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[erikaseastarre]

hello. i just finshed reading ender's game, and i plan on reading speaker of the dead next, for i am more interested in the books that follow Ender. I was wondering which book of the series you all liked the best, because ender's game was quite fabulous and i want to know if the rest will let me down. also, what exactly is the whole speaker of the

Comments

[neminem]

I liked Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow equally (by which I mean I consider them the two best novels ever written). Speaker was still quite brilliant. Xenocide started to bog down a bit, though certain scenes still grabbed me. I personally wouldn't even bother reading Children of the Mind (even the best authors have that one book that just sucks - Children of the Mind was that book for Card, in my opinion).

The Bean saga, on the other hand, remained gripping the whole way through, though I still liked the first one the most.

[erikaseastarre]

thanks!

[dicebumlets]

I know it's not a very popular opinion, but I LOVED the Ender's saga, especially Xenocide. Card asks some very fascinating and complex questions--questions so complex that Children of the Mind doesn't answer them sufficiently, though it tries very very hard. That being said, I liked Children of the Mind too, but it enters the realm of bizarre mad-up physics science fiction, which is too out there for me. It's really fun to see where Ender's character goes as an adult, which is, as Card has said, the reason why he likes creating characters as children and watching them grow--the reader gets to see how they develop into the adults they become, and how they change as a result of growing up. Very cool.

The Bean stories are too plot-driven for me. I like the fact that the Ender books challenge the reader--like all good science fiction should.

[kael_raye]

I kind of liked Children of the Mind...but I agree that it was the worst written of the Ender Quartet. I like Speaker for the Dead a lot.

[kaeyin]

Ah haha, another who prefers Ender... Excellant...

I think I like Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead the best. Xenocide was good but the -- end sort of bothered me. Also, very wordy. Intersting, but wordy. I love Children of the Mind, too, and I'm of the opinion that people only thought it fell short because it was so much less dense than Xenocide... Juxtaposition-wise, I mean. As for the Bean arc, I liked Ender's Shadow for itself, but thought it took a little away from EG. SotH and SP are probably my least favorite in the series....I like them, just not as much. Good action, though. Shadow of the Giant was wonderful~

It's explained better in Xenocide, but basically you got it. They realized he was ...more formidible than they were prepared for, but also that he didn't really intend to kill them all, so they hurriedly slapped together the environment he found.

Sorry, this is probably way longer than you (or anyone) was really hoping to plow through... Hope it helps, though.

[neminem]

No, I didn't like Children of the Mind because, as was just mentioned, it went beyond the realm of believable sci-fi, into the realm of almost-fantasy metaphysical sci-fi. That sort of thing is fine in fantasy, but in sci-fi, certain things have to remain believable. The Laws of physics can be stretched, but they can't be broken completely. I felt that CotM went too far in that, among other, lesser complaints.

[kaeyin]

Admittedly, I've read a lot more fantasy, and have really only gotten into the guts of sci fi comparably recently so I'm probably a little biased in favor of fantasy.

I've never been particular, really, but you have a point there. For me, though, the 'philotics' in CotM bothered me more on a philosophical note than a science one. Never really cared too much about the particulars of the science in EG... I get more than enough of that in my major XD

[_cadenza]

I liked Ender's Game a lot better than any of the other books, but all of the rest of them are still very good. The only Ender book I didn't like was Xenocide... Just my opinion!