Orson Scott Card's Books

I discovered Orson Scott Card relatively late (when I was in my early thirties), and I am glad that I did it then because I don't know that I would have liked him that much had I read the Ender novels back when I was gobbling science fiction by the pound. Ironically, what makes his books so interesting to me now is precisely what would have made them boring so many years ago (except perhaps the original Ender novel). He deals with human relationships and ethical dilemmas that ring quite familiar despite the fantastic settings. He has a quirky style that makes reading his work a joy. Here's a list of books in my Orson Scott Card Collection.

Photo by Bob Henderson

The Ender Series

Ender's Game (1985, revised 1991)

Having authorized the otherwise illegal birth of the precocious Ender, the International Fleet takes the six-year-old to brutal bootcamp training. They must prepare him to command the Terran space fleet on what just might be its last desperate mission to save humanity from a third invasion of an alien ant-like race.

Speaker for the Dead (1986, revised 1991)

Ender is now the Xenocide, the awful human being who destroyed an entire alien race. He travels incgnito as a Speaker for the Dead, the one who tells the truth about people who have passed away. Then one day, he is summoned to the remote planet of Lusitania, where another alien race had been descovered and was kept under protection until some of their kind murdered the people entrusted with their care.

Xenocide (1991)

As the Congressional fleet with orders to destroy Lusitania approaches the planet, everybody on it races to find a solution: the Hive Queen is building spaceships to take herself and the pequeninos elsewhere, the humans are battling the descolada and their own folly, and Jane is fighting for survival against an impossibly bright adolescent with mystical beliefs.

Children of the Mind (1996)

Time is running out for Jane who must either take human form or perish, but none of the available bodies welcome her. As Ender slowly wastes away on Lusitania, Peter and Wang-mu are trying to get Congress to repeal its order to destroy the planet, while Miro and Val attempt to discern whether the makers of the descolada are ramen or varelse.