Monday 3 May 2010

Spreading the awe

Elana Johnson who writes YA sci-fi and fantasy has begun to spread awe - awe and wonder is - awesome and wonderful? - no, it's a great idea.

The book and author I'd like to nominate is Ender's Shadow and Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card.

I read the books in this order; this is not the correct one - however, the mature writing in Shadow meant I had Bean adopted and made mine long before I got passed the end of page 5. The saga, too me, was whole and complete and I had no idea Game existed until I read the (lets face it who reads them) author's post. Have to admit I never read anything that comes before the title of  "Chapter 1" :)

The books merge when Bean and Ender are both at the Academy together - they become two views of the same story as it unfolds. I enjoyed one book and I adored the other. I'm glad I read both - I learned a lot about how the writer's skills develop over time.

8 comments:

  1. Oh! I loved Ender's Game (read all four books several times before I learned about the Shadow series.) So when I did find the Shadow series I ate it up! I always liked Bean, but this series made me fall in love with him.

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  2. I haven't heard of this author before, but I'll look out for these books. Thank you for highlighting them!

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  3. I read Ender's Game about a month ago and LOVED it. I debated whether I wanted to read Ender's Shadow, because while I liked Bean, I wasn't sure I wanted to read the story from his pov. Now that you've endorsed it, I will probably read it. The writing is so amazing in Ender's Game. I never read sci-fi until about a year ago, but since then, I've found some great reads. Check out The Lost Fleet series by Jack Campbell. It's excellent too.

    Orson Scott Card has a bunch of other books, and I just got one in the mail Saturday, "Empire", and began reading last night. I'm not too far into it yet, but it's good so far.

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  4. Know the author, never read any of the books. Looks like I'll have to put them on my list!

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  5. Hi Charity and Mary we have a mini-fan club growing here ;) Xenocide is parked on my reading pile. It's next.
    Hi Jayne and Lydia - he is quite the writer. I think reading Game before Shadow would have been better but Shadow seemed a much more full story.

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  6. Oooh, nice. I love reading different POVs.

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  7. A new one for me to pop onto my, I want to read list.

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  8. I loved Ender's Game, but I haven't read Ender's Shadow. Sounds fun.

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