I'll try to post answers to the quiz tomorrow, so post your answers if you haven't. Come on! Guess! You've seen most of them! It's classic Disney!
So, in the last- call it- 3 weeks, I have read four works by Orson Scott Card. Those of you who are not sci-fi readers may not know the name, but you should have heard of his classic: Ender's Game. I am a 31 year old fairly well read sci-fi and fantasy geek. I fully admit to you my tiny readership, that I first read Ender's game this month.
I know. It's like finding out a movie buff hasn't seen Star Wars. Or The Godfather. Like finding out your comparative religion professor doesn't know the difference between Christian Science, and Scientology.
I can only say, in my defense, that I had it described to me, and it sounded lame. Having now read it, I enjoyed it, and the sequels Speaker for the Dead and Xenocide. According to wikipedia, Orson Scott Card invented the word Xenocide, meaning the total destruction of an alien race. I find it hard to believe. The word itself is a basic one stemming from Latin roots, but I digress.
I enjoyed the books. I know there are more, and I will read them, but I think Ender's Game was so very different from the other two, and I liked it better, I thought that maybe I didn't like his more mature writing. Then I picked up Ultimate Iron Man. The cover to the collected first few issues should tell you that Marvel knew it had snagged a really big name. I loved the comic. It was a great re-imagining of the origin of one of the Marvel Universe's most intelligent, and flawed superheroes. Plus it lets Orson Scott Card do what I think he does best.: write about really smart kids.
One of the fun side effects of reading the first three books in the Ender series is that certain web comics now make sense. Also I think I found the germ of the character that became Miko in The Giant's Order of the Stick in Xenocide's Gloriously Bright.
Quiz answers tomorrow! Place your bets! Someone take away my exclamation mark button! Please!
3 comments:
I've read the first three Ender novels, I knew about the Shadow series but haven't tried it yet (and didn't know about the online only stuff). Definitely a classic of the genre.
I didn't like Ultimate Iron Man that much, but I think that was mostly due to too little Iron Man (although it's true he writes kids well).
I also thought The Tales of Alvin Maker and Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus were good, and Homecoming Saga was decent. Here's an old review I did of three of his books:
Treason, Pastwatch, Songmaster: Card has said some stupid things lately about evolution and homosexuality, but he’s still a good writer. Ironically, the first book seems to refute his views on evolution, as the plot would be impossible without it. Songmaster does support some disturbing prejudices about homosexuality, and was the least enjoyable. Best one was Pastwatch, about why Christopher Columbus was so driven to get to the new world. Very enlightening.
I liked Ender's Game, got bored with Speaker for the Dead, liked Ender's Shadow just OK, and read Shadow of the Hegemon but thought "Man, he's seriously milking this thing for more than its worth at this point".
Also, Xenocide is a mixture of Greek and Latin roots, which is why it will make English teachers cringe.
They just announced a comic book adaption of the Ender series here.
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