This collection of short stories comes from Orson Scott Card's online science fiction magazine. The magazine uses Card's name (and the promise of "Ender's Game" stories) to help bankroll a collection of stories, generally by new writers. (In the afterwords, many authors mention their participation in Card's "writer's bootcamp.)
The quality of the stories varies significantly. The first story seemed long and pointless. However, things did pick up after that. The audiobook includes five stories by Card. The last two (one of which is only in the audiobook) have been incorporated almost verbatim in Ender in Exile. Of the others, two deal with the early childhood of Ender's Battleschool mates. Both "Hot Soup" and "Bonzo" come from families with exesively doting fathers. From these stories, it is difficult to determine which one would turn out good, and which one would become a bully. Neither of the stories are that impressive.
The best of the Card Stores, "Mazer in Prison", is a story of the pains of nonconformist victory. Mazer was the hero of a space war, who defeated the enemy by disobeying military orders. He is sent on a relativist space flight to preserve him for the next big fight. He desperately wants to be replaced, but struggles to help the military to find the appropriate openminded leader. (And he also struggles with the 'loss' of this family due to the space/time differences.)
Of the others, a few that I really liked included:
"Hats Off" by David Lubar. This is by far the shortest story. It gets to its point and does it well.
"Call Me Mr. Positive" by Tom Barlow. Imagine being stuck in space alone on a long space voyage.
"Tabloid Report to the Star" by Eric James Stone. Space travel and "the King".
"To Know All Things That Are in the Earth" by James Maxey. The "rapture", kevlar-skinned angels and the marvelous divine in common biology.
"Audience" - Ty Franck. What if there was just one "Joe-six pack" that everyone was trying to appease?
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