Orson Scott Card – Rich Maloy

Earth Afire by Aaron Johnston, Orson Scott Card

Rich — Fri, 28 Jun 2013 04:14:04 +0000

Now we get to it. The battle for Earth and the Sol system begins in earnest. The book follows multiple story lines throughout with plenty of characters to root for or against. While the Earth gets ravaged, the politicians screw up plenty, and its up to the little people to make big differences. It was worth wading through the first book to get to the second.

Publisher’s Summary

One hundred years before Ender’s Game, the aliens arrived on Earth with fire and death. Earth Afire by Orson Scott Card and Aaron Johnston is the story of the First Formic War. Victor Delgado beat the alien ship to Earth, but just barely. Not soon enough to convince skeptical governments that there was a threat. They didn’t believe that until space stations and ships and colonies went up in sudden flame. And when that happened, only Mazer Rackham and the Mobile Operations Police could move fast enough to meet the threat.

Genre: Sci-Fi
Series: Enderverse, The First Formic War |

Earth Unaware by Aaron Johnston, Orson Scott Card

Rich — Sat, 01 Jun 2013 03:45:07 +0000

When this came out I was glad the Enderverse was expanding to cover the events leading up to Ender’s Game. The first in the series is a setup for the rest of the series. It’s clear that the book was meant to be part of a greater story, and with that in mind, it serves its purpose. It sets up the state of affairs in our solar system before the Buggers arrive and gets you ready for the action that follows. If you’re a fan of Ender’s Game and are expecting a version of that, you’ll be disappointed. What you should expect is a new series with a new angle and few familiar names.

Publisher’s Summary

The mining ship El Cavador is far out from Earth, in the deeps of the Kuiper Belt, beyond Pluto. Other mining ships, and the families that live on them, are few and far between this far out. So when El Cavador’s telescopes pick up a fast-moving object coming in-system, it’s hard to know what to make of it. It’s massive and moving at a significant fraction of the speed of light.
El Cavador has other problems. Their systems are old and failing. The family is getting too big for the ship. There are claim-jumping corporate ships bringing Asteroid Belt tactics to the Kuiper Belt. Worrying about a distant object that might or might not be an alien ship seems…not important.
They’re wrong. It’s the most important thing that has happened to the human race in a million years. The first Formic War is about to begin.

Genre: Sci-Fi
Series: Enderverse, The First Formic War |

Ruins by Orson Scott Card

Rich — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 20:19:54 +0000

Book one was interesting enough for me to continue with the series. And the cliffhanger at the end of this book should have been interesting enough for me to finish it out with the third book, but I never got around to it. I just really wasn’t that invested in the characters to care to finish.

Publisher’s Summary

When Rigg and his friends crossed the Wall between the only world they knew and a world they could not imagine, he hoped he was leading them to safety. But the dangers in this new wallfold are more difficult to see. Rigg, Umbo, and Param know that they cannot trust the expendable, Vadesh – a machine shaped like a human, created to deceive – but they are no longer certain that they can even trust one another.
But they will have little choice. Because although Rigg can decipher the paths of the past, he can’t yet see the horror that lies ahead: A destructive force with deadly intentions is hurtling toward Garden. If Rigg, Umbo, and Param can’t work together to alter the past, there will be no future.

Genre: Fantasy
Series: Pathfinder |

Series: Pathfinder by Orson Scott Card

Rich — Sat, 24 Nov 2012 20:26:05 +0000

Though Orson Scott Card’s big hit, Ender’s Game, has a child main character, and is one of my all-time favorite books because Ender’s character is so compelling, you’d think that would be a specialty for Card. He’s certainly written a lot of books with child protagonists, including more in the Enderverse. However, the child main characters in this series fell flat for me. I didn’t event continue on after the second book. I also thought the fantasy/sci-fi crossover was interesting, but still, I didn’t carry on after the first book. We’ll see, maybe I’ll get back and finish it. This is not a flat-out “don’t read” it’s just a three-star series that will neither waste your time nor change your life.

Series Reviews

Pathfinder
Ruins
Visitors

Genre: Fantasy, Sci-Fi
Series: Pathfinder |

Pathfinder by Orson Scott Card

Rich — Sat, 17 Nov 2012 03:14:36 +0000

Orson Scott Card must have something with child protagonists. I guess with “Ender’s Game” being his most famous and popular piece he decided to stick with what works? I’m just speculating. The Pathfinder series is an interesting fantasy/sci-fi crossover. I’ll classify this book as fantasy based on my own arbitrary designation. Whatever. On to the review. It’s a decent enough book, and while not quite in the young adult section, it’s not quite at the depth of other fantasy or sci-fi novels. The premise is interesting, and the pacing well enough to keep me interested enough to grab the second book.

Publisher’s Summary

Rigg is well trained at keeping secrets. Only his father knows the truth about Rigg’s strange talent for seeing the paths of people’s pasts. But when his father dies, Rigg is stunned to learn just how many secrets Father had kept from him – secrets about Rigg’s own past, his identity, and his destiny. And when Rigg discovers that he has the power not only to see the past, but also to change it, his future suddenly becomes anything but certain.

Rigg’s birthright sets him on a path that leaves him caught between two factions, one that wants him crowned and one that wants him dead. He will be forced to question everything he thinks he knows, choose who to trust, and push the limits of his talent… or forfeit control of his destiny.

Genre: Fantasy
Series: Pathfinder |

Wyrms by Orson Scott Card

Rich — Sun, 02 May 2010 20:59:52 +0000

For as much as I—and many others—absolutely love Ender’s Game, I don’t feel the same about Wyrms. Like Ender’s Game, it’s an easy read with a young main character, and Orson Scott Card tells the story from her point of view. The similarities end there. It’s not as bad as the Speaker for the Dead series, but not as good as some of his other work. It’s a forgettable read.

Publisher’s Summary

The sphere is alien in origin, but has been controlled by Man for millennia. A legend as old as the stars rules this constructed world: when the seventh seventh seventh human Heptarch is crowned, he will be the Kristos and will bring eternal salvation…or the destruction of the cosmos.Patience is the only daughter of the rightful Heptarch, but she, like her father before her, serves the usurper who has destroyed her family. For she has learned the true ruler’s honor: that duty to one’s race is more important than duty to one’s self. But the time for prudence has passed, and that which has slept for ages has awakened. Patience must journey to the heartsoul of this planet to confront her destiny…and her world’s.
Wyrms is an Orson Scott Card classic, one of the novels that helped forge his young career.

Genre: Sci-Fi

Ender’s Shadow by Orson Scott Card

Rich — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 04:23:30 +0000

This is a really solid companion to the masterful work that is Ender’s Game. I love the story told from another perspective inside of one of my favorite books of all time. It adds depth to the original, and stands on its own as well. It turns out there’s a whole sub-series that follows Bean’s story line. Adding to my queue.

Publisher’s Summary

The human race is at war with the “Buggers”, an insect-like alien race. As Earth prepares to defend itself from total destruction at the hands of an inscrutable enemy, all focus is on the development of military geniuses who can fight such a war, and win. The long distances of interstellar space have given hope to the defenders of Earth, they have time to train these future commanders up from childhood, forging them into an irresistible force in the high orbital facility called the Battle School.
Andrew “Ender” Wiggin was not the only child in the Battle School; he was just the best of the best. In this book, Card tells the story of another of those precocious generals, the one they called Bean, the one who became Ender’s right hand, part of his team, in the final battle against the Buggers. Bean’s past was a battle just to survive. His success brought him to the attention of the Battle School’s recruiters, those people scouring the planet for leaders, tacticians, and generals to save Earth from the threat of alien invasion. Bean was sent into orbit, to the Battle School. And there he met Ender.

Genre: Sci-Fi
Series: Ender's Shadow, Enderverse |

Xenocide by Orson Scott Card

Rich — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 04:33:11 +0000

I vaguely recall this being only slightly better than Speaker for the Dead. That I haven’t re-read it in over a decade should say enough.

Publisher’s Summary

Xenocide is the third installment of the Ender series. On Lusitania, Ender found a world where humans and pequeninos and the Hive Queen could all live together; where three very different intelligent species could find common ground at last. Or so he thought. But Lusitania also harbors the descolada, a virus which kills all humans it infects, but which the pequeninos require in order to transform into adults. The Starways Congress so fears the effect of the descolada, should it escape from Lusitania, that they have ordered the destruction of the entire planet and all who live there. The Fleet is on its way and a second Xenocide seems inevitable, until the Fleet vanishes.

Genre: Sci-Fi
Series: Ender's Game, Enderverse |

Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card

Rich — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 04:29:36 +0000

I kept hoping this book would get better. It never did.

Publisher’s Summary

In the aftermath of his terrible war, Ender Wiggin disappeared, and a powerful voice arose: the Speaker for the Dead, who told the true story of the Bugger War. Now, long years later, a second alien race has been discovered by Portuguese colonists on the planet Lusitania. But again the aliens’ ways are strange and frightening…again, humans die. And it is only the Speaker for the Dead, who is also Ender Wiggin the Xenocide, who has the courage to confront the mystery…and the truth. Orson Scott Card infuses this tale with intellect by casting his characters in social, religious, and cultural contexts.
This, the author’s definitive edition of the sequel to Ender’s Game, also includes an original postscript written and recorded by the author himself, Orson Scott Card!.

Genre: Sci-Fi
Series: Ender's Game, Enderverse |

Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card

Rich — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 04:21:30 +0000

Endger’s Game is a sci-fi classic and a cultural touchstone. I highly recommend everyone reads it.

Once upon a time I aspired to be a leader like Ender. After experimenting with different leadership styles, I realized that style works best in a hierarchical structure and even then is a bit dated as far as management theory goes. Regardless, I love the book and still think the both the character of Ender and the whole novel are top-notch. It’s on my must-read list.

The enemy gate is down.

Publisher’s Summary

The war with the Buggers has been raging for a hundred years, and the quest for the perfect general has been underway for almost as long. Enter Andrew “Ender” Wiggin, the result of decades of genetic experimentation.
Is Ender the general Earth so desperately needs? The only way to find out is to throw him into ever-harsher training at Battle School, to chip away and find the diamond inside, or destroy him utterly. Ender Wiggin is six years old when his training begins. He will grow up fast.
But Ender is not the only result of the experiment. His two older siblings, Peter and Valentine, are every bit as unusual as he is, but in very different ways. Among the three of them lie the abilities to remake a world. If, that is, the world survives.

Genre: Sci-Fi
Series: Ender's Game, Enderverse | Subjects: Rich's Reco's