Ender's Game (series) The Ender's Game series is a series of science
fiction books by Orson Scott Card.
The series started with the novelette "Ender's Game", which was later expanded into the novel
of the same title.
It currently consists of thirteen novels, thirteen short stories, 47 comic issues, an
audioplay, and a film.
The first two novels in the series, Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead, each won both
the Hugo and Nebula Awards, and were among the most influential science fiction novels
of the 1980s.
The series is set in a future where mankind is facing annihilation by an aggressive alien
society, an insect-like race known formally as "Formics", but more colloquially as "Buggers".
The series protagonist, Andrew "Ender" Wiggin, is one of the child soldiers trained at Battle
School (and eventually Command School) to be the future leaders of the protection of
Earth.
Ender series Card first wrote Ender's Game as a novelette,
but went back and expanded it into a novel so he could use Ender in another novel, Speaker
for the Dead.
That novel takes place three thousand and two years after Ender's Game, although due
to relativistic space travel, Ender himself (now using his full name Andrew) is only 36,
making him only 25 years older than he was at the end of the Formic Wars.
While the first novel concerned itself with armies and space warfare, Speaker for the
Dead and its two sequels Xenocide and Children of the Mind are more philosophical in nature.
They deal with the difficult relationship between the humans and the "Piggies" (or "Pequeninos"),
and Andrew's (Ender's) attempts to stop another xenocide from happening.
A War of Gifts: An Ender Story was released in October 2007.
It is set during Ender's first year in Battle School.
A prequel to Speaker for the Dead named Ender in Exile was released in November 2008.
It involves Ender's journey to the first colony, as well as his meeting a character from the
Shadow saga, effectively wrapping up the final plotline of the parallel series.
Shadow saga Starting with Ender's Shadow, four more novels
have been released which tell the story of the people whom Ender left behind – this
has been dubbed the Shadow saga (also known as the "Bean Quartet").
Ender's Shadow is a parallel novel to Ender's Game, telling many of the same events from
the perspective of Bean, a mostly peripheral character in Ender's Game, while Shadow of
the Hegemon, Shadow Puppets and Shadow of the Giant tell the story of the struggle for
world dominance after the Bugger War, in which the Battle School children, as well as Ender's
brother, Peter Wiggin, and Petra Arkanian are involved who go against Achilles de Flandres
(from Poke's crew) A sequel novel to Shadow of the Giant named
Shadows in Flight further introduces Bean's children.
Shadows Alive, a future sequel, takes place after both Children of the Mind and Shadows
in Flight, tying up the two series, and explaining some unanswered questions.
The First Formic War Card and Aaron Johnston have planned a trilogy
to cover events in the First Formic War.
Earth Unaware, a prequel to the entire Ender series, was released on July 17, 2012.
Earth Afire, was released on June 4, 2013, to be followed by Earth Awakens on June 10,
2014.
The Second Formic War On November 4, 2013, Johnston confirmed work
on a second trilogy of novels covering the Second Formic War, with the manuscript for
the first book due in 2014.
The titles of the novels (In order) will be The Swarm, The Hive, and The Queens.
Fleet School According to an interview with Orson Scott
Card at Southern Virginia University, Fleet School is "a new set of sequels to Ender's
Game.
It's for a YA audience.
It's what happens to Battle School after the International Fleet loses its purpose of war.
It becomes what is called Fleet School, and it prepares kids to become commanders / explorers
in the colonies that are going to be forming.
We get to see that as the school administrators repurpose the school, the Battle Room is still
there, but it's a whole different kind of education."
Novels in the series 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.
The books can be read in the order in which they were originally written or in chronological
order.
Publication date Ender's Game (1985) – Nebula Award winner,
1985; Hugo Award winner, 1986; Locus Award nominee, 1986
Speaker for the Dead (1986) – Nebula Award winner, 1986; Hugo & Locus Awards winner,
1987; Campbell Award nominee, 1987 Xenocide (1991) – Hugo and Locus Awards
nominee, 1992 Children of the Mind (1996)
Ender's Shadow (1999) – Shortlisted for a Locus Award, 2000
Shadow of the Hegemon (2001) – Shortlisted for a Locus Award, 2002
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)
Earth Awakens (2014, final book in the First Formic War trilogy)
Shadows Alive (forthcoming, originally planned as part of "Shadows in Flight")
"The Swarm" "The Hive"
"The Queen" Chronological order
Earth Unaware Earth Afire
Earth Awakens "The Swarm"
"The Hive" "The Queen"
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: Beginning takes place
during Shadow of the Hegemon and through Shadow of the Giant)
Shadows in Flight First Meetings (A collection of short stories
whose settings range from before Ender's Game till after Shadows in Flight)
Speaker for the Dead Xenocide
Children of the Mind Shadows Alive
Comic books in the series Comic books in the Ender Universe are currently
being published by Marvel Comics.
Film The movie Ender's Game was released in the
UK on October 25, 2013 and in the USA on November 1, 2013.
The first script was based on two installments of the Ender series, Ender's Game and Ender's
Shadow, when optioned by Warner Brothers, but was adapted to focus exclusively on Ender's
Game when purchased by Lionsgate.
The cast includes Harrison Ford, Abigail Breslin, Ben Kingsley, and Asa Butterfield as Ender
Wiggin.
The film was directed by Gavin Hood.
The Authorized Ender Companion Written by Jake Black, The Authorized Ender
Companion is "the indispensable guide to the universe of Ender's Game."
Sections in this book include: The Ender Encyclopedia, Ender's Timeline, Ender's Family Tree by Andrew
Lindsay, Getting Ender Right: A Look at the Ender's Game Screenplay Development by Aaron
Johnston, and The Technology of Ender's Game by Stephen Sywak.
The majority of the book consists of encyclopedia references to the events, characters, locations,
and technology found in the Ender's Game series up to the publication of Ender in Exile.
The book is notable for having new and behind the scenes information on certain topics such
as Battle School Slang, The Look of the Formics, The History of Hyrum Graff, Ender and Valentine's
Travels, and Mazer Rackham's Spaceship.
Ender's World: Fresh Perspectives on the SF Classic Ender's Game
Ender's World contains 14 essays from Science Fiction and Young Adult writers, as well as
military strategists and others about various aspects of Ender’s Game.
The book includes an introduction by Orson Scott Card, who edited Ender's World and answers
from many fan-submitted Enderverse questions from the Smart Pop Books Website.
The following essays are included in the compilation: "How It Should Have Ended" by Eric James Stone
"The Monster's Heart" by John Brown "The Cost of Breaking the Rules" by Mary Robinette
Kowal "Winning and Losing in Ender’s Game" by
Hilari Bell "Parallax Regained" by David Lubar, Alison
S. Myers "Mirror, Mirror" by Alethea Kontis
"Size Matters" by Janis Ian "Rethinking the Child Hero" by Aaron Johnston
"A Teenless World" by Mette Ivie Harrison "Ender on Leadership" by Colonel Tom Ruby
"Ender Wiggin, USMC" by John F. Schmitt "The Price of Our Inheritance" by Neal Shusterman
"If the Formics Love Their Children Too" by Ken Scholes
"Ender's Game: A Guide to Life" by Matt Nix