Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
Doyne McKenzie, Collection Development Manager

With its nonstop action and multiple ethical questions, "Ender’s Game" (Tor, 1985) has been an excellent book for a communitywide reading program. But "Ender’s Game" is more than a single book; it is the seminal story for two quartets.

Surprisingly, this tale was not the book Orson Scott Card intended to write. Card says in the introduction to "Speaker for the Dead" (Tor, 1986) that "Speaker" was his project, not "Ender’s Game." Determined to use the adult Andrew "Ender" Wiggin from his 1977 short story that appeared in the August issue of Analog, Card found himself mired in an unwieldy prologue giving background on Ender until he severed "Ender’s Game" from his story to become its own prize-winning novel.

In "Speaker for the Dead" and two ensuing novels, "Xenocide" (Tor, 1991) and "Children of the Mind" (Tor, 1996), the mature Ender redeems himself by protecting the Pequeninos, or piggies, an intelligent species discovered on the Portuguese planet Lusitania, and resurrecting the "buggers."

As Card wrote "Speaker," he realized he would need "Xenocide" and "Children of the Mind" to complete the narrative. The full saga spans Ender’s life. As these three books progress, Ender works with Jane, who evolved from the interstellar computer network, and the reincarnations of the younger Val and Peter to save Lusitania and its inhabitants from the Starways Congress. The latter group has sent a fleet to destroy the planet and its three alien races because Lusitania harbors the descolada, a virus that is fatal to humans but essential to the life cycle of the piggies.

For Ender junkies, there is a second quartet: the parallel "Shadow Series." These books follow Ender’s lieutenant, Bean, from the original battle school story through his 20s and his slow deterioration caused by genetic manipulation.

"Ender’s Shadow" (Tor, 1999) goes beyond being an alternate view of "Ender’s Game." While exploring the rivalry between Ender and Bean, it also fills in the history of this Dutch genius. As the sole survivor of a genetic-manipulation experiment, Bean had to subsist in the streets of Amsterdam and escape the wily assaults of his former gang leader, Achilles, until he was rescued by Sister Carlotta and sent to battle school, where he encountered Ender and Dragon Army.

The other three novels in the "Shadow Series," "Shadow of the Hegemon" (Tor, 2001), "Shadow Puppets" (Tor, 2002) and "Shadow of the Giant" (Tor, 2005), follow Bean as he chooses which megalomaniacal leader to support, rescues and marries Petra Arkanian, and tries to overcome the genetic manipulation that has created his genius but caused his body to overgrow and will result in his early death.

"Ender’s Game" is an exciting and thought-provoking story in itself. If you want to learn more of Ender and his world, you have a choice of paths to follow: Ender’s or Bean’s.

Please join the Daniel Boone Regional Library’s One Read activities in September in Columbia, Fulton and Ashland. The program culminates with a Columbia visit by Card on Oct. 6. The Friends of the Columbia Public Library have funded the author’s visit. For more information, see oneread.dbrl.org.

Home