Rating: 
Summary: Deliciously Ironic
Review: I purchased the earlier rendition of First Meetings when it came out about a year ago. When I saw that this version had the story of how Ender's parents met, I went ahead and bought it. It was well worth the money. The Polish Boy is about Ender's father, John Paul, as he is growing up in Poland. It details John Paul's religious upbringing as well as how he became intertwined with the International Fleet. Captain Graff makes an appearance, making Ender's Game a much more interesting story when you realize Graff has dealt with Ender's family before. Teacher's Pest details the earliest meeting of Ender's parents. Ender's father, John Paul, is taking a class taught by Ender's mother, Theresa. The reader is introduced to Theresa's religious upbrining as well. The rest is history. I love the irony of this story when one takes into account the role that Captain Graff plays in the Wiggin's lives. Investment Counselor is a fun story about how Ender meets his computer friend, Jane, and is able to remain anonymous amongst a population that now reviles the deeds he did as a child. Finally, the original Ender's Game novella is presented. While somewhat different than the novel, and much shorter, it is always fun to see how the Ender phenomenom began. Overall, I would purchase this book even if you have the original version. I found Teacher's Pest to be a touch sadistic as Card sets the stage for Ender's eventual removal from his family. I felt like I had to squirm as John Paul and Theresa spoke with each other about the International Fleet and its designs for humanity. Hopefully, many others will enjoy as well.
Rating: 
Summary: Good quick read - maybe too little for the price
Review: I saw this book a few weeks ago while in a bookstore and bought it on impulse. I knew it was just the original Ender's Game short story with a couple of new stories put out for a quick buck - but I didn't care. I cannot say that would reccomend that Ender fans rush out and BUY it - I do think that fans should read it. If you can inter-library loan it or borrow it from a friend - that is the way to go.
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: 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: Short Skibbets that Let You Connect the Dots
Review: I was excited to see that Card had come out with a supplement to the Ender Series. I got home and quickly read the book from end to end. The first two stories were very intriguing, a prequel to the first book, Ender's Game. This sort of gave the reader insight on everything that you asked yourself while reading the beginning chapters of Ender's Game -- why are his parents this way, what's their story, etc. The third story gave an aftermath. It's been months since I've read the other books so I can't pinpoint when the story would fit in. I think it's right after Ender's Game, and Ender arrives at the first planet. Initially, I thought it would have been better had it told a short novel's worth of everything that led up to the way the world was (the Hegemony, how the International Fleet came to be in command really, and all the political affairs on Earth in the meantime) AND also on Andrew Wiggins' parents. But, this way is good so that it leaves the mind to piece together on your own and fill in the missing blanks.
Rating: 
Summary: Good backstory.
Review: I would not call these three new works novellas, but simply longish short stories; they are very quick reads. The most memorable, I think, is "The Polish Boy". Concerning duels between a 5-year-old and various administrative figures, it recalls some of the best of "Ender's Shadow": the illustration of how a very young child can, with sufficient wit and preternatural maturity, overcome adult opposition. "Teacher's Pest" is the least of the three. It concerns cleverness used in the furtherance of adolescent romance. While this might be as excitingly done as the first story, it would have to be on a higher level of wittiness to succeed as well. But it doesn't reach that level, and it seems a bit pedestrian. "Investment Counsellor" is set in Ender's "quiet" stage--after he's overcome the trauma of "Ender's Game" and before he's set out upon his Speaker of the Dead life. The fireworks of his passion are missing here--neither his command skills nor his personal interaction livelihood are generating the sparks that provide much of the interest in the books. It's a connector piece, showing some origins of things to come. These are good things, and it's good to have their origins, but it's not very exciting story-telling. The illustrations do nothing for the book but take up page-space, adding 10 or 12 pages to the total. Without them, the book would be under 200 pages in length--and better, in my estimation. (When are illustrators going to stop putting airplane wings, rudders, and elevators on spacecraft??) Having the original "Ender's Game" included is rather interesting, allowing for comparison with the novel it spawned. Bean is there, in all his arrogance, but essentially none of the other characters that have made the continuing saga so memorable: no Valentine, no Peter, none of Ender's other sub-commanders, nor his tormentors. The Hive Queen has not yet been imagined, and Buggers are entirely faceless. But all the pathos of the child used as a soldier--that essential kernel is there in boldface.
Rating:
Summary: Good backstory.
Review: I would not call these three new works novellas, but simply longish short stories; they are very quick reads. The most memorable, I think, is "The Polish Boy". Concerning duels between a 5-year-old and various administrative figures, it recalls some of the best of "Ender's Shadow": the illustration of how a very young child can, with sufficient wit and preternatural maturity, overcome adult opposition. "Teacher's Pest" is the least of the three. It concerns cleverness used in the furtherance of adolescent romance. While this might be as excitingly done as the first story, it would have to be on a higher level of wittiness to succeed as well. But it doesn't reach that level, and it seems a bit pedestrian. "Investment Counsellor" is set in Ender's "quiet" stage--after he's overcome the trauma of "Ender's Game" and before he's set out upon his Speaker of the Dead life. The fireworks of his passion are missing here--neither his command skills nor his personal interaction livelihood are generating the sparks that provide much of the interest in the books. It's a connector piece, showing some origins of things to come. These are good things, and it's good to have their origins, but it's not very exciting story-telling. The illustrations do nothing for the book but take up page-space, adding 10 or 12 pages to the total. Without them, the book would be under 200 pages in length--and better, in my estimation. (When are illustrators going to stop putting airplane wings, rudders, and elevators on spacecraft??) Having the original "Ender's Game" included is rather interesting, allowing for comparison with the novel it spawned. Bean is there, in all his arrogance, but essentially none of the other characters that have made the continuing saga so memorable: no Valentine, no Peter, none of Ender's other sub-commanders, nor his tormentors. The Hive Queen has not yet been imagined, and Buggers are entirely faceless. But all the pathos of the child used as a soldier--that essential kernel is there in boldface.
Rating:
Summary: Solid scifi
Review: Orson Scott Card joins the ranks of the fantasy/SF authors who have written a book of short stories set in their best-loved universe. "First Meetings" is a nice accompanying book for the Ender series or its "Shadow" spinoffs. And this is "First Meetings" 2.0, with the original "First Meetings" collection being added to with an extra background story. It's a small book, but Card never tries to flesh it out too much. It's the content of the stories that really makes it worth the buy, because of what he does with them. "Boy" adds an extra dimension to Ender's father and the situations that came years later. "Pest" is interesting, but a little too "talky" to really be outstanding. "Investment" is a nice bit of backstory, with a slightly humorous tone that makes it lighter than the books. And "Ender's Game" (the short story) is merely pleasant to read because it's nice to see how this short story blossomed and expanded. Fans of Card will not be disappointed by this moderately interesting collection of stories. Pleasantly written, fleshing out both key and supporting characters, it may interest Enderverse fans but not many others.
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: see how Ender met Jane!
Review: This book is a collection of three short stories set in the universe of Ender's Game. Ender's Game is one of my favorite books in any genre and the Ender series is one of the few actual science fiction that I read (I tend toward fantasy). I wondered how short fiction set in this universe would fare. I was pleasantly surprised. This was a very enjoyable volume to read. The first story was "The Polish Boy". This is a story of Ender's father, Jean Paul. Jean Paul was not even six years old, but was incredibly intelligent and gifted. He was living in Poland, with his family in defiance of population control laws. Families were only permitted two children, but Jean Paul's family is Catholic and they obey God not man. This is the story of the interest that Battle School took in Jean Paul and hints at the future of Ender and how he to go be who he is. This felt like the weakest of the three stories and I liked it the least. It was little more than a prologue to Ender's Game and an unnecessary one at that. The next story is my favorite of the bunch, "Investment Counselor" is the story of how Ender met Jane (Jane is the computer program that appears in Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, and Children of the Mind). I liked seeing Ender not having yet become a Speaker, yet having written both Hive Queen, and the Hegemon. Ender and his sister Valentine have arrived on a new planet. Ender has just turned 20 (due to the slow aging in interspace travel) and now has to pay taxes on his revenue from his service in the Formic Wars (from Ender's Game) and also from his books. As 400 years have passed (again, because of interspace travel, Ender and Valentine age very slowly while traveling), Ender has quite a bit more money that he would have imagined. Enter Jane. Some people may not find this story as interesting, but I always found Jane to be one of the most fascinating characters in the entire Enderverse. The third and final story is the original "Ender's Game". This was the story that Card wrote first and later expanded to the award winning novel Ender's game. This story is quite a bit rougher and not nearly as polished as the novel. It is still a good story (it was nominated for a Hugo), and it is interesting to see the evolution from this story to the novel. Because this is the same story as the novel, only rougher, I didn't enjoy it quite as much as "Investment Counselor". On the other hand, this could be a very good introduction to the Enderverse if someone has not read Ender's Game (the novel). I am aware that this book has been republished with a fourth story "Teacher's Pet", dealing with Ender's mother. This particular collection did not include that story, so I can't comment on it. I finished this book a couple of hours after starting it, and I really enjoyed reading it. It is a nice little collection, and I'm glad that I got the chance to read it and see how Ender met Jane (for me, this was the story that meant the most).
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