Posts Tagged ‘ender’s game’

Cannonball 24: Ender in Exile by Orson Scott Card

{ June 10, 2011 @ 4:00 am } · { Cannonball! (Books) }
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Ender in ExileEnder in Exile by Orson Scott Card
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Ender in Exile follows Ender from the end of the Formic Wars back to Earth, and then through the stars to find a new home for the Bugger Queen, whose egg he’s smuggling around with him. It takes place in between the events of Ender’s Game and Speaker for the Dead, and during the events of Shadow of the Hegemon, Shadow Puppets, and Shadow of the Giant.

We do get to see some familiar faces in this book, and it’s nice to have these familiar names to ground the story and make the book less a sequel and more an explanation of events to which we were not previously privy (the pretension of the sentence I just wrote sets my own teeth on edge. BAH).

We follow Ender back to Earth, where he agrees to become the governor of a new outer space colony. We meet Alessandra Toscano, whose mother signs them both up as colonists and is determined to see Alessandra married to what will be the most powerful man on the new colony of Shakespeare: Ender. We follow Ender’s journey to Shakespeare and his struggle to establish peace and order there.

We follow Ender to Ganges, another colony, where he meets Randall Firth, a boy who believes that he is the son of Bean’s arch-enemy, Achilles des Flandres. Ender is able to prove to Randall that he is actually Bean and Petra’s son, and Randall changes his name to Arkanian Delphiki, acknowledging his true parentage.

sleeping in class

SNOOZE.

Is my review boring you? It’s kind of boring me. These stories are a perfectly serviceable way to pass the time, but, all in all, there was nothing too terribly exciting about them. It’s kind of like someone telling you that they grew up with an acquaintance of yours, and then telling you all these stories about their childhood. It’s vaguely interesting, and good to know, but it wouldn’t have killed you not to know about the time your acquaintance tracked dog crap into the house.

If you’ve got the time and you’re jonesin’ bad for some Ender, this book is a quick way to get your fix. But you’d probably do better just to reread Ender’s Game.

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Cannonball 23: First Meetings: In the Enderverse by Orson Scott Card

{ May 30, 2011 @ 10:34 pm } · { Cannonball! (Books) }
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First Meetings: In the EnderverseFirst Meetings: In the Enderverse by Orson Scott Card
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Back when I was working my first real job as a receptionist for a small local homebuilder, one of my coworkers gave me a book that she said I just had to read. It was science fiction, and despite never having read any sci-fi, I chalked it up to books for geeks who were so engrossed in their own arrogance that they didn’t have time to develop any literary taste. But she was a nice lady, and so enthusiastic, so I read it just to humor her.

The book was Ender’s Game, and I’ve since devoured all of Orson Scott Card’s books about the Enderverse, as it’s so geekily called.

A friend of mine lent me First Meetings: In the Enderverse, and it was a nice look into how the character of Ender came into being, but it didn’t have the same weight as Card’s books about Ender.

The book is a compilation of four short stories arranged in chronological order. The first, “The Polish Boy,” is about Ender’s father, John Paul, and his Roman Catholic Polish family. There are parts that foreshadow his eventual openness to having a Third child (Ender, of course) in a day and age when most families were limited to two children.

“Teacher’s Pest” describes how John Paul meets and woos Theresa, who will eventually become Ender’s mother, and how the Intergalactic Fleet (IF) had a hand in arranging their meeting.

“Ender’s Game” takes us through the tail end of the novel by the same name, and how Ender ends the Bugger War.

“Investment Counselor” tells of how Ender first meets Jane, his artificial intelligence investment counselor, and how he becomes a speaker for the dead.

Perhaps because they’re short stories, you don’t really get too deep into the new characters introduced in these books. But they make for an entertaining read, even if they’re not as gripping as Ender’s Game.

If you simply can’t get enough of Ender, then reading First Meetings might be just the thing to take the edge off.

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Cannonball 41: The Hunger Games (Hunger Games, Book #1) by Suzanne Collins

{ September 28, 2010 @ 3:04 am } · { Cannonball! (Books) }
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The Hunger Games (Hunger Games, #1)The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I used to think I hated sci-fi. Truthfully, though, I’d never even read a single sci-fi book. I just assumed that it was boring because everyone I knew who read it was a geeky boy.

I was twenty-four years of age by the time I read my first sci-fi book. A coworker was raving about her favorite sci-fi book and, one day, out of the goodness of her heart, she brought a copy to work and made me borrow it.

ender's game

My introduction to sci-fi. If you haven't already, go read this book immediately.

The book was Ender’s Game, and I absolutely loved it.

Ever since then, I’ve learned to embrace my inner geek and read a little sci-fi from time to time. I really enjoy how it takes basic themes of humanity and sets them against a fantastic backdrop, like outer space or even a dystopian society in our own future.

When my good friend Jane told me that I had to read The Hunger Games, I was perfectly willing. I hadn’t read any sci-fi in a while, and I was ready for a new book.

The book’s protagonist, Katniss Everdeen, is a sixteen-year-old girl who is fighting for survival in a dystopian society. The nation of Panem is all that’s left of humanity on Earth, and the iron rule of the Capitol is felt through all of the remaining twelve districts, although Katniss’ home in District Twelve enjoys a little more laxity than the other districts, since they’re so far away from the Capitol.

But, as a reminder of the Capitol’s power, every district is required to send two tributes, one male and one female, to fight in the annual Hunger Games, which are televised from the arena for the duration of the Games. When Katniss’ beloved sister, Prim, is randomly selected as a tribute, Katniss does the only thing she can to save her sister: she volunteers to go in her place.

She and her fellow tribute, Peeta Mellark, must go to the Capitol an fight for survival against twenty-two other tributes, some of which are older and bigger, and some of whom have been training for the Games since birth. There can only be one winner of the Games, so Katniss knows that she will eventually have to kill Peeta if she ever wants to return to her family and her best friend andd hunting partner, Gale (who’s an older boy, by the way. Love triangle, anyone?).

Collins’ writing is decent, and the story is ossomly compelling. As a reader, I could feel Katniss’ confusion over what to do: kill Peeta, trust Peeta, refuse to bow to the Capitol’s games, give up, become a monster that her family wouldn’t recognize in order to survive.

Collins is no Steinbeck, but she does a decent job of conveying the hunger and desperation that drive Katniss to clutch at survival.

This book is an amazing beginning to the trilogy. It’s too bad that (SPOILER!!!) ethay estray ofyay ethay ooksbay on’tday ivelay upyay otay ethay irstfay unway.

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