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First Meetings In Ender's Universe (2004)

First Meetings in Ender's Universe (2004)

Book Info

Rating
3.81 of 5 Votes: 4
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ISBN
0765347989 (ISBN13: 9780765347985)
Language
English
Publisher
tor

About book First Meetings In Ender's Universe (2004)

Ender's Game is one of my all time favorite books, and I enjoy Orson Scott Card as a writer in general because of how often he gets me to think while reading, so when I found First Meetings on my sister's bookshelf, I was excited to read it. The first two stories, "The Polish Boy" and "Teacher's Pest", were everything that I expected...believable characters (at least for the Ender universe), good plot, and plenty of thinking points brought along by the combination. As an Ender fan, I loved getting to read more about his father and what his background is like...why he was the way that he was and where that all came from. These two stories definitely made me want to go back and reread Ender's Game itself - for as much as the explained why Ender was as brilliant as he was, knowing that both his father and his mother were geniuses makes me wonder about how and why they allowed the things that happened in Ender's childhood to occur. Were they oblivious? Too concerned with ideas of noncompliance? Forced not to intervene by the powers that be? Especially with "Teacher's Pest", I wanted so much more from the story...how the relationship progressed, how much they knew versus suspected about being a eugenics experiment, what their reactions were like from their perspective with each of their children, etc. More, more, more! Please?Next was the original "Ender's Game" novella, which was an interesting look at how stories develop and change over time...clearly a lot of work was done in the process of transforming he sorry unto a full scale novel, and I think those changes were for the better. Honestly, I don't think I would love the story if this had been it - it's a decent novella and does make you think some, but it all happens so suddenly that you can't really process it or reflect on it fully the way you can in the novel. In addition, I felt like Ender was much less likeable here - we don't get to see into his mind or hear about how he is feeling or why it is this way...in the novel he was much more relatable and things didn't just come easily for him like they do in the novella. Long story short, I'm so glad this story got expanded and changed!The last novella was "The Investment Counselor", presumably written and included to explain Ender's meeting with Jane, and while it was all well and good for that, it also made me want to go back and reread in the original series because I thought there already was explanation for that meeting...perhaps I am mistaken though. More satisfying in this short story was actually the explanation of how Ender became a speaker for the dead in terms of humans, not just for the hive queen and the hegemon. I really liked how it helps him come to terms with himself and with the messy story of human existence in all its little parts: we never really know the whole story, and it's amazing how the truth can help you see things you never understood previously.

I would not recommend this book as an entry point into the Ender series. If you want to start the series begin with Ender's Game and then follow up with some of the other stories. This book was a little confusing as it begins with John Paul, Ender's father, as a child and then continues his story as a young man falling in love with Ender's mother. I was very intrigued with this back story and loved seeing Ender's parents as people rather than distant non-authority figures. Unfortunately, their story gets dropped abruptly and then you get a mini version of Ender's Game (the climax of the story). If you already read Ender's Game this was just a repeat of the full book. If you haven't read Ender's Game is gives away some of the best surprises of the original book. This short volume then concludes with a glimpse of Ender and Valentine traveling the worlds as young 20-year-olds. So I enjoyed the beginning and of the story. I wish the middle had been filled in with new material. As always, Card is enjoyable to read and the depth of the Ender world he created is amazing.Recommended for fans. If you just want the central story go straight to Ender's Game.

Do You like book First Meetings In Ender's Universe (2004)?

I really liked hearing about Ender's parents. In the Ender stories Ender and his siblings don't thin their parents know anything that was going on in their children's lives, but there is a hint that maybe they were more aware than their kids thought. After reading this, I am pretty sure they knew more than their kids thought they did. (I'd be curious to read a short story from the parents' perspective about what their kids were up to.) I also really liked hearing about Ender's first meeting with Jane (that elicited an audible "aww").
—Christie

Jumping back into the Ender universe is a little like going home. First Meetings in the Ender Universe is the tenth book I have read in the series, and I still remain committed to reading each book Orson Scott Card has to offer from this universe. The series itself has had its ups and downs, some great and some not so much, but I'm invested and interested enough to see the series to its end. First Meetings is a fine addition to the overall series and provides some welcome depth to the universe.First Meetings has several short stories, all entertaining and unique episodes, and the original Ender's Game novella, which Card eventually turned into his excellent and famous novel of the same name. The novella is the oddest addition to this particular collection. It's out of place, especially considering it spoils the key surprise of the novel. Readers should be discouraged from reading First Meetings first since some of the stories take place before the original Ender's Game. The novella is perfectly readable and actually acted as a great refresher on some of the core conflicts of the novel, but I would have preferred another unique short story in its place.The short stories involving Ender's father, one of which describes the first introduction between Ender's father and mother, are nice little insights into how the International Fleet had been watching Ender's family even before he was born. Ender's father proves to be an interesting character in his own right, and his mother could have used a short story of her own in this collection. As is obvious from aspects of Ender's Game and the subsequent Shadow series, not to mention the chronicle of Ender and Valentine after Ender's Game, the story of Ender is also a story about his family. First Meetings reinforces that story arc.Lastly, there is a fun short story about Ender attempting to deal with the implications of paying taxes on investments and holdings which have been growing in size and complexity while he has been traversing the universe at near light-speed. It starts off as an amusing, albeit unnecessary, episode until Card introduces the artificial intelligence Jane. Readers of the Ender Quartet are very much aware of the profound impact Jane has on the Ender universe, and I thoroughly enjoyed her introduction and the genesis of her and Ender's friendship. First Meetings isn't exactly a must-read, but it was fun. It's for the hard-core fans of the Ender universe. I will say, however, that it did show me how a television show based on Card's characters and stories would work splendidly.http://thethousanderclub.blogspot.com/
—The Thousander Club

I loved reading the background stories to Ender's Parents, but was sad when their story stopped so abruptly. They barely have one good day together, and it's like Paul Harvey steps in with his famous tag line, "and now you know the rest of the story". I wanted more, and felt robbed. Then the story quickly jumps (no transition) to a portion that seemed to have come straight out of Ender's Game, only there were discrepancies. There's a discrepancy with Graff's character and his age(within this book, not even considering the other stories), and also with who was in his "jeesh" for the final battle. The next story that's told is of Jane's existence. I enjoyed readying the background story for her and Ender, but when finished I simply wanted more. The stories were well written, but had I not been familiar with the Ender Universe, I wouldn't have had the slightest idea what was going on at the start of the short story Ender's Game in the book. I expected First Meetings to be a fun stand alone story about Ender's parents, somehow fitting in an introduction to Jane. Instead, I read about 70 really fun pages of the parents, then was jumped into Ender's Game for a bit, and then brought into Jane's world for the last part. This book should've been focused on Ender's brilliant parents and their journey to love and parenthood. I would've loved reading about them as young parents of overly bright kids. Jane's story should've been another seperate tale. There's so much depth to that character, 70 or so pages couldn't do her justice.
—D.C.

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