Genres, book reviews and authors

What can you say about ‘Ender’s Game’ or Orson Scott Card? There is so much it’s hard to know where to start. If you refer to my ‘what I like’ page, where I say that there are a few rare authors that I will read anything they write and Card is at the top of the list. ‘Ender’s Game’ is his most well known book, set as a text in schools and forerunner of many more.

Like all his novels it is huge as a world concept and like a game of chess, while you’re trying to think several moves ahead and hold them all for comparison, it’s mind twisting. At the same time, the story progresses linearly, with each move described intimately and is lovingly detailed with each character’s thoughts as they proceed to their destined end game.

It is a story that can be read by anyone, that will touch your heart on many levels, for it is Ender, a young boy first encountered at six years of age, that is it’s main character.

It is an action tale that will appeal to any boy between the age of 10-18 because it describes the use of computer games although not in a way that might be expected. It is a shocking novel - that is a novel that shocks because its characters are so young, yet so advanced in their actions and because the adults, mostly military personel and rarely mentioned, train children to train other children in a battle school.

It is however an adult novel with mature concepts - about boys, about siblings, about friends and about enemies, about bullying and duty, about love and respect.

It is a science fiction novel woven around the threat of an alien race called the buggers who tried to invade earth and it is an introduction to complex ethics, posing many questions about right and wrong actions and the motives behind them. It examines leadership and lonliness, it examines groups and camaraderie, it examines winning and losing, fairness and discipline, love and hate and truth and lies.

“Ender nodded. It was a lie, of course, that it wouldn’t hurt a bit. But since adults always said it when it was going to hurt, he could count on that statement as an accurate prediction of the future. Sometimes lies were more dependable than the truth.”

Like Harry Potter, Ender Wiggin gets very little love and support and engages our sympathy from the start, like Harry Potter the setting is a school environment and like Harry Potter, Ender is a child with the hopes of many adults resting on him like a huge weight.There have been wizard books and fantasy novels touted to be like Harry Potter ever since he became the character of best selling books. This book that developed from a short story originating around 1977 preceded Rowling’s brilliant novels and makes no claim to the humour or magic they have, but there are many similarities in the structure of their plots. Rowling however has clear black and white good and evil rules, Card has so many shades of grey we don’t know what to think.

More than anything else Ender’s Game is a thrilling story that holds you from start to finish, with a thirst to reach the end and find out what happens. A novel that is revisitable and mind twisting, that is both passionate and perfectly executed. It is our first encounter with the characters that Card has written six more novels about; each big in concept but fine in detail and each one expanding his alternate Universe with high imagination and humanity.

If you have a teenager reluctant to read, or to read anything other than Harry Potter, this will be a hit to most and if anyone, any age wants a good fast book, this is it.

You can read about Orson Scott Card at his website www.hatrack.com and if you do a search on him by name you’ll find some very interesting sites on politics, global issues and many other things as he has very specific and sometimes controversial views.

Author JA Francis

These titles of Orson Scott Card are available from an Online Audio Bookseller.  Audio books are fantastic for people who’s eyesight is failing. Good for long car trips as well.

Seventh Son: Tales of Alvin Series Vol 1
Orson Scott Card

From the author of the award-winning Ender’s Game comes the unforgettable story of
young Alvin Maker, the seventh son of a seventh son. Born into an alternative frontier America where life is hard and folk magic is real, Alvin is gifted with power, but he must learn to use his gift wisely. Dark forces are arrayed against Alvin, and only a young girl with second sight can protect him.

Red Prophet: Tales of Alvin Series Vol 2 

Alvin has discovered his own unique talent for making things whole again. Now he summons all his powers to prevent the tragic war between Native Americans and the white settlers of North America. Red Prophet is but a section of a vast American fantasy epic. It is vividly written, and the principal actors Alvin, Ta-Kumsaw the Prophet, and Alvin’s Gandalfesque mentor Taleswapper are all complete and memorable characters.”

Prentice Alvin: Tales of Alvin Series Vol 3 

Young Alvin returns to the town of his birth and begins his apprenticeship with Makepeace Smith, committing seven years of his life in exchange for the skills and knowledge of a blacksmith. But Alvin must also learn to control and use his own talent, that of a Maker, else his destiny will be unfulfilled.

Alvin Journeyman : Tales of Alvin Vol 4 

Alvin is a Maker, the first to be born in a century. Now a grown man and a journeyman smith, Alvin has returned to his family in the town of Vigor Church. He will share in their isolation, work as a blacksmith, and try to teach anyone who wishes to learn the knack of being a Maker. For Alvin has had a vision of the Crystal City he will build, and he knows that he cannot build it alone. But he has left behind in Hatrack River enemies as well as true friends. His ancient foe, the Unmaker, whose cruel whispers and deadly plots have threatened Alvin’s life at every turn, has found new hands to do his work of destruction.

(The above are from the books blurb descriptions)

These books are a wonderful blend of so many different elements. Alvin is a warm human kind hearted and creative boy with a knack that goes well beyond most knacks. Peggy, his protectress is feisty and canny. The alternate history in the books include black slavery and American Indians and the allegory of Alvins knack related to the Creator while his enemy the Unmaker aims to foil him brings a delightful philosophical discussion to the novels regarding superstitions, creativity, love and hatred.

The next book is one of my favourites and also tackles the theme of creativity, it’s ability to move other people and the confusing and sometimes disastrous effect that it can have on other people.

*******

Songmaster: Orson Scott Card (A stand alone novel)

Kidnapped at an early age, Ansset has been raised in isolation at a mystical retreat called the Songhouse. His life is filled with music, and having only songs for companions, he develops a voice that is unlike any other. But Ansset’s voice is both a blessing and a curse–for it reflects all the hopes and fears of his audience, and, by magnifying their emotions, can be used either to heal or to destroy.

When it is discovered that his is the voice that the Emperor has waited decades for, Ansset is summoned to the Imperial Palace on Old Earth. Many fates rest in Ansset’s hands, and his songs will soon be put to the test: either to salve the troubled conscience of a conqueror or drive him, and the universe, into mad chaos.