any1 read anything by orson scot card?

[purplemoose]

i read enders game by him and am now a bit more than half way thru with speaker for the dead (title makes it sound like somthing it is not in a way) but hes a awesome writer and is realy kool my english teach last yr showed me him hes one of em wacko teachers in 7th grade i got the kool teachers this year i got 1 kool 1 and the others are pretty ok nothin realy bad or anything but there not all to kool ether. but anywho u guys kno orson scott card? dancing b'nanners are koolio!

[EvilSporkofDoom]

I love Orson Scott Card. I've read the Ender's Game series (save for Ender's Shadow and Shadow of the Hegemon), Enchantment, Homebody, and Songmaster. I really everything I've read of his so far, but my favourites are Ender's Game and Songmaster.

[SnowLeopard]

Orson Scott Cars books are very interesting, especially when you realize that he is a devout Mormon. A guy at my church told me this and it makes sense when you think about it, especially with the other books in the Ender series.

[Icarus]

EvilSpork, you must read Ender's Shadow. In my opinion, it is much better.

For those that haven't read them, the "Shadow" series is about Bean, not Ender.

Oh, I kinda liked the Alvin Maker saga.

[Namelessknight]

I've read EndersWar, and EndersShadow. I found both to be extremely enjoyable. The other ender books i tried, i didn't enjoy.

[olorc]

I only read Ender's Game and started on the Speaker of the dead and kinda got bored... maybe it's just me but all the stuff about Ender's Game that got me addicted like crazy just went away. I like Ender's game for the strategy and coolness of kids training in an elite place for outspace combat with aliens. Also the cool plot lines with the brother and sister too. Then with Speaker for the Dead (or is it of the Dead, oh i don't know) that all went away and I was left with sorta boring stuff. Anyone care to reasure me that the series picks up or does it continue in the fashion of Speaker of the Dead?

[soul alive]

having read the entire 'ender' series, as well as the 'shadow' series spin-off about bean, i would definately recommend the 'shadow' series to you olorc - it is more in the time frame of 'ender's game.' the remaining books of the 'ender' series are a bit harder read, and i was really just plain disappointed with the way they ended (it was a bit depressing). nevertheless, they are good books, just almost a different genre than the first. i won't spoil it beyond this statement, but the later books have a development from the computer game that Ender plays in the first book... if you really want to know, pm me, or just read them yourself. 'children of the mind' i had a bit of a like/dislike view toward... the entire oriental culture built around a form of obsessive compulsive disorder, where those affected are treated as demi-gods and those who are unaffected are servile, bothered me a bit.

an entirely different series of Card's that i have fairly enjoyed was the 'women of genesis' series - so far i've read 'sarah' and 'rebekah.' i enjoyed the books because they delved incredibly deep into the lives of sarah and rebekah, and in the third book rachel and leah, in ways i had not thought of. there were some elements, most likely from Card's mormon beliefs that i had some problems with, but all in all, i enjoyed the books, and would recommend them to anyone who enjoys Biblical/historical fiction.

i haven't read the 'alvin maker' series, though they have been recommended to me.

another series the 'homecoming saga'. i enjoyed the series, but not nearly as much as the 'ender/shadow' series or the 'women of genesis' series. i've read the first two books 'memory of earth' and 'call of earth', but haven't been able to read the remaining three in the series.

[olorc]

thanks a lot for the info. soul alive you are a very helpful person.

[soul alive]

thanks - ^^ i enjoy sharing.

oh. *lightbulb flicks on above head* i just remembered. another book by card is 'treasure box' - i wouldn't recommend it. i didn't like it at all, and couldn't even get through the first one or two chapters... it was pretty dry, and it went into things, like the main character's, erm, relationships with his fiance/wife and obsession with his dead sister, that was just to much for me. i quit reading the book, and didn't even wonder what i had missed.

[olorc]

thanks for the heads up I'll be sure to stay away from treasure box.

[blue whisper]

I only read Ender's Game and started on the Speaker of the dead and kinda got bored... maybe it's just me but all the stuff about Ender's Game that got me addicted like crazy just went away. I like Ender's game for the strategy and coolness of kids training in an elite place for outspace combat with aliens. Also the cool plot lines with the brother and sister too. Then with Speaker for the Dead (or is it of the Dead, oh i don't know) that all went away and I was left with sorta boring stuff. Anyone care to reasure me that the series picks up or does it continue in the fashion of Speaker of the Dead?

I could not get into Speaker of the Dead either. I really loved Ender's Shadow and Ender's Game, but I do not know what happened with Speaker of the Dead- it was just almost plotless. NOTE: I did not complete the book- I just read about the first twenty pages and could not get into it.

[SnowLeopard]

I just finished reading Shadow of the Hegemon and really enjoyed it. The Enders Shadow books are about Bean and are way better then the later books about Ender himself.

[SakuraSamurai]

I read one of his books about a princess Sleeping Beauty thing. Forgot the title though.

[MorwenLaicoriel]

I'm currently reading Ender's Game. I was skeptical at first, but I'm really starting to get into it. It's the favorite book of a friend of mine, and he kept bugging me to read it. XD

[juvey]

Ah, Orson Scott Card. One of my favorite and least favorite authors at the same time. ^^ Some stuff he writes I love, some stuff I cannot stomach and can't believe he would write it. *sigh*

Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, and Children of the Mind are very different from Ender's Game. But they are not plotless. In fact, their plot is very long and interwoven, which means that you only really get it near the end. As such, if you have a short attention span or don't like books about adults (since Ender's Game was mostly about children, while the rest of the series are not), I don't recommend these books. However, if you love Card's style and were hooked on Ender's Game not just because it is about children in a battle school, but simply because of the way he wrote, then I would definitely recommend the remaining books in the series.

While Ender's Shadow is good, the two books after it, Shadow of the Hegemon and Shadow Puppets, seem to be falling in quality. It seems to me like he's trying to milk the success of Ender's Game far too much, just writing to write, not because of any great story. Just my opinion.

The Homecoming series (Memory of Earth, etc.) was one of my favorites for a long time, but then I started to realize just how much of it is incredibly sexually immoral. I don't like these books as much any more, because of that. It's hard, though, because his writing is so captivating, and the story would be wonderful if the immorality was left out.

I read Pastwatch: Redemption. I have mixed feelings about this book, and would warn people before they read it. It does not place Christianity in a good light.

Hmm... oh. Hart's Hope is a book of his I read that I would not recommend. To anyone. If you want details on why, feel free to pm me. Lost Boys is another... I didn't even finish it.

If any of you liked Ender's Game, I would recommend First Meetins in the Enderverse. It's very interesting.

[serena]

i love ender's game, it's my all time favorite book, i've also read speaker for the dead and xenocide, ender's shadow was good but i didn't like shadow of the hegemon(i never really liked peter) enchantment was ok, but i found it lacking something , not sure what, and pastwatch is just messed up, i made miself finish it because i don't like to leave books started, but i didn't like it

[Cap'n Nick]

Ah, Orson Scott Card. One of my favorite and least favorite authors at the same time.

I second that. I enjoy what I've read of him but there are plenty of things in his books that make me cringe. His earlier works especially seem to have a morbid preoccupation with sex.

And, even though Card is a Mormon, does it seem to anybody else that he is often proselytizing for atheism? I noticed a number of thematic elements in the Worthing and Ender books that make me wonder if Card was doubting his faith when he wrote them.

I can think of at least three times in these books where Card portrays faith as the result of misunderstanding, ignorance, and stubbornness:

[spoiler]In The Worthing Saga, Worthing becomes a pseudo-god because the people, marooned on a distant planet with all memories sucked from their brains, cannot see his knowledge of technology and their former society as anything but divine. In the Ender series, a race of aliens reluctantly find that their creation myths actually explain how their species was genetically engineered into being by visitors from another planet. Later on, these same aliens commit a grevious murder when they mistake a destructive virus for the Holy Spirit. Most disturbing is the planet of Path, whose religion turns out to be a mental disorder inflicted on the population in order to control them.

These are interesting stories, to be sure, but combined with the defeatist tone he often takes when talking about religion in these books it makes me wonder if Card was feeling like the last of Path's "godspoken," who clings to the rituals of her faith even when it is disproven before her eyes.[/spoiler]

[juvey]

Cap'n Crack, I agree with you. I was very surprised to learn Card was a Mormon, considering the basic storyline of the whole Speaker for the Dead, etc. series. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems that [spoiler]he basically ended with the 'truth' being reincarnation? That the philotes, or whatever they were in the other universe waiting to be 'born' into this one just keep going back and getting recycled, and such? That with all of the examples you gave puts a... I don't know, but the books seemed, as you said, defeatist, and also just depressing, in a way.[/spoiler]

[Cap'n Nick]

Cap'n Crack, I agree with you. I was very surprised to learn Card was a Mormon, considering the basic storyline of the whole Speaker for the Dead, etc. series. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems that [spoiler]he basically ended with the 'truth' being reincarnation? That the philotes, or whatever they were in the other universe waiting to be 'born' into this one just keep going back and getting recycled, and such? That with all of the examples you gave puts a... I don't know, but the books seemed, as you said, defeatist, and also just depressing, in a way.[/spoiler]

That seems to be what he finally settled on. You're right, very depressing, in a way. On one hand it's like he's trying to say that science can coexist with concepts like "love" and "soul," but on the other hand (and I'm not sure he intended this) he's saying "but it's all a load of crap."

[Maledicte]

Ooh Ooh Ooh i LOVE Orson Scott Card!!!!!
the first nov i read was The Abyss and it's way better than the movie
My personal fav novel by him is Hart's Hope. It's not one of the more well-known ones but it is very poignant and sad. (has no idea what "poignant" means) It made me cry. Very good book that defies accurate description.