[Lul Thyme]

Originally posted by Ming


While that might concern me if it was relatively new... the original was written in 1977, and I think the novel came out in 1985. This thread was asking for opinions... if you haven't read it yet, it's pretty dumb to be looking at a thread on it

I think by this criterion a lot of people are dumb.
It's ok because I checked the wikipedia entry on it first but I often (and I think some others might too) read threads about anything

[Ming]

Originally posted by Lul Thyme
I think by this criterion a lot of people are dumb.

I would agree

I know that if I haven't seen a movie, tv show, or a book, the last thing I want to do is read a thread on the subject. While spoiler tags are available, most people don't use them. So I've learned to stay away from threads that I think might spoil th fun.

But I guess there are a lot of dumb people out there

As far as the original, I used to love Analog, and I still have a fairly good collection of them. Analog has introduced me to many fine SF authors. I remember buying the Novel when it was released, and within 30 pages, started having the feeling I had read it before.
I then looked at the publishing history and saw that it had originally been published in a shorter form in Analog.
It kind of pissed me off that I had spent the money on the novel.

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by Bosh
Original book is good, the old sequels (Xenocide, Speaker for the Dead, etc.) are OK but not great by any means.

Actually I like them at least as much as the original.

As for the Shadow books, Ender's Shadow is pretty good but the later ones blow as Card's grasp of international politics isn't the best (it reads like a freaking Risk game) and he has a hard time writing Bean's increasing intelligence in a well thought-out manner.

QFT.

[Blaupanzer]

Card's moral philosophy is quite non-inclusive. This comes through in many of his books much more clearly than in Ender's Game. As Ming noted, that was a one-trick story he has managed to beat to death in more than 8 books by now. None stand up to the original novella, which I recall reading in a collection somewhere. So yes to the question, "Have you read it," but no to the question, "Based on this would you recommend any of his other books."

[Zkribbler]

I loved Ender's Game, and was a big Card fan when I read it. Then came Speaker for the Dead and Xenocide, and my enthusiasm waned.

"Red Prophet" and "Seventh Son" were also good, but by "Prentice Alvin" that series was spiraling downwards also.

I also likes the Homecoming series...but at the end of the 4th book that portion of the story just stopped with no resolution. Then the 5th book took place a couple of hundred years later with different characters (except one). I mean, WTF??

[flash9286]

Going to pick up Speaker of the Dead after I get done with classes today. Hopefully, I can find the other sequels in the library too.

[chequita guevara]

We read this a couple years back for the Apolyton Science Fiction book club.

[Dr Strangelove]

I too first read Enders Game as a short story. I found the novel a little hard to swallow. I don't think there is a six year old alive with the physical strength to beat to death a larger kid. I think that taking a bunch of kids, even really intelligent ones, at around age six and seperating them their mommies would lead to a lot of emotional meltdowns. Instead of having an asortment of young fertile minds to train the program would wind up a bunch of mentally scarred basket cases. Finally, what was up with having the little kids sleep naked together in co-ed dorms? You call that mormon morality?

[Bosh]

Instead of having an asortment of young fertile minds to train the program would wind up a bunch of mentally scarred basket cases.

Isn't that what a lot of the book is about?

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by Dr Strangelove
Finally, what was up with having the little kids sleep naked together in co-ed dorms?

I think it was a an allusion to Sparta.

[connorkimbro]

Instead of having an asortment of young fertile minds to train the program would wind up a bunch of mentally scarred basket cases.

That's sort of what happened