'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.

Recommended reading in Science Fiction Land

Although it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to pick my favourite Science Fiction books and stories I'm still going to have a go at it. This is by no means a complete list and I have probably forgotten dozens of brilliant stories. Rest assured though : in my opinion these are all landmark books and novellas.

This list is in random order.

Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle - The Mote In God's Eye.

Not to put down Gene 'The Great Bird Of The Galaxy' Roddenberry, but this book is what StarTrek The Original Series would have been if it would have been written by a seasoned science fiction writer. The scope is magnificent, this is absolutely a classic 'Space Opera', written at a time when everybody in SF-land claimed that the time for such books had come and gone. You might think of it in the same way that people tend to think about Albert Einstein and J.S Bach : The Last Of The Great Classics. Of course I'm not a writer but having said that : as an avid SF-reader I would not know how to improve this book.

Orson Scott Card - Ender's Game / Speaker For The Dead.

In a nutshell : Aliens called 'The Buggers'(because they look somewhat like insects) have tried to invade Earth 80 years ago, but were defeated by an absolutely ruthless and brilliant Israeli commander called Mazer Rackham. People and especially the leaders on Earth know however, that the aliens will very likely come back when there is the least distance between the planets again(in about 80 years). They are therefore frantically and desperately searching for a new 'Mazer Rackham' to lead them to victory, or at least to a stalemate. As a result they pick the best and the brightest of their children at an extremely young age, and put them through intensive training to see if the Great Leader will stand up. The book is mostly set on a space station orbiting Earth, that has been designed solely as a training facility. It follows a score of these young and brilliant military minds from the age of five onward.

The catch is : they cannot just pick one and give him orders, as this would destroy the personal initiative of this new military genius and render him or her useless for any great battle.

If you haven't read this book please do: I could tell you what it's about in great further detail but my words would be no match for the book itself. It is by far the best book I have ever read with a young male boy as the leading character. Ender Wiggin is one of those protagonists you immediately start to like and love. Orson Scott Card is well known nowadays for his character development and this was an absolute highlight in his career.

Four books were released in the 'Ender'-series but the first two are the most intense and up-front personal.

Ender's Game is one of those very few books that left me quite emotional. Wich is a true exception in Science Fiction as far as I'm concerned.


The(first) sequel 'Speaker For The Dead' is so ingeniously put together that it basically has hardly any relationship with the first book except for Ender and his sister. The story is set 3.000 year onward and deals with the fear of humanity of ever confronting a new alien race. When Humanity finally encounter an underdeveloped but promising intelligent race that they call 'The Piggies', they are overly cautious and turn the whole planet into a quarantined zone where only a few people are allowed to live and study.

And then something goes wrong...

Kurt Vonnegut - Galapagos

I must by now surely have bored people to tears with my praise for Kurt Vonnegut's work.

Originally a writer of SF('The Players of Titan' comes to mind) Vonnegut quite quickly move out of the SF-field because as he said 'he did not want to get stuck in the ghetto that was SF'. Ironically enough, there is a lot of SF in the books he wrote after that period.

Galapagos is one of his last complete novels and describes the wholly unlikely survival of the human race on the Galapagos Islands. The main characters are all flawed. There is a con man trying to trick a widow out of her inheritance, a captain who really doesn't know how the ship works because he has personnell who do, there are a few native girls who get stranded on the ship(which in the end is itself stranded on one of the remote Galapagos Islands), etcetera etcetara.

Kurt Vonnegut is the only writer I have ever read who could write almost in baby talk and still be completely 'gripping'. The older he got the better I like his work.

The man passed away not too long ago. May he rest in peace. I honestly do miss waiting for the new Vonnegut to come out.


To be continued...