'The Story Of Ender' or how I got hooked on Orson

  A few days ago I purchased 'Ender in exile' by Orson Scott Card. This is the new book in the Ender-series and it tells the story of Ender Wiggin from the moment the war against the Formics(aka 'The Buggers') is over until the time that starts with the second book 'Speaker for the Dead'. The persona of Ender is still fascinating and I must say that hardly ever have I read Science Fiction this well written.

There have been many SF-writers with brilliant ideas who could not write well. There have been many SF-writers who could write beautifully but got stuck at the same 'old' ideas. And there have been a number of SF-writers who avoided both traps. Examples of the latter category are for instance the legendary Theodore 'Ted' Sturgeon, Eric Frank Russel, Robert Sheckley, the almost forgotten Thomas Disch and most certainly not to be forgotten anytime soon : Larry Niven.

Orson Scott Card definitely belongs among these giants of Science Fiction. The prose is beautiful, the story - actually all the story lines - are compelling, and there does not seem to be an end to his original ideas.

To get an idea of the structure of the novels you can read this. Card is fleshing out the story more and more, and does so without reverting to cheap tactics to keep the sales up. Everyone who knows his work, knows that Card does not compromise much, if at all. Just when we(the readers) had gotten used to the recurring theme/persona of Ender, Card comes up with a parallell storyline about Bean, his number one during the war. And the story of Bean(as told in several books in the series) is at least as moving as the story of Ender, albeit for different reasons.

The first book 'Ender's Game' is about to be turned into a movie. On the one hand I'm quite confident it will be a good movie because Orson Scott Card has singlehandedly written the script and he is an experienced script-/scenario-/play-wright. On the other hand I do hope that the commercial assholes that run around in every movie-company stay away. The book(s) have been bestsellers so one can say that Card is 'commercial' enough all by himself.

Anyway, I've almost finished 'Ender in exile' and I will be truly sorry when I've read it.

I want more Mr. Card! Come on! You can do at least three of four more books! You can do a book or two about Dink Meeker, about Petra Arkanian(!), and not to forget : you never did actually show us what was written in 'The Hive Queen' or 'The Hegemon'.

Even I could come up with the background story. Shame that I cannot write SF at any proper level.

Guess I'll just have to wait for the Grand Old Man himself to come up with the next treat.