Post by The Strategist on Oct 7, 2008 3:59:07 GMT -5
It may come as no surprise that I enjoy the story Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card. The premise is simple yet the execution is mind blowing: Humanity was nearly obliterated by an alien force, so the International Fleet (located in space) starts searching for excessively brilliant children from all nations of the Earth to recruit, take into a space base and train to be the future opposition for when the aliens inevitably return to finish the job. The most suitable child to lead the others is Andrew "Ender" Wiggin, and not everybody likes that fact. This is the story of Ender and his friends forming the Dragon Army, facing other genius children who, ultimately, feel jealousy and neediness as much as the average child. At the end of this novel, the children succeed in their mission. However, things turn to the worse when nations worldwide start showing signs that they plan to use the children's strategic genius to further their own goals.
The Dragon Army breaks apart and each child returns to his or her family, except for Ender, the greatest of them all. He is sent into space, where he meets aliens and superintelligent intergalactic AI systems in the stories Speaker of the Dead, Xenocide and Children of the Mind.
That is Ender's story, which is a part of the canon but has little interest to me. What interests me is the story of the children who returned to Earth. The author wrote a story that covers the same events as Ender's Game, but from the perspective of a much smarter and less aggressive child with a demeanor so small he is given the nickname "Bean." Ender's Shadow also introduces the most psychotic and terrifying character I have ever known in a work of fiction: Achilles de Flandres, who deserves a thread of his own. After the events of the original book, Bean returns home. It does not take long until the members of Dragon Army are captured by Achilles, who intends to use his influence to extract revenge on their offenses against him, which sets the stage for the story Shadow of the Hegemon. Bean meets Peter Wiggin, Ender's older and more ambitious brother, and the question of who is worse: Peter or Achilles, arises. By the end of the book, Achilles succeeded in making China the world's only great power before they learned of his psychotic tendencies, and arrested him.
In the next book, Shadow Puppets, Peter has risen to the seat of Hegemon of the World, and decides to rescue Achilles and recruit him. Bean marries the one girl he met in Battle School, but their happiness is abruptly destroyed when Achilles steal the embryos they kept under storage. Achilles manipulates his way into power and forces Peter to flee with his family to the International Fleet, and Bean and Petra to the nearly unified Muslim nation ruled by their fellow Battle Schooler and member of the Dragon Army, Alai. To undo what Achilles did, and to cut off his supplies, the Muslim army attacks China to weaken it, then attacks its colonies when it is distracted, effectively liberating them and putting Achilles in a vulnerable position in which Bean takes advantage of to finish the job once and for all.
The final book, Shadow of the Giant, looks at the state of the Earth after Achilles is no longer a threat. Previous Dragon Army members carry the interests of their own nations in mind, and start fighting against one another. The culmination of Bean's genetic defects, Peter's desire for greater growth and power, and the previous Dragon Army members in China, India, central Asia, Russia, the Muslim world, South Africa, North Africa, Europe and the Americas each having his or her own plans to expand their empire's circle of influence will inevitably lead to a global disaster.
This series have had a greater influence on me than any other I had read. I strongly recommend you start reading it in the order I have put in this post.
The Dragon Army breaks apart and each child returns to his or her family, except for Ender, the greatest of them all. He is sent into space, where he meets aliens and superintelligent intergalactic AI systems in the stories Speaker of the Dead, Xenocide and Children of the Mind.
That is Ender's story, which is a part of the canon but has little interest to me. What interests me is the story of the children who returned to Earth. The author wrote a story that covers the same events as Ender's Game, but from the perspective of a much smarter and less aggressive child with a demeanor so small he is given the nickname "Bean." Ender's Shadow also introduces the most psychotic and terrifying character I have ever known in a work of fiction: Achilles de Flandres, who deserves a thread of his own. After the events of the original book, Bean returns home. It does not take long until the members of Dragon Army are captured by Achilles, who intends to use his influence to extract revenge on their offenses against him, which sets the stage for the story Shadow of the Hegemon. Bean meets Peter Wiggin, Ender's older and more ambitious brother, and the question of who is worse: Peter or Achilles, arises. By the end of the book, Achilles succeeded in making China the world's only great power before they learned of his psychotic tendencies, and arrested him.
In the next book, Shadow Puppets, Peter has risen to the seat of Hegemon of the World, and decides to rescue Achilles and recruit him. Bean marries the one girl he met in Battle School, but their happiness is abruptly destroyed when Achilles steal the embryos they kept under storage. Achilles manipulates his way into power and forces Peter to flee with his family to the International Fleet, and Bean and Petra to the nearly unified Muslim nation ruled by their fellow Battle Schooler and member of the Dragon Army, Alai. To undo what Achilles did, and to cut off his supplies, the Muslim army attacks China to weaken it, then attacks its colonies when it is distracted, effectively liberating them and putting Achilles in a vulnerable position in which Bean takes advantage of to finish the job once and for all.
The final book, Shadow of the Giant, looks at the state of the Earth after Achilles is no longer a threat. Previous Dragon Army members carry the interests of their own nations in mind, and start fighting against one another. The culmination of Bean's genetic defects, Peter's desire for greater growth and power, and the previous Dragon Army members in China, India, central Asia, Russia, the Muslim world, South Africa, North Africa, Europe and the Americas each having his or her own plans to expand their empire's circle of influence will inevitably lead to a global disaster.
This series have had a greater influence on me than any other I had read. I strongly recommend you start reading it in the order I have put in this post.
