Ender's Game

[Docwagon 856]

Anyone else read it?  Anyone read any of the series beyond Ender's Game?  I just finished it and really enjoyed it.  I got through it in 2 days and am now wondering if the rest of the series is worth a go.  I'm hesitant because it looks like there's a metric butt ton of prequels, novels that were released in real world chronological order that is not in line with the fantasy world chronological order, etc.  If the rest is as good as the first, no problem, but sometimes when a series goes on for decades and gets that convoluted I wonder if the later books will be a disappointment...

[Horrible_Hector 165]

Read it in high school, not for school.. just during that time. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

There's is a ton of books in the universe but the only other one I have read is Ender's Shadow which is a parallel saga to Ender's Game. It is centered around Bean. Good read too.

I was also interested in Speaker for the Dead. Which I've read is an entirely different kind of book. Will have to do some more research one day.

[Sennex 1,903]

I typically read it about once a year or so. 

 

I've read the followups and all, and honestly you can skip them all, but Ender's should really be mandatory reading IMO

 

One thing I will say though, as it is somewhat hard to swallow at first; the three kids, are all genius level intellect, they will do somethings that defy belief at first. 

 

Fair Warning:

The movie blows

I don't understand why Harrison Ford acts anymore, he clearly doesn't enjoy it at all.

[Dr Diamond 407]

yeah the film was meh

[Docwagon 856]

Speaker for the Dead is an outstanding book.  It's an ok story, but its a great incite into what it is to be human.  There were parts where the cop in me was saying "yeah, that's exactly how it is" and was truly moved by how it was put.

 

One of my favorite quotes from the book was "Don't ever try to teach me about good and evil.  I've been there, and you've seen nothing but a map."  That's what its like when your a vet or a cop and you've been there and some well meaning but ignorant soul wants to preach to you.  So perfect.

 

I'm going to cut and paste this, but also:

 

“A Great Rabbi stands, teaching in the marketplace. It happens that a husband finds proof that morning of his wife's adultery, and a mob carries her to the marketplace to stone her to death.

There is a familiar version of this story, but a friend of mine - a Speaker for the Dead - has told me of two other Rabbis that faced the same situation. Those are the ones I'm going to tell you.

The Rabbi walks forward and stands beside the woman. Out of respect for him the mob forbears and waits with the stones heavy in their hands. 'Is there any man here,' he says to them, 'who has not desired another man's wife, another woman's husband?'
They murmur and say, 'We all know the desire, but Rabbi none of us has acted on it.'

The Rabbi says, 'Then kneel down and give thanks that God has made you strong.' He takes the woman by the hand and leads her out of the market. Just before he lets her go, he whispers to her, 'Tell the Lord Magistrate who saved his mistress, then he'll know I am his loyal servant.'

So the woman lives because the community is too corrupt to protect itself from disorder.

Another Rabbi. Another city. He goes to her and stops the mob as in the other story and says, 'Which of you is without sin? Let him cast the first stone.'

The people are abashed, and they forget their unity of purpose in the memory of their own individual sins. ‘Someday,’ they think, ‘I may be like this woman. And I’ll hope for forgiveness and another chance. I should treat her as I wish to be treated.’

As they opened their hands and let their stones fall to the ground, the Rabbi picks up one of the fallen stones, lifts it high over the woman’s head and throws it straight down with all his might it crushes her skull and dashes her brain among the cobblestones. ‘Nor am I without sins,’ he says to the people, ‘but if we allow only perfect people to enforce the law, the law will soon be dead – and our city with it.’

So the woman died because her community was too rigid to endure her deviance.

The famous version of this story is noteworthy because it is so startlingly rare in our experience. Most communities lurch between decay and rigor mortis and when they veer too far they die. Only one Rabbi dared to expect of us such a perfect balance that we could preserve the law and still forgive the deviation. 

So of course, we killed him.

-San Angelo 
Letters to an Incipient Heretic” 
― Orson Scott Card, Speaker for the Dead

[McNasty 260]

Any chance of me reading these books was ruined by watching the movie.  What a POS movie that was.  Just terrible all the way round