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Ender’s Game

Enders Game Cover

Ender’s Game
by Orson Scott Card

Synopsis
Only six, Ender Wiggin excels at military computer simulations and is inducted into Battle School. Pressured and positioned to achieve, he eventually ends up defeating Earth’s greatest menace before he becomes a teen.

Review
Many of the books I have read in the past few years boasted scores of characters, multiple plotlines, and plenty of complexity. This one does not. Ender’s Game is a straight through read punctuated by boarding school type conflict, culminating with a bait-and-switch climax that ironically doesn’t disappoint.

I found the situations and motivations of this pre-teen tactical genius genuine and believable. The dialogue on the other-hand was half and half. At times it was true to the characters’ age, reminiscent of childish hair pulling and arm biting, and at others it drifted into a precociousness that served the author’s story more than the characters’ desires. Though, maybe this is what it means to be a genius–I wouldn’t know.

Not being a genius, I may have taken too long to catch onto the tension of the climax as well, but Card could have added a few more clues without spoon feeding me too much to help me along. That said, it still works well and kept me eager to read more.

The denouement however, smacked of deadline or ‘we won’t publish this as a trilogy so wrap it up buddy’. It reminded me of the closing credits of movies that tell you what happens to the characters next.

Recommendation
I don’t know why it took me so long to finally read this neo-classic tale from OSC. It’s a quick fun read. I would call it YA and recommend it as such, but others may be inclined to lean toward a more adult audience.

I bought and will be reading and reviewing the subsequent books soon.

Enjoy!

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year one

year one
In more or less the order you learned them or accomplished them, here are the things you have done over the past year…

Early On
Began sleeping thorugh the night, but this comes and goes depending on your mood, health, hunger, or location. You demonstrated a serious preference for a certain bottle and nipple design.

Held head up. Pushed up on stomach. Rolled over to back. Rolled over to stomach. Rolled over to go places. Sat up. Involuntarily stiffened legs to ‘stand’. Voluntarily did the same.

You suck your middle two fingers. You bailed on the pacifier early on.

Traveled to Oklahoma and Texas through Kansas–by car and plane. Went over three 10,000 foot passes in the same day. Still haven’t been to Sea Level.

Mid Way
Started smiling on purpose (before that it more like a kaleidescope of facial expressions until you were mostly serious). Stopped looking over your left shoulder all the time. Appeared to respond to the direction a noise came from instead of just looking deaf. Giggled then laughed. You went through a phase where you loved being startled to laugh. Growling into your tummy still makes you laugh though now like a total maniac.

Around this time you got ‘chatty’ but still had not real words of your own and were not responding to any words even ‘Tessa’ and ‘No!’ though we were sure using them.

[pending]

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Really? A Business Partnership?

Elsewhere on the web I was asking questions about the loss of first publication rights upon publishing material on the web without access restraint. Specifically:

We spend alot of time discussing the fact that posting our manuscripts in whole or part will nullify our first publication rights. To that end most crit sites, this included, make sure to make crit areas protected. Here, we now have two levels of safety to protect us.

I have seen a handfull of authors that posted their currently published in hardback books on the web first. Two even continue to offer their books online.

What are we protecting?

I am not talking about the name of what we are protecting, but the value. What asset, what freedom, what monetary amount is lost by posting on the unfettered web.

Just curious.

The replies were semi-on target. While I got a little more than I was expecting in terms of describing to me how the internet works and how that relates to traditional publication, I did end up with a few anecdotal aggregates which, after sluicing, produced these nuggets:
-some unknown percentage loss
-0 dollars (recieved twice)

But I remain skeptical–at least on the 0 dollars front.

Elsewhere I read a great description of the distinction between a vanity press and true publishing. Vanity presses are purely service providers, but true publishers are business partners. That said, I think it would be foolish to assume that it is a 50:50 partnership.

I also suggest that the lame assertion that published on the web is no different than published with some other publisher and now you are hoping for re-prints is one of the tools that the publisher–read: guy with more money–uses to get the bigger half of the pie from this partnership.

We all know, author and publisher alike, that websites featuring non-hardcopy novels on the web form a spectrum of publicity not a finite definition. Some analogies may be: ‘sitting on the couch in my home’, ‘garage sale’, or ‘abandoned on a park bench’. Very few, I would guess, can equate with: ‘placed prominently in every B&N in the country’.

So, if this IS a business partnership and WE are the inventors, the builders, the makers, why do we insist on being so weak? Why do we allow our partners to walk all over us?

If our novel is interesting and it’s made it to the point where at least one other person in the world agrees, then it’s still a viable product regardless of web exposure and should be treated as such from both sides.

I rephrased the question:

What SHOULD the percentage reduction for a novel previously ‘published’ on the web be?

For the purpose of this discussion I am not talking about the ability for any third grader with a ceramic ashtray to put that quality of work up on a site. Let’s assume that we are talking about work that a publisher has expressed interest in.

Note: I am not suggesting that anyone actually put their work out on the web in an uncontrolled manner without first understanding the risks or rewards. I don’t now, but I might someday.

I am just curious about how/why this got to be such a big deal.

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Krispy Kreme Hack

I had recently read an article on Google Hacks and there is even a book. So it didn’t take me long to realize that what I had recently stumbled on was a Krispy Kreme Hack.

In an on going attempt to balance the calories I consume with the temptations around me, I have started ordering just two doughnuts at a time from Krispy Kreme–one for me and one for my wife. This satisfies my desires with only a 200 calorie hit.

Two original glazed are only $1.50. The first time I make this order the lady at the drive-thru window hands me the box and says, “Don’t worry about it.”

The doughnuts inside appeared to be slightly marred by the ‘straw pick-up’ technique. I guess these would have been thrown away had in not been for me swinging by that morning.

A month later in a different state we made the same order and sadly had to pay the $1.50. I open the box wondering if I got stiffed with seconds as well–seemed karmically appropriate–instead, four perfect original glazed instead of the two I ordered and paid for.

I own stock in Krispy Kreme and was doing quite well until those Atkin’s bastards came along and it was internet stock deja vu. Maybe this is the only way I can get my money back.

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Reading List Update

For those of you keeping track I wanted to let you know that the reading list has experienced some upheaval over the holiays.

Autumn Bridge is on hold for the time being.

My rereading of the First and Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant hit a snag when I couldn’t find Illearth War in a suitable cover art.

I ended up purchasing and reading for the first time Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card. A review of that is pending and I am likely to stick out the series, at least the quartet, before completing anything else.

Happy New Year!