Ender series order?

Tar.Aldarion · 28-05-2013 11:28AM #1

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 · 28-05-2013 11:33AM

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 · 28-05-2013 12:44PM

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 · 28-05-2013 02:53PM

I would read them in this order:

Ender's Game
Ender's Shadow

endacl · 28-05-2013 03:27PM

Trojan wrote: »

I would read them in this order:

Ender's Game
Ender's Shadow

You're half right...

stesaurus · 30-05-2013 04:06PM

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 · 30-05-2013 04:14PM

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 · 30-05-2013 09:08PM

Please keep updating as you go

*subscribes to thread*

Tar.Aldarion · 30-05-2013 09:21PM

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 · 31-05-2013 12:45AM

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

Tar.Aldarion · 29-06-2013 11:58PM

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

Dades · 08-07-2013 01:09PM

Started the first book this morning.

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

Trojan · 08-07-2013 02:37PM

Tar.Aldarion wrote: »

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

Tar.Aldarion · 09-07-2013 12:49AM

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 · 09-07-2013 11:24AM

Tar.Aldarion wrote: »

You'll need to read the 5th too

Really?
Does the movie use stuff from that?

Nody · 09-07-2013 11:31AM

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 · 09-07-2013 12:19PM

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 · 09-07-2013 03:22PM

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 · 09-07-2013 03:50PM

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 · 09-07-2013 04:02PM

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 · 09-07-2013 04:03PM

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 · 09-07-2013 04:18PM

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 · 09-07-2013 04:29PM

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

Manach · 09-07-2013 04:36PM

From http://xkcd.com/

Tar.Aldarion · 09-07-2013 05:02PM

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 · 18-07-2013 11:20AM

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 · 07-08-2013 04:04PM

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 · 08-08-2013 12:33PM

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 · 08-08-2013 03:41PM

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 · 09-08-2013 12:37PM

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 · 11-08-2013 12:19AM

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

Ender series order?

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