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).
Rating: 
Summary: It gets NO BETTER than this!
Review: This novel is listed as "Young Adult" but so outstanding that any adult who has ever heard of the author Orson Scott Card, or of the famous characters "Bean" and "Ender" MUST get this book! This has four novellas. One is totally brand-new to the Ender collection and one is the original novella "Ender's Game" which appeared in 1977. No matter how tempted you become, do NOT begin this book with "Ender's Game". These four stories work together. They are set in the order that they supposedly happened. So begin reading at the beginning, where you should! As a bonus, the book is fully illustrated throughout. "The Polish Boy" © 2002 by Orson Scott Card first appeared in First Meetings: Three Stories From The Enderverse. "Teacher's Pest" © 2003 by Orson Scott Card. This is the first appearance! "Ender's Game" © 1977 by Orson Scott Card. First appeared in Analog magazine. "Investment Counselor" © 2000 by Orson Scott Card. First appeared in Far Horizons, edited by Robert Silverberg. ***** Do I recommend it? Oh, yes! Orson Scott Card pleases his adult fans and makes some new young fans at the same time. Very clever. But what did you expect from a Sci-Fi Master? ***** Reviewed by Detra Fitch of Huntress Reviews.
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: 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.
Rating: 
Summary: Needless Addition to the Enderverse
Review: Years ago, after first picking it up, I was completely blown away by Ender's Game, a phenomenal book. It is totally deserving of its hallowed status as one of the greatest modern sci-fi stories told. Following E.G., I loved its three immediate sequels. The ideas were all so fresh and exhilarating, and O.S. Card's writing maintained his excellent standard. The quartet ended on a high, and although I was sad to see the characters go, I was fulfilled as a reader and as a fan. Then they came back. Everything written about the characters residing in Ender's Universe since then (following Children of the Mind) has been totally uninspired and completely pointless; in essence, big disappointments. Mr. Card, in continuing on with his goldmine series, has unfortunately turned it into a landmine series, albeit one that earns heaps and heaps of money. He has totally undermined his characters as they were originally concocted. This particular book (First Meetings) is probably the worst evidence of this so far, although it definitely has partners in crime, in the three "Shadow" books that have currently been released (as bestsellers.) In the latest few installments to the "Enderverse" ("uggh"), we find that the characters of Ender's parents (formerly insignificant, for the most part) have suddenly become major characters, and are still totally un-interesting. Perhaps Card has decided, in his middle age, that he didn't want his parental figure characters to remain in the background (where they belong) any longer, to be conned and disrespected by their ambitious children. Now that Card can relate to the parental demographic better than to Ender's, he wants to explore them. Despite how completely average they were portrayed as being in Ender's Game (except for having three genius children), they are now apparently both geniuses themselves, who were only pretending to be oblivious the whole time. Crap. These are throwaway characters who never needed exploration, and now that their backgrounds have been explored, it is a humongous slap against the "Enderverse's" integrity as being inherently "real." It is just too contrived. Speaking of contrived, Mr. Card has turned his sci-fi series into a "political intrigue" series along the lines of Clancy or Cussler. The problem is, Mr. Card has no working knowledge of politics or of military tactics, so the whole thing comes off as being completely unrealistic, simplistic, and totally convenient. This is painfully evident in the way that the nations act towards each other, and towards the genius battle school grads, throughout the "Shadow" series books. I think that Card needs the guise of sci-fi settings (like an orbiting battle school) to make his story seem real, because you never doubt his characters when they are floating in mid-air, but when it's tanks and planes, it all seems like it came out of a 7th grader's first attempt at writing action-adventure. It's handled very poorly. Mainly, Mr. Card is killing his characters by continuing to breathe new "life" into them. Peter, the most well-written and rounded character of Ender's Game, is now totally watered down and a pathetic shell (who acts more idiotic these days than ingenious or megalomaniacal.) In the particular case of the "Enderverse", it is clear that less is definitely more. The more Card writes about his genius children characters (Ender, Peter, Val, Bean, Petra), the less he conveys that they are even remotely intelligent. He can't keep up the sham any longer, and all of these characters now come across as being average, petulant twerps. The only reason I can still tell that they are geniuses is because in his prose, Mr. Card explicitly describes them as geniuses (i.e. "Bean is a genius military tactician.") Thank God he does this, because they certainly do nothing to support that through their characterization any longer. Card has stopped being able to come up with clever schemes and sayings for his characters, so they all come across as being totally average. Perhaps, once again because of his middle age, Card is finding it more difficult to relate to his adolescent characters (than to the middle aged ones), and so he consigns them to being written about as simple and childish, not as multifaceted and emotionally deep, as they once were. Anyhow...
I think it's quite clear that I love these characters to death, or otherwise I wouldn't care so much about their handling, or mishandling. Of course, they are the creation of Mr. Card, and at one time he handled them brilliantly, so he can do with them whatever he wishes. However, it would be best to put them out to pasture, lest they all become dull little caricatures of their former brilliance, or should I say MORE SO. (Exception: Ender's parents who are becoming brilliant little caricatures of their former dullness.) I understand that Card's Ender-based fan base is huge, and that they demand more and more printed material about Ender and his colleagues, but enough is enough. Doyle killed off Sherlock Holmes, and it's time for Card to shun the money, bow out gracefully, maintain some integrity, and start writing new books about new characters and situations.
| 
