Ender series order?

Tar.Aldarion

Just reading Ender's game, great stuff. What order do you suggest I read the rest of teh books in, I hear many differing viewpoints.

Publication date
Ender's Game (1985) – Nebula Award winner, 1985;[1] Hugo Award winner, 1986;[1] Locus Award nominee, 1986[1]
Speaker for the Dead (1986) – Nebula Award winner, 1986;[1] Hugo & Locus Awards winner, 1987;[1] Campbell Award nominee, 1987[1]
Xenocide (1991) – Hugo and Locus Awards nominee, 1992[8]
Children of the Mind (1996)
Ender's Shadow (1999) – Shortlisted for a Locus Award, 2000[9]
Shadow of the Hegemon (2001) – Shortlisted for a Locus Award, 2002[10]
Shadow Puppets (2002)
First Meetings (2002) – short story collection
Shadow of the Giant (2005)
A War of Gifts: An Ender Story (2007)
Ender in Exile (2008)
Shadows in Flight (2012)
Earth Unaware (2012)
Earth Afire (2013) – Scheduled for Release June 4, 2013 [11]
Shadows Alive (forthcoming, originally planned as part of "Shadows in Flight")

Chronological order
Earth Unaware
Earth Afire
Earth Awakens
First Meetings
Ender's Game
Ender's Shadow (Note: The events of Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow take place in roughly the same time period.)
A War of Gifts (Note: This takes place during Ender's Game/Ender's Shadow.)
Shadow of the Hegemon
Shadow Puppets
Shadow of the Giant
Ender in Exile (Note: This takes place during Shadow of the Hegemon and through Shadow of the Giant)
Shadows in Flight
Speaker for the Dead
Xenocide
Children of the Mind
Shadows Alive
"Ender Back Again"

Nody

I read the first three published in chronological order which had the story flow well enough (have to say I gave up after the third book as the second and third were no where near as good imo).

shrapnel222

three very separate story arcs with enders game as the start off point (finishing point for the earth series). He basically restarted a new arc from the same point with Ender's shadow etc.

I read them as they came out, and would recommend they be read in that order.

Trojan

I would read them in this order:

Ender's Game
Ender's Shadow

endacl

Trojan wrote: »

I would read them in this order:

Ender's Game
Ender's Shadow

You're half right...

stesaurus

I read them in chronological order and made sense in a way but probably best to read as they were released. It's a long slog though and they differ a lot from Ender's Game. Very different types of books.

Tar.Aldarion

I've decided to do it as they were released, on speaker of the dead and liking it so far. Enders game was brilliant.

Trojan

Please keep updating as you go

*subscribes to thread*

Tar.Aldarion

You believe I am doomed to hate them?

I have seen a lot of people like them less and less as they go on but also a lot that love them. Everybody seems to have their own ones they hate and love. Sounds like some hate most.

Trojan

I already told you my preferred reading order - take from that what you will

Tar.Aldarion

Finished the second book and really enjoyed it, midway through the third book, weaker but I like it.

Dades

Started the first book this morning.

Wanted to have read it before seeing the movie this year.

Trojan

Tar.Aldarion wrote: »

Finished the second book and really enjoyed it, midway through the third book, weaker but I like it.

Tar.Aldarion

Dades wrote: »

Started the first book this morning.

Wanted to have read it before seeing the movie this year.

You'll need to read the 5th too

Dades

Tar.Aldarion wrote: »

You'll need to read the 5th too

Really?
Does the movie use stuff from that?

Nody

Dades wrote: »

Really?
Does the movie use stuff from that?

Move is suppose to use Ender's Shadow (which I assume is the 5th book) to help avoid the mind dialogues being excessive (that's what I remember from the audio book of Ender's game with the author when he discussed the movie so could be wrong on that part).

Tar.Aldarion

Dades wrote: »

Really?
Does the movie use stuff from that?

Yeah it does, it's basically the same story from another characters POV (so I imagine some other stuff happens not seen in the first book). I'm not that far yet however! You could easily go to that book after the first but I've opted for release order.

Dades

Interesting, thanks.
I need very convincing reasons to read 5 books into a series though!

Will be content if I don't spoil the original book with the movie.
Really enjoying it, actually.

Tar.Aldarion

Thought it was a terrific book myself, enjoy! Thing about this series is that reading a fifth book like that doesn't matter. It's very oddly laid out.

Novels in the series[edit]

To date, there are six novels in the Ender's Game series and five novels in the Shadow series. According to Card, there is no strictly preferred order of reading them, except that Xenocide should be read right before Children of the Mind.[7] The books can be read in the order in which they were originally written or in chronological order.

Chronology chart[edit]
[show] v t e Chronological chart of Enderverse stories
Publication date[edit]
Ender's Game (1985) – Nebula Award winner, 1985;[1] Hugo Award winner, 1986;[1] Locus Award nominee, 1986[1]
Speaker for the Dead (1986) – Nebula Award winner, 1986;[1] Hugo & Locus Awards winner, 1987;[1] Campbell Award nominee, 1987[1]
Xenocide (1991) – Hugo and Locus Awards nominee, 1992[8]
Children of the Mind (1997)
Ender's Shadow (1999) – Shortlisted for a Locus Award, 2000[9]
Shadow of the Hegemon (2001) – Shortlisted for a Locus Award, 2002[10]
Shadow Puppets (2002)
First Meetings (2002) – short story collection
Shadow of the Giant (2005)
A War of Gifts: An Ender Story (2007)
Ender in Exile (2008)
Shadows in Flight (2012)
Earth Unaware (2012)
Earth Afire (2013)
Shadows Alive (forthcoming, originally planned as part of "Shadows in Flight")
Chronological order[edit]
Earth Unaware
Earth Afire
Earth Awakens
First Meetings
Ender's Game
Ender's Shadow (Note: The events of Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow take place in roughly the same time period.)
A War of Gifts (Note: This takes place during Ender's Game/Ender's Shadow.)
Shadow of the Hegemon
Shadow Puppets
Shadow of the Giant
Ender in Exile (Note: This takes place during Shadow of the Hegemon and through Shadow of the Giant)
Shadows in Flight
Speaker for the Dead
Xenocide
Children of the Mind
Shadows Alive

"(Note: The events of Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow take place in roughly the same time period)"

Hmm roughly, maybe some other things are different.


They are quite small books so it wouldn't be hard to reach it anyway. I doubt you really need to.

beecee

For what it's worth I've read them all (up to shadow in flight I think) and and enjoyed them all to varying degrees. I would agree with the order you are going for. (I switched between the Ender and Shadow series a bit haphazardly, but in publish order within each series)

I found the Shadow series tailed off more than Ender's.

Even the books I didn't like were enjoyable enough in so far as they were easy reads :-)

Trojan

Dades wrote: »

I need very convincing reasons to read 5 books into a series though!

In fairness, a lot of people would recommend you skip Speaker for the Dead (book 2), Xenocide (book 3) and Children of the Mind (book 4).

Manach

Trojan wrote: »

In fairness, a lot of people would recommend you skip Speaker for the Dead (book 2), Xenocide (book 3) and Children of the Mind (book 4).

Whilst not a fan of books 3&4, I enjoyed most in the series "Speaker for the Dead", a search for a kind of redemption. Also, Ender's Shadow was nearly as good.

Dades

Opened a can of worms for myself when I (figuratively) opened Ender's Game.

Manach

From http://xkcd.com/

Tar.Aldarion

I'm in a dota 2 league (computer gaming league) with the actor that plays ender in the film. The enemies gate is down will have to be said when playing his team. I'm sorry ender.

Dades

Finished Ender's Game last night. Liked it a lot.
Will look forward to the movie - interesting to see how they adapt it.

The ending was good bar the final chapter which I thought was a bit rushed.

ChrisM

I just finished Enders Game. I think I'll read Enders shadow next? If that goes as well as Enders Game, I might try to delve into the whole series??

shrapnel222

ChrisM wrote: »

I just finished Enders Game. I think I'll read Enders shadow next? If that goes as well as Enders Game, I might try to delve into the whole series??

seems a bit pointless tbh. they're the same story seen from different perspectives, and basically starting points for two completely different series.

ChrisM

Cheers for the input shrapnel, what would you recommend for someone who loved Enders Game, but is dubious of series, especially long ones?

I am busy enough with Hyperion (Audio Book on phone), 1984 (On CD in car) and The Player of Games (bedtime reading) but would like to get back to the Ender series at some point.

shrapnel222

i'd still recomment speaker for the dead to be honest. very different but very enjoyable.

from Card, as stand alone, i really enjoyed Songmaster and Treason.

i'd also highly recommend Dune, even just as a standalone (absolutely no need to read the others tbh).

Skerries

just read Enders Game and Enders Shadow if you want to understand the film and commit to the others if you like them but they are different
same universe but a different story

smacl

Read the first series quite a few years ago, and for me Speaker for the Dead was the favourite. Just finished the shadow series which I found readable but nothing special, and a bit drawn out towards the end. I do like the little email exchanges starting each chapter in a number of the books though, good fun.

Tar.Aldarion

shrapnel222 wrote: »

seems a bit pointless tbh. they're the same story seen from different perspectives, and basically starting points for two completely different series.

Just finished Ender's shadow and I really don't agree, they are set at the same time but it is totally worth reading.


Speaker for the dead was great, children of the mind and xenicide were not as good but still very good.

shrapnel222

Tar.Aldarion wrote: »

Just finished Ender's shadow and I really don't agree, they are set at the same time but it is totally worth reading.


Speaker for the dead was great, children of the mind and xenicide were not as good but still very good.

I think you misunderstood what i was saying. I absolutely loved ender's shadow, but my point was it didn't make sense, to me anyway, to read Ender's shadow straight after having read Ender's game. I'd read it before starting the shadow series.

Coincidentally, i read earth unaware this summer. Some good some bad in that one but overall, it's a decent introduction to the situation. I have to say i did get a chill the first time you bump into Mazer Rackham (sp?)

shrapnel222

saw the trailer today for ender's game. it's been "in the making" for so long that i wasn't even sure it was ever going to be made.

After having seen the trailer, i'm just left wondering how badly they're going to ruin such an awesome book ( i really hope i'm wrong here, but if they go for the hero angle, we're doomed).

Tenger

shrapnel222 wrote: »

saw the trailer today for ender's game. it's been "in the making" for so long that i wasn't even sure it was ever going to be made.

After having seen the trailer, i'm just left wondering how badly they're going to ruin such an awesome book ( i really hope i'm wrong here, but if they go for the hero angle, we're doomed).

Similar thoughts here....going to see it next week. While I loved Starship Troopers as pure popcorn fest, they ignored so much of the book. Unfortunately I expect similar from Ender.......

....then only 'Forever War' will remain of my Holy Trilogy of Military Sci-fi from my childhood.

Nody

Tenger wrote: »

Similar thoughts here....going to see it next week. While I loved Starship Troopers as pure popcorn fest, they ignored so much of the book. Unfortunately I expect similar from Ender.......

....then only 'Forever War' will remain of my Holy Trilogy of Military Sci-fi from my childhood.

No it is far far worse (at least Starship Troopers did not take themselves seriously)... The movie is almost 2h long and with out going into spoilers here's a rough break down on how it goes (note this does not really contain spoilers per say but rather the abysmal conversion of the plot; if you've read the book none of this will contain any real spoiler material).

1h in and Ender goes to his final battle station on the moon leaving almost 1h for the moon and later part of the plot.
Total time spent on siblings? About 3 min
Total time spent in the battle (space) simulation room? About 5 min
Character development? None. Seriously how can you fail in this part on this book?!
Alternate characters (i.e. bean etc.) playing any significant role? None. Once again how do you fail on this?
Memorable lines such as "The enemy's door is down?" Once that I can recall.
Cliche ridden old and over used styles? A ton and then some (from 3D moments to token colored people to token females put in to be able to point and say look we have a females in our cast!)

I really had low expectations before seeing it, at the Hobbit level kind of low, and I was disappointed. The only semblance to the book was character names and the vague use of things happening in the same general area as the book (and even that was moved to a different location or world half the time!). If you went in with out having read Ender and thought of it as a generic space flick it would still fail horribly because a ton of stuff is never explained and require you to have read the books to pick up on (and then groan over how badly it was implemented) inc. such basics such as what's a third. I remember an interview way back how this was going to be using Ender's shadow as basis to tell the story as what's going on in Ender's brain (the thought process and conversations) could not be displayed in a good way on the screen; well it failed horribly either way...

giftgrub

Its been a long time since I read Ender's Game and one or two of the sequels.

I would say the movie is only OK at best

I was expecting more from the battle sim room, as far as I remember from the books the big thing was that Ender twigged there was no up or down in space and used that to his advantage.

I'd agree with Nody on the lack of any time on the siblings, in the books didnt the brother go from effectively being a blogger to President of the world?

It seemed like they're trying to do a Hunger Games in space

Nody

giftgrub wrote: »

Its been a long time since I read Ender's Game and one or two of the sequels.

I would say the movie is only OK at best

I was expecting more from the battle sim room, as far as I remember from the books the big thing was that Ender twigged there was no up or down in space and used that to his advantage.

I'd agree with Nody on the lack of any time on the siblings, in the books didnt the brother go from effectively being a blogger to President of the world?

It seemed like they're trying to do a Hunger Games in space

Spoilers relate to the book and what happens in it.

The problem is the lack of the second part of your spoiler is the HUGE thing that drives Ender through out the book in terms of developing his character (i.e. not being as that) and even cutting out the side story

of becoming world president for his brother

there was what his brother was doing before that

i.e. constantly harrassing him, killing animals in the forest and watching them die etc.

.

The first part is what really built him up as being a leader; it showed how he grew and developed (

picking on bean as he had been picked on earlier, why seniors wanted to gang up on him, undefeated win record and how he felt isolated from everyone at the station

). Someone on IMDB called it Harry Potter in Space and in many ways that's how it feels to me (I'm far from a HP fan but the books beat the movies by a mile and then some).