First Meetings : In the Enderverse (Ender Wiggins Saga (Audio))

Rating:
Summary: Children in College, Mr. Card?
Review: First, this is a nice collection. Anytime Card publishes, it's a delight. The stories work, and the original Ender's Game novella is a delight to see.

However. . .I get the distinct mental image of OSC about 3 or 4 years ago reviewing how many of his rug rats would be in college at the same exact time, figuring up how much college costs these days and going into full scale PANIC mode; hence this volume and another Alvin Maker and all those Ender volumes in such a short period of time.

Not that I blame him, and I bought all the books in hardback and enjoyed them more than I've enjoyed most of the books I read. But it's still very interesting to me that he's being so productive and publishing so many "safe" books (i.e. Ender's world books) in such a short time when his kids are at college age.

I pray that none of them want advanced degrees so that Mr. Card may go back to a more leisurely pace and do some original works in the future.

Rating:
Summary: Good stories, but nothing new
Review: I normally don't read short stories, but I liked the Ender series so much, the I thought I would make an exception for this collection.

I enjoyed all the stories, but I didn't feel like I was reading anything all that new. Card did a good job in the original books of giving you an idea of the history of everything, so these stories just seemed to give me more detail about the specifics. I really enjoyed reading the original Ender's Game story again, it makes me want to re-read the book.

All four of the stories were good, so if you are a fan of the Ender series, I would recommend this book, but don't expect anything exceptional.

Rating:
Summary: To buy or not to buy: hardback vs. paperback
Review: I think it's worth it to get the hardback, because there are two problems with the paperback. First, the hardback illustrations are missing in the paperback, and they do change the way I see Ender's parents - Theresa is an entertainingly annoyed and angular grad student, and John Paul's insouciant arrogance and manga-like good looks make a fun contrast.

The other thing about the paperback is that unless I'm much mistaken, it's actually missing text - in story 1 someone is supposed to hit someone else, and it never happens in the paperback version (at least the one that came to Singapore). The text doesn't show any blank paper, but the rest of the plot does refer back to it just like in the hardback version, so I think it's a glaring printers' error.

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant anthology of Ender short stories
Review: The 'Ender's Saga' and its most famous beginning, "Ender's Game", are among the most revered science-fiction series of all-time. While Card did a marvelous job chronicling the life and times of Ender Wiggin in the first four novels of the 'Ender's Saga', and richly enhanced that universe with his subsequent three-book "Ender's Shadow" series, one could not help but think that there might be more than need be told. Enter "First Meetings in the Enderverse", an anthology of four short stories that give even greater insight into Ender's world.

One of the four short stories included in "First Meetings..." is the actual original "Ender's Game" short story. Card wrote this in the mid-1970's and expanded it into the award-winning novel everyone knows in the early to mid-1980's. Here, fans of "Ender's Game" can read Card's original vision and appreciate how the full novel came to be. The other three shorts tell some fascinating tales. The first one deals with the life of Ender's father, John Paul Wiggin, when he was a little kid, not much older than Ender at the time of "Ender's Game". Without revealing too much, here, it can be said that the events of young John Paul's life explain a great deal about what came to pass for Ender a generation later. The second tale advances John Paul to college age and reveals how John Paul and Ender's mother, Theresa, came to meet and fall in love. The final tale (after the original "Ender's Game") bridges a period of time between the ending of "Ender's Game" and its amazing sequel "Speaker for the Dead". The mystery of how Ender and his constant virtual companion, Jane, came into each other's lives is explained and it makes for an amusing anecdote.

Once again, Card continues to show a brilliant grasp of human emotion and personal interactions in bringing these shorts to life. He doesn't get bogged down in the existentialism that plagued "Children of the Mind". He sticks with elements that make this saga great.

Rating:
Summary: Nice small collection of Card's shorter Ender tales.
Review: This short collection includes the original "Ender's Game" short story, two previously published tales involving Ender or his family, and a new story, "Teacher's Pest" about how Ender's parents met.

In the days before Card had the luxury, if a novel ran too long, to split it into two novels (as he's done), he showed, in the story "Ender's Game", that he could write a fine, tightly-written short story that had imagination and that kept moving. It was justly nominated for a Hugo, and probably should have won.

The other three short stories are nicely written, and, as you might guess by the title, are about first meetings of characters in Ender's universe. "The Polish Boy" shows the first interaction between Ender's father and Captain (later Colonel) Graff. "Teacher's Pest", as mentioned above, tells how Ender's parents met. "Investment Counselor" is about the first meeting between Ender and Jane. (not counting Jane's origin as a computer program in Battle School).

Each of the three other stories is a nice piece, containing plenty of incidental background on the characters. It is unclear if Card intends to develop further books focusing on these characters, but he is giving himself ample room to do so.

In the meantime, it's nice to have these short stories. "Ender's Game" is too rarely republished.

The illustrations make the people illustrated look like caricatures. They were at best annoying, especially the ones of the battle sequences in "Ender's Game".

Recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Expensive for such a short book
Review: Well written and interesting for all those who have eagerly read the book from the "enderverse". Led together by something other than fate, Ender's parents marry and have super children. Their children's brilliance is unexplained in the novels, and unquestioned, until the Shadow books. Ender's parents are decoded in these short stories as bright individuals born too early for the child military program. The pictures provide in the hardback book are cartoonish and didn't fit with my vision at all. In all actuallity, the drawing were a distraction that I could have done without. The original Ender short story is interesting from a writer's perspective; Orson's skill for story telling has greatly improved since it was written. After reading it, there was no doubt in my mind why he chose Bean to star in his parallel novel.

Overall I enjoyed the novel, though my wallet was still smarting from the price when I finished it. It took me about two movie lengths to finish the book, so it was about two movie tickets worth of entertainment.

Judge for yourself if that is worth the buy. I have the whole Ender collection, so I couldn't leave it incomplete for lack of this book.