Ender's Game (series)

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The Ender's Game series (often referred to as the Enderverse or the Ender saga) is a series of science fiction books by Orson Scott Card. The series started with the novelette "Ender's Game", which was later expanded into the novel of the same title. It currently consists of thirteen novels, thirteen short stories, 47 comic issues, an audioplay, and a film. The first two novels in the series, Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead, each won both the Hugo[1][2] and Nebula[1][3] Awards, and were among the most influential science fiction novels of the 1980s.

The series is set in a future where mankind is facing annihilation by an aggressive alien society, an insect-like race known formally as "Formics" but more colloquially as "Buggers". The central character, Andrew "Ender" Wiggin, is one of the child soldiers trained at Battle School (and eventually Command School) to be the future leaders of the protection of Earth.

Ender series

Card first wrote Ender's Game as a novelette, but went back and expanded it into a novel so he could use Ender as a main character in another novel, Speaker for the Dead. That novel takes place three thousand and two years after Ender's Game, although due to relativistic space travel, Ender himself (now using his full name, Andrew) is only 36, making him only 25 years older than he was at the end of the Formic Wars.

While the first novel concerned itself with armies and space warfare, Speaker for the Dead and its two sequels Xenocide and Children of the Mind are more philosophical in nature. They deal with the difficult relationship between the humans and the "Piggies" (or "Pequeninos"), and Andrew's (Ender's) attempts to stop another xenocide from happening.

A War of Gifts: An Ender Story was released in October 2007.[4] It is set during Ender's first year in Battle School.

A prequel to Speaker for the Dead named Ender in Exile was released in November 2008. It involves Ender's journey to the first colony, as well as his meeting a character from the Shadow saga, effectively wrapping up the final plotline of the parallel series.

Shadow saga

Starting with Ender's Shadow, four more novels have been released which tell the story of the people whom Ender left behind – this has been dubbed the Shadow saga (also known as the "Bean Quartet"). Ender's Shadow is a parallel novel to Ender's Game, telling many of the same events from the perspective of Bean, a mostly peripheral character in Ender's Game, while Shadow of the Hegemon, Shadow Puppets and Shadow of the Giant tell the story of the struggle for world dominance after the Bugger War, in which the Battle School children, as well as Ender's brother, Peter Wiggin, are involved.

A sequel novel to Shadow of the Giant named Shadows in Flight further introduces Bean's children.

Shadows Alive, a future sequel, takes place after both Children of the Mind and Shadows in Flight, tying up the two series, and explaining some unanswered questions.

The First Formic War

Card and Aaron Johnston have planned a trilogy to cover events in the First Formic War. Earth Unaware, a prequel to the entire Ender series, was released on July 17, 2012. Earth Afire, was released on June 4, 2013,[5] to be followed by Earth Awakens[6] on June 10, 2014.

The Second Formic War

On November 4, 2013, Johnston confirmed[7] work on a second trilogy of novels covering the Second Formic War, with the manuscript for the first book due in 2014.[8]

Fleet School

According to an interview by someone[9] with Southern Virginia University, Fleet School[10] is "a new set of sequels to Ender's Game. It's for a YA audience. It's what happens to Battle School after the International Fleet loses its purpose of war. It becomes what is called Fleet School, and it prepares kids to become commanders / explorers in the colonies that are going to be forming. We get to see that as the school administrators repurpose the school, the Battle Room is still there, but it's a whole different kind of education."

Novels in the series

To date, there are six novels in the Ender's Game series and five novels in the Shadow series. According to Card, there is no strictly preferred order of reading them, except that Xenocide should be read right before Children of the Mind.[11] The books can be read in the order in which they were originally written or in chronological order.

Publication date

  1. Ender's Game (1985) – Nebula Award winner, 1985;[1] Hugo Award winner, 1986;[1] Locus Award nominee, 1986[1]
  2. Speaker for the Dead (1986) – Nebula Award winner, 1986;[1] Hugo & Locus Awards winner, 1987;[1] Campbell Award nominee, 1987[1]
  3. Xenocide (1991) – Hugo and Locus Awards nominee, 1992[12]
  4. Children of the Mind (1996)
  5. Ender's Shadow (1999) – Shortlisted for a Locus Award, 2000[13]
  6. Shadow of the Hegemon (2001) – Shortlisted for a Locus Award, 2002[14]
  7. Shadow Puppets (2002)
  8. First Meetings (2002) – short story collection
  9. Shadow of the Giant (2005)
  10. A War of Gifts: An Ender Story (2007)
  11. Ender in Exile (2008)
  12. Shadows in Flight (2012)
  13. Earth Unaware (2012)
  14. Earth Afire (2013)
  15. Earth Awakens (2014, final book in the Formic Wars trilogy)
  16. Shadows Alive (forthcoming, originally planned as part of "Shadows in Flight")

Chronological order

  1. Earth Unaware
  2. Earth Afire
  3. Earth Awakens
  4. First Meetings (A collection of short stories whose settings range from before Ender's Game till after Shadows in Flight)
  5. Ender's Game
  6. Ender's Shadow (Note: The events of Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow take place in roughly the same time period.)
  7. A War of Gifts (Note: This takes place during Ender's Game/Ender's Shadow.)
  8. Shadow of the Hegemon
  9. Shadow Puppets
  10. Shadow of the Giant
  11. Ender in Exile (Note: Beginning takes place during Shadow of the Hegemon and through Shadow of the Giant)
  12. Shadows in Flight
  13. Speaker for the Dead
  14. Xenocide
  15. Children of the Mind
  16. Shadows Alive

Short stories in the series

Main article: List of Ender's Game series short stories

Comic books in the series

Main article: Ender's Game (comics)

Comic books in the Ender Universe are currently being published by Marvel Comics.

Audioplay

Film

Main article: Ender's Game (film)

The movie Ender's Game was released in the UK on October 25, 2013 and in the USA on November 1, 2013. The first script was based on two installments of the Ender series, Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow, when optioned by Warner Brothers, but was adapted to focus exclusively on Ender's Game when purchased by Lionsgate.[15] The cast includes Harrison Ford, Abigail Breslin, Ben Kingsley, and Asa Butterfield as Ender Wiggin. The film was directed by Gavin Hood.[16][17]

The Authorized Ender Companion

Written by Jake Black, The Authorized Ender Companion is "the indispensable guide to the universe of Ender's Game."[18] Sections in this book include: The Ender Encyclopedia, Ender's Timeline, Ender's Family Tree by Andrew Lindsay, Getting Ender Right: A Look at the Ender's Game Screenplay Development by Aaron Johnston, and The Technology of Ender's Game by Stephen Sywak. The majority of the book consists of encyclopedia references to the events, characters, locations, and technology found in the Ender's Game series up to the publication of Ender in Exile.

The book is notable for having new and behind the scenes information on certain topics such as Battle School Slang, The Look of the Formics, The History of Hyrum Graff, Ender and Valentine's Travels, and Mazer Rackham's Spaceship.

Ender's World: Fresh Perspectives on the SF Classic Ender's Game

Ender's World contains 14 essays from Science Fiction and Young Adult writers, as well as military strategists and others about various aspects of Ender’s Game. The book includes an introduction[19] by Orson Scott Card, who edited Ender's World and answers from many fan-submitted Enderverse questions from the Smart Pop Books Website.[20] The following essays are included in the compilation:

See also

  • Ender's Game (film)
  • List of characters in the Ender's Game series
  • List of works by Orson Scott Card

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 "1986 Award Winners & Nominees". Worlds Without End. Retrieved 2009-07-15. 
  2. ↑ "1987 Award Winners & Nominees". Worlds Without End. Retrieved 2009-07-15. 
  3. ↑ "1985 Award Winners & Nominees". Worlds Without End. Retrieved 2009-07-15. 
  4. ↑ Orson Scott Card at Fantastic Fiction
  5. ↑ EARTH AFIRE, the sequel to EARTH UNAWARE by me and @orsonscottcard will be released on June 4, 2013. Aaron Johnston on Twitter. October 30, 2012. Retrieved April 12, 2013.
  6. ↑ Title for book 3 of First Formic Trilogy will be EARTH AWAKENS Aaron Johnston on Twitter. March 15, 2013. Retrieved April 12, 2013.
  7. ↑ @therootsundo Thanks. Hope you like book three. And the three more after that. There's another trilogy coming. The Second Formic War. Aaron Johnston on Twitter. November 4, 2012. Retrieved November 4, 2013.
  8. ↑ @EndersAnsible @therootsundo Yes. The second trilogy is happening. Manuscript for book one is due in 2014. Aaron Johnston on Twitter. November 4, 2012. Retrieved November 4, 2013.
  9. ↑ "Orson Scott Card announces new sequels to Ender's Game". SouthernVirginiaUniv's YouTube Channel. Retrieved 2013-11-01. 
  10. ↑ "Orson Scott Card interview – the extended version". New Zealand Listener. Retrieved 2013-10-31. 
  11. ↑ Card, Orson Scott. "Question: What's the 'preferred' order of reading the Ender series?". Frequently Asked Questions. Hatrack.com. Retrieved 2007-05-15. 
  12. ↑ "1992 Award Winners & Nominees". Worlds Without End. Retrieved 2009-07-15. 
  13. ↑ "2000 Award Winners & Nominees". Worlds Without End. Retrieved 2009-07-15. 
  14. ↑ "2002 Award Winners & Nominees". Worlds Without End. Retrieved 2009-07-15. 
  15. ↑ http://www.endersansible.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/7-18-2013-Interview.mp3
  16. ↑ "Ender's Game". Retrieved 2013-01-22. 
  17. ↑ Ender's Shadow Audiobook, author's epilogue
  18. ↑ Black, Jake (2009). The Authorized Ender Companion. Tor Books. ISBN 978-0-7653-2063-6. 
  19. ↑ Introduction: Ender's World
  20. ↑ Ask Orson Scott Card a question about Ender’s Game!
  21. ↑ "How It Should Have Ended" by Eric James Stone
  22. ↑ "The Monster's Heart" by John Brown
  23. ↑ "The Cost of Breaking the Rules" by Mary Robinette
  24. ↑ "Winning and Losing in Ender’s Game" by Hilari Bell
  25. ↑ "Parallax Regained" by David Lubar, Alison S. Myers
  26. ↑ "Mirror, Mirror" by Alethea Kontis
  27. ↑ "Size Matters" by Janis Ian
  28. ↑ "Rethinking the Child Hero" by Aaron Johnston
  29. ↑ "A Teenless World" by Mette Ivie Harrison
  30. ↑ "Ender on Leadership" by Colonel Tom Ruby
  31. ↑ "Ender Wiggin, USMC" by John F. Schmitt
  32. ↑ "The Price of Our Inheritance" by Neal Shusterman
  33. ↑ "If the Formics Love Their Children Too" by Ken Scholes
  34. ↑ "Ender's Game: A Guide to Life" by Matt Nix

External links

Ender's Game series
Books
Short stories
Analog
First Meetings (2002)
InterGalactic Medicine Show
Comics
  • Gold Bug
  • Ender's Game: Battle School
  • Ender's Shadow: Battle School
  • Recruiting Valentine
  • Ender's Game: Command School
  • Ender's Shadow: Command School
  • War of Gifts
  • Mazer in Prison
  • The League War
  • Ender in Exile
  • Speaker for the Dead
  • Formic Wars: Burning Earth
  • Formic Wars: Silent Strike
Film
Video game
  • Ender's Game: Battle Room
Characters
Ender's family
Battle School
Other
Concepts
Photo of Orson Scott Card
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