Orson Scott Card books

Earth Afire (2013)

Overall an engaging read. I burned through this fast and kept me hooked the first book was kinda a slow start giving a lot of hype and buildup which definitely wasn't wasted in this book. While I found it engaging and cool to read I found he would seem to go a bit much on the relationships. Such ...

La Tierra En Llamas (2014)

This is the second book in the "First formic War" trilogy. It was a quick and entertaining read, if a bit flawed.I am always a little dubious of prequels, in part because you know where you are going and have the gist of how you got there from previous books. This is another prequel series suffer...

Earth Awakens (2014)

Not really how I was expecting it to end given the way the war is discussed in Ender's Game, but perhaps they talk more about the Second Formic War? Still a good read and interesting to see how these wars happened. Either it speaks to the unbelievable arrogance of the Formics that isn't evident...

Stonefather (2008)

I hadn't really intended to read this, but Audible was having a sale, and I recognized Orson Scott Card (in fact, he's probably the only author I recognized at all). So I gave it a read (or a listen), and found myself enjoying it.Card is an accomplished writer, and it shows. The language and styl...

Hidden Empire (2009)

A serviceable techno-thriller that gets quite a bit preachy at times. One of my all time favorite books. It has some surprising inspiration for Christians as well.

Visitors (2014)

Wildly creative and entertaining read with great emotional moments scattered throughout with the seeming ease and nonchalance that is typical of Card. And a great close to the series. If anything it suffers from a lack of tension due to the abilities of the characters, but the question with most ...

Laddertop, Volume 1 (2011)

Laddertop is based in the future where aliens placed four ladders around the world that go into outer space. It is about these two girls, best friends that both go to this academy to become workers on the ladders. Azure Miles and Roberta Holten are both in middle school when they both got into an...

Ender's Game Ultimate Collection (2012)

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card is a very good read. It has lots of action and has your basic sci-fi. For people who like reading about books with aliens this would probably be one of your first choice. If also like books with more teenagers and less adults, this a good book. I would recommend t...

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 ...

Sarah (2001)

For being such a nonbelieving atheist-pants, I can get into a Biblical yarn like nobody's business. Whether you believe the tales in the Bible hold any shred of truth or are pure imagination, there's no denying that they have had a mighty influence on Western culture, and I am nothing if not a p...

Rachel & Leah (2005)

This book was a huge disappointment for me. I have read many books by Orson Scott Card and greatly enjoyed them all. I also read Sarah,the first book in the "Women of Genesis" series, back when it came out, and I liked it well enough. What a difference from Rachel and Leah! I disliked most of the...

How to Write Science Fiction & Fantasy (2015)

Orson Scott Card has written some amazing fiction in his time. Many of these have gone on to become movies, and in fact still do. Given the chance to pick this book up, I had picked it up years ago. The original review for that purchase has been lost to the sands of time, yet I was given the chan...

Saints (2001)

In one of Orson Scott Card's essays I read several years ago, he mentioned that he got a lot of flak for this book. People didn't like how he wrote about Joseph Smith--his human-ness as well as his Prophet-ness. They didn't like seeing Emma as anything other than an "elect lady" or a apostate v...

Heartfire (2015)

This fifth volume of the series finds Alvin and Peggy now married, and expecting the birth of their first child, but separated for much of the book by separate missions far apart geographically. His continuing quest for understanding of how to build the "Crystal City" of his vision will take him...

Magic Street (2006)

Direct Quote from dust jacket: “A novel that uses realism and fantasy to delight, challenge, and satisfy on the most profound levels.” Liars.This should have been a good book. Written by Orson Scott Card, a tried and true literature giant, combining the world of fairy and Midsummer Night’s Dre...

Homebody (1999)

Call it a ghost story or a gothic romance, one thing is certain about Orson Scott Card's novel, Homebody: it's not science fiction. One of the most celebrated SF authors of the last twenty years, Card has rarely written outside the genre. But his passion for characterization and spirituality make...

Speaker for the Dead (1994)

Ender’s Game: The best coming-of-age military SF adventure every writtenSpeaker for the Dead: Way too much talk about morality, guilt, and redemption through the truth, at the expense of a really fascinating exploration of alien biology Ender’s Game and Speaker for the Dead really opened my mind ...

Red Prophet (1992)

Originally posted at FanLit:http://www.fantasyliterature.com/revi...Red Prophet is the second book in Orson Scott Card’s THE TALES OF ALVIN MAKER, an alternate history set in a frontier America in which folk magic is real. In the first book, Seventh Son, we were introduced to the main protagonist...

The Worthing Chronicle (1983)

First I must say I normally like Orson Scott Card. However, this was a stretch and too much I must say as a reader - though as a writer it was marginally worthwhile. If you are a writer of SciFi the story is a great study of ideas and concepts. That said, the story is written about as removed fro...

Xenocide (1996)

Originally published at Fantasy Literature.Xenocide is the third book in Orson Scott Card’s award-winning ENDER WIGGEN saga. In the first book, Ender’s Game, the child Ender Wiggen was trained to wipe out the alien “buggers” who were planning to destroy the earth. The second novel, Speaker for th...

The Call of Earth (1994)

Mankind fled the Earth after finally destroying it with their weapons of mass destruction. The few humans left after the holocaust vowed never to let their species develop the ability to destroy itself again. And so, when they colonized the planet Harmony, some 1000 light years from Earth, they...

Shadow of the Hegemon (2001)

This book moved along at a pretty good clip. It was easy to read and kind of entertaining. I like Bean. So it was OK.Except that it was really pretty terrible. All the Battle School kids are back on earth and they are basically shunted away as being "just" children. That means that all the k...

Shadow of the Giant (2005)

It's hard to write a review for a book like Shadow of the Giant, because it's really just the last chapter of a much larger story. I give 5 stars on this review not only because Giant was a great book by itself, but it also ends the series with the greatness it deserves.Here is the order you sho...

Ender's Shadow (2002)

With all honesty, I don’t know what to say right after I finished this book. The book never failed to impress me as it failed my first impression. Yes—my first impression. The fact that I didn’t read yet the Ender’s Game series made me hesitate in pursuing reading the Ender’s Shadow. Credit to Or...

Alvin Journeyman (2005)

Victory of Eagles, A Novel of Temeraire, by Naomi Novak (recognizable historical mileu): Thoroughly enjoyed this story of Napoleon's invasion of Britain and how dragons, led by Temeraire, and his captain, Will Laurence, help the British repel the French, who have their own dragon force. While...

Seventh Son (1988)

Books about special children with magic powers being manipulated by binary forces are kind of boring. There seems to be a glut of them.As the 18th century draws its final, decade-long gasps, America looks a lot different than our history remembers. Dutch colonies and Aboriginal nations have becom...

The Worthing Saga (1992)

I know this will surprise you, but I thought The Worthing Saga was even better than Ender's Game (and I loved Ender's Game)! I don't have time for a real review, but here are my quickest, most concise thoughts on this collection of stories:1. What does it mean to be a God? To me, this was the ...

Earthborn (1996)

tOf all of Orson Scott Card’s books, “Earthborn” is probably my least favorite. It is not that the novel is not well written – it is – or that it lacks a good story – it does not. But its role as the fifth and final book in a series makes it feel like an incomplete ending.tUnlike the rest of the...

The Ships of Earth (1995)

It's hard for me to quite tell what I think of this book. On the one hand, the book is a kind of synthesis of the Old Testament. Important: it is not the Old Testament, or a parable representing the Old Testament. Events and scenes do not add up to the Old Testament, and the reader should not try...

The Changed Man (1992)

Eleven chilling tales, including the author's introductions and afterword comments, provoke the dreaded dark side of the reader's imagination. Reprint.

Lovelock (2001)

A Review of the AudiobookPerformed by Emily RankinDuration: 11 hours, 44 minutesBlackstone AudioProlific author Orson Scott Card has published dozens of books, a handful of plays, writes multiple newspaper columns, publishes an online magazine and even had a hand in the creation of several video ...

Treasure Box (1997)

Read this years ago.* OSC has been one of my favorite authors. But now, I am distressed.A while back, I was confronted by a dilemma with author I had read, and had liked (for that kind of thriller book.) He did something which appalled me, enough so so that I swore I would never buy another of ...

Songmaster (2002)

Part one of this is a review of the book on its own merits, afterward, I will talk about my feelings on Orson Scott Card and his political activities. Songmaster was published in 1980, and as such, it’s the earliest work I’ve read by Card, and this is evident because it is also the worst thing I...

Earthfall (1996)

For some reason, this is the only book in the Homecoming series I don't own, so I'm finally getting around to reading it. If you're LDS, you'll know the story - family on a ship headed to promised land, older bro gets mad and ties up younger bro, chaos of a "storm" until older bro relents. A litt...

Prentice Alvin (1991)

Posted at FanLit. http://www.fantasyliterature.com/revi...Prentice Alvin is the third book in Orson Scott Card’s TALES OF ALVIN MAKER. After the excitement in the last book, Red Prophet, when Alvin and his family experienced the Battle of Tippecanoe, Alvin is finally off to Hatrack River, where h...

Hart's Hope (2003)

Warning!!!! This book is dark! Ridiculously dark! It contains abuse, humiliation, degradation, torture, imprisonment, possession, rape, incest, and much more. But to emphasize my point, these things are not the reason it is so dark. It is the way these subjects are broached, described, and c...

Children of the Mind (2002)

I know several readers, myself included, who were blown away by Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. They then found the sequel, Speaker for the Dead, to be equally as riveting and eagerly reached for Xenocide, book three in the series, with the highest of expectations--only to be slammed with disap...

Maps in a Mirror: The Short Fiction of Orson Scott Card (2004)

I originally read this collection of short stories by Orson Scott Card when I was a teenager. I have read it so many times that I could probably tell some of them to my toddler daughter from memory. I love Orson Scott Card's ability to create tales that read almost as fables; this ability shines ...

Meditations on Middle Earth: New Writing on the Worlds of J. R. R. Tolkien (2002)

Wyrms (2003)

So far, this gets my 'best book of the year' award. I was thinking that I would have to say I liked it even better than 'Ender's Game,' but I didn't think the ending was handled with quite as much power and finesse. And - like most of Card's books, although I LOVE the writing, I disagree with his...

Shadow Puppets (2003)

I've got to speak some truth to power: This is a lousy book. Ender's Game was pretty cool. The other three books in the Enderverse were progressively less good, but still all right. The first two books in the Beanverse (or whatever we want to call them)... not so great, but kind of fun, I guess? ...

The Memory of Earth (1993)

Here's the biggest problem with this book: Card's a terrible world-builder. (Okay, the biggest problem might've been that whoever edited this book didn't feel comfortable telling Orson Scott Card that big chunks needed to be rewritten or scrapped, but I can't be too hard on our hypothetical edit...

Hot Sleep (1979)

Jason Worthing is one of the greatest starship pilots in the fleet. He is also a telepath, something forbidden under imperial law. When a rebellion against the empire goes wrong, the rebels are forced to become colonists to the furthest colony ever established by mankind - and the colony is to be...

Invasive Procedures (2007)

George Galen is a brilliant scientist, a pioneer in gene therapy. But Galen is dangerously insane - he has created a method to alter human DNA, not just to heal diseases, but to "improve" people - make them stronger, make them able to heal more quickly, and make them compliant to his will.Frank H...

Flux (1992)

This second volume of Orson Scott Card's five-volume anthology of short stories features seven tales exploring possible future scenarios for the human race. A fascistic government's capital punishment extends beyond death. Intellectually superior aliens from a doomed world choose Earth's dogs as ...

A War of Gifts (2007)

Orson Scott Card offers a Christmas gift to his millions of fans with A War of Gifts, a short novel set during Ender Wiggin's first years at the Battle School where it is forbidden to celebrate religious holidays. The children come from many nations, many religions; while they are being trained f...

When the Sleeper Wakes (2003)

A man falls asleep, outlives all his annoying neighbors in the process and wakes up in a future filled with amazing technology where life is blissfully easy. Oh, and now he owns the whole world. How is this book not titled "The Best Day Ever"?As it turns out, Wells had other concerns on his mind....

The Carpet Makers (2006)

even better the second (or possibly the third) time around.the novel is a series of interlinked short stories, more or less. this time around reading it i had the feeling it was a tapestry, altho possibly not made of women's hair.that's what the carpet makers make: carpets out of women's hair. th...

Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse (2007)

Famine, Death, War, and Pestilence: The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, the harbingers of Armageddon — these are our guides through the Wastelands... From the Book of Revelation to The Road Warrior; from A Canticle for Leibowitz to The Road, storytellers have long imagined the end of the world,...

Keeper of Dreams (2008)

This huge new collection of the short stories of one of Science Fiction’s most beloved and popular writers is sure to please his millions of fans. The volume contains 24 stories, Card’s new introductions for each story, and commentary on his life and work.Like the earlier Maps in A Mirror, this c...

Hijos de La Mente (1999)

Children of the Mind, fourth in the Ender series, is the conclusion of the story begun in the third book, Xenocide. The author unravels Ender's life and reweaves the threads into unexpected new patterns, including an apparent reincarnation of his threatening older brother, Peter, not to mention a...

Seventh Son: The Tales of Alvin Maker, Volume I

Alvin lay unmoving on his bed, his right leg heavy with splints and bandages, pressing into the bed like an anchor, the rest of his body afloat, adrift, pitching and rolling and yawing. He was dizzy, and a little sick. But he hardly noticed the weight of his leg, or the dizziness. The pain was hi...

First Meetings

Or rather, after complicated calculations of how many seconds he had been in flight, and at what percentage of lightspeed, and therefore what amount of subjective time had elapsed for him, he reached the conclusion that he had passed his twentieth birthday just before the end of the voyage.  ...

The Lost Gate

It was the same problem he had had at the Family compound when he was younger. He could get a good education by reading whatever he could find on the internet and studying books from the library, so it’s not that he was behind his grade level in school. In fact, he was doing college-level work in...

1 Ender's Game

Isolate him enough that he remains creative-- otherwise he'll adopt the system here and we'll lose him. At the same time, we need to make sure he keeps a strong ability to lead.”       "If he earns rank, he'll lead.”       "lt isn't that simple. Mazer Rackh...

The Ships of Earth: Homecoming: Volume 3

First they had to wait for the harvest. Then, despite the antivomiting herbs that Shedemei learned about from the Index, Luet was so weakened from pregnancy that Rasa refused to let them begin the journey and risk her life. By the time Luet’s morning sickness had ended and she had regained some s...

Sarah: Women of Genesis: 1 (Women of Genesis (Forge))

Sarai thought she had seen the worst of the drought, seeing how many of those trees were scant-leafed now, and how many bare-limbed; hearing the hollow echo of stones thrown down empty wells; tasting the soupy water of a dying spring.  But in truth she had been sheltered from the worst destructio...

Empire (2006)

A soldier trusts his comrades to stand beside him and his commander to lead him wisely, so that he will not be led to meaningless death. And the commander trusts his subordinates and soldiers to act with wisdom and courage in order to compensate for his own ignorance, stupidity, incompetence, and...

The Gate Thief (Mither Mages)

Now that Danny had capitulated and ran his fastest for Lieder’s stopwatch, he found that he enjoyed it. Showing off, not competing. Danny was human enough to like being admired, and one thing about Lieder, when he was working with an athlete who was really trying, he knew how to show respect and ...

Rebekah: Women of Genesis

The marriage plan will unravel, but there will never be a quarrel that Ezbaal might hear.  Father, Laban, and Pillel were all waiting in his tent, their faces barely visible in the light of a single lamp that flickered with every movement of an arm or leg that might start the wick bobbing in the ...

Heartfire: The Tales of Alvin Maker, Volume V

Alvin Smith was halfway down the block before he realized that Arthur was no longer with him. By the time he got back, a tall White man was questioning the boy. “Where’s your master, then?” Arthur did not look at him, his gaze riveted on a stuffed bird, posed as if it were about to land on a bran...

Alvin Journeyman: The Tales of Alvin Maker, Volume IV

The answer was always, Yes, but I don’t know when. My original outline for The Tales of Alvin Maker had long since been abandoned, and while I knew certain incidents that would happen in this book, I still did not know enough about what would happen to Alvin, Peggy, Taleswapper, Arthur Stuart, Me...

The Crystal City: The Tales of Alvin Maker, Volume VI

The yellow fever only added to it—who’s sick, who’s dead, who fled the city to live on some friend’s plantation until the plague passed. The most important story, though, was no rumor. The army that the King had been assembling was suddenly ordered back home. Apparently the King’s generals feared...

The Swarm

Period. If a part is built in Poland and shipped into space, it’s going to fit in the socket that was made in China and shipped into space. I’m not going to allow you to create unique ships with no interchangeable parts. I don’t care how big the ship is, or what its mission is. We use standardize...

Ruins (Pathfinder Trilogy)

said Rigg. Umbo was not surprised. Rigg might talk about how he was tired of being in charge, but he would never stop thinking that everything was his business. But Rigg was right, too. Whatever Vadesh had in mind, Loaf should not go alone with him into the mountain, into the starship. Only it wa...

Enchantment (2005)

No one questioned Ivan’s right to be there, but he was wise enough to speak only when spoken to. His prestige was high right now, but few would take him seriously when it came to any aspect of war but bombs and Molotov cocktails and the ungainly hang glider they were already building.It was unner...

Treason

That had been predictable. What I had forgotten was that if Dul heard enough of our conversation to want to poison us, he also heard enough to know that I was Lanik Mueller. Did they believe him? Did they suspect that Lanik Mueller had survived, had reemerged from Ku Kuei after two years? Perhaps...

Earth Awakens (The First Formic War)

The strike team was getting hammered. It was chaos in the cargo bay. ZZ and Bolshakov had flatlined. Cocktail’s biometrics had gone completely silent. The remaining helmetcams were projected all in front of him, but the movements were so erratic and fuzzy, it was difficult to tell what was happen...

Red Prophet: The Tales of Alvin Maker, Volume II

Ta-Kumsaw stood atop a dune, the White boy Alvin beside him. And in front of him, Tenskwa-Tawa. Lolla-Wossiky. His brother, the boy who once cried for the death of bees. A prophet, supposedly. Speaking the will of the land, supposedly. Speaking words of cowardice, surrender, defeat, destruction. ...

Earthborn (Homecoming)

“I hate it when you’re gone for so many days.” “I’m sorry, but no matter how ill you are right now, I’m still the king,” said Motiak. “That’s right, so you have people to find out things and report to you and you don’t have to go and see for yourself!” “I’m king of the earth people of Darakemba a...

How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy

World Creation Stories start working on you in a thousand different ways. I’m going to give you some personal examples, so you can see something of the process one writer goes through. The point is not that you should do it my way, but rather that there is no right way to come up with a story con...

Lost Boys

Not that Step had anything against psychiatrists individually. Their best friends in grad school in Vigor had been Larry and Sheila Redmond; Larry was a fellow history student, while Sheila was just starting a private practice as a psychotherapist. Step had made himself obnoxious, teasing her abo...

Homebody: A Novel

"I think this house does some weird things. OK? And you have this sense of the house, right? Like—what, like it's part of you, right? Or you're part of it." She nodded.     "But you really didn't know where my wrecking bar was, did you?" She shook her head.    &...

Gatefather

She simply went where Danny was. Ever since her passage to Duat and back, enfolded—or so it seemed to her—in Danny’s inself, she knew at every moment where he was, and could join herself to him, taking her body with her. She found herself in a living room—no, a parlor—with Danny, two boys, and tw...

Earthfall (Homecoming)

Emeezem dared to ask him because she was old and had no fear, and because in her life she had learned to hope even for things that could not be hoped. And just as he had accepted her when she was an ugly, undesirable child so many years ago, so now the god accepted her again and followed her down...

The Call of Earth: 2 (Homecoming)

Quite the contrary—the sense of urgency was no doubt what had kept her awake and made it impossible for her to dream. She was furious and ashamed that she hadn’t been able to learn anything from the Oversoul before Aunt Rasa had to make a decision about what to do with that soldier, Smelost. What...

Prentice Alvin: The Tales of Alvin Maker, Volume III

In the summer, the choice of jobs tended to go the other way. Never mind, thought Alvin. He is the master here. But if I’m ever master of my own forge, and if I have me a prentice, you can bet he’ll be treated fairer than I’ve been. A master and prentice ought to share the work alike, except for ...