Showing posts with label orson scott card. Show all posts
Showing posts with label orson scott card. Show all posts

Saturday, March 07, 2026

Reawakening: The Side Step Trilogy, Book 2

Reawakening: The Side Step Trilogy, Book 2 by Orson Scott Card

A couple (Laz and Ivy) wake up and try to find their purpose. They are clones of an elite scientist and his assistant. They have their past memories and try to discover their purpose of being revived as clones. The scientist has the ability to "sidestep" to different time streams. The assistant has the ability to identify time portals. In their life as clones they have developed a romantic relationship. (However, it is not until the end that the original join together. They had connected, but felt reluctant due to age and business relationship.) 

In the story, they try to figure out their purpose. They meet with some of their other clones. There is also a mysterious message from a portal. One of their attempts to open a portal leads to some people going in and destroying a school. They send an army back in the portal to crush these people.. They also run into their children. They have some bizarre powers to appear and disappear. The son has a habbit of showing up naked and intimidating. Laz punches him as he is materializing which results in all sorts of internal damage. They then find an appropriate time stream that allows him to be healed, but still remember his bad behavior so that he reforms. In the end they discover the original Laz has traveled in time and feels "stuck". He eventually connects with the real Ivy and they can live happily ever after. 

The book has a number of streams that seem only tangentially connected. The premise is a bit like Mickey7, but explores some different areas of time travel and multiverse.

Friday, January 17, 2025

Laddertop 3

Laddertop 3: The Laddertop Series, Book 3 by Emily Janice Card and Orson Scott Card

Laddertop concludes with us discovering that there are "noble colonists" come to inhabit the earth. They are sending a giant colonizing mission that will involve wiping out humans and making earth fit for themselves. A few of the aliens have sympathy for the humans and hatch a plan to preserve them. They planted the laddertops and gave them the technology. The plan was to send a small group of humans off to another planet so that they could continue their society there. This would involve the destruction of the rest of humanity. However, this is better than complete annihilation. Nevertheless, humans are not fond of that. They discover a way to work together and use the technology to wipe out the colonization ship. They also communicate with some of the kind aliens and decide to work together It seems like an interesting parallel to colonial endeavors. What if a few Europeans had helped the Native Americans to use gunpowder to destroy European ships and then worked together to share technology? Well, disease would have still wiped out most of the native population. Fiction has the ability to ignore those messy details.

Tuesday, January 07, 2025

Laddertop 2

Laddertop 2: The Laddertop Series, Book 2 by Emily Janice Card and Orson Scott Card

The second Laddertop book ramps up the drama. There are "rebels" that are concerned about the unknowns of laddertop. They recruit a few kids and other scientists for their space mission. There is also some more information found about the special symbol. A space object is approaching the earth. Is it benevolent? Or is it bent on destruction? The book ends on a cliffhanger... That was not resolved for a decade. While these were first released as graphic novels, they have recently been moved to audiobooks, with the final book only as audiobook. There was a big cast for this, so some needed to be left off to get under the label limit.

Saturday, January 04, 2025

Laddertop, Volume 1

Laddertop by Emily Janice Card and Orson Scott Card

In this world, tweens seek to be admitted to "Laddertop". This is a special academy that trains them to travel up into space station. The technology in the station was given years ago by benevolent aliens and portions can only be accessed by children. The book follows a couple 11 year old girls who are selected to laddertop. Things get a little bit weird. The best children are selected by a technology that only the aliens understand. There are also a few kids that get special marking. Perhaps the aliens are not as benevolent as we thought.

Saturday, May 18, 2024

2010 books read: Candide, Undaunted Courage, Speaker for the Dead, Arcadia

[Separated out from original post from 2/24/10]

 Voltaire - Candide. (1759) Life is a Journey, not a destination. Everything that could possibly go wrong goes wrong, yet Candide remains an optimist. He even gives up on the city of gold and peace to try to find and marry the girl of his dreams. Through it all, he keeps on a face of naieve optimism. Alas, even that starts to go wrong, but he remains happy until he finally sinks in to a dull life on the farm. Finally the "lack of something bad" becomes the one thing that makes him question the "best of all possible worlds". It turns out that bad things actually kept life interesting. It is monotony that is the true bad.

Voltaire takes hilarious jabs at royalty, church hierarchy, society, and just about everybody. Its amazing that it survived all these years. As I was going through it, I kept hearing Bernstein's Candide overture in my head. So, I listened to the CD and ... well, I still don't have anything more than the overture going through my head.

Stephen E. Ambrose - Undaunted Courage. (1996) This is primarily a biography of Merriweather Lewis, with extensive coverage of the Lewis and Clark exploration. The superlatives and endless complements of Lewis get tiring. It reads more like a family tale, attempting to place the family member in the most positive light, with his adventures being the most important in the world. The laudatory prose gets very tiring.

Orson Scott Card - Speaker For the Dead (1986)
This is much better than Ender's Game. The story telling is much more "together" and riveting. It presents some interesting questions. Humans secure intergalatic peace, and in doing so bring their technological and social evolution to a veritable 3000 year stand still. When they do encounter other intelligent life, they look at it through there own condescending eyes. They don't realize that the others may have many abilities that they don't recognize. Furthermore, they also expose the futility of an "observe, not disturb" mantra in science. Any observation will lead to some change in the observed, even if the observer does not notice them.
Then there is the human interaction aspect. A quest to eliminate potential harm may bring about many external damages - while still letting the undesired harm take place.


Tom Stoppard - Arcadia (1993)
This funny play is filled with mathematical references, while at the same time taking jabs at literary critics and biographers. History is storytelling through the eyes of the historian. Their biases and time period can have a significant impact on the story that they tell. I think I'll be exploring other Stoppard plays.

Friday, September 16, 2022

Wakers

Laz has the ability to "side-step" to a different time stream. This enables him to change the stream of life to choose the best outcome. He can do things such as find the combinations for locks. He simply goes to the time stream where he guessed the proper combination. He can also do this to correct "mistakes" he made. He may needs to check multiple to find the time stream where the correction doesn't make things worse.

Laz wakes up in a mysterious area. He doesn't see any people around. He does find the remnants of a civilization. Eventually, he befriends some dogs and manages to subsist on old canned food from an abandoned supermarket. He realizes he is a clone and that there is one more clone that can be wakened, Ivy.  She has the ability to see different time streams. The original versions of them were important scientists that had helped create a portal to evacuate the earth. (The planet is destined to be destroyed due to celestial object that disrupts the solar system.)

Most of the book is conversations among the characters as they try to figure out how the side stepping works and what their mission is. Are they the only hope to save the earth?  This could almost be a scientific book exploring how "time travel" without traveling in time could work. There are character relationships and a whole "saving the world" thing going on. However, it all plays second-fiddle to the "science". What happens if somebody moves to a time stream where they were not present? How can people "change" outcomes by knowing the possible results of their actions. The book presents an interesting situation with plenty of questions and some possible solutions.

Sunday, February 06, 2022

Duplex: A Micropowers Novel

Duplex is Orson Scott Card's second micropower novel. The novel feels much more fresh than the recent Ender novel he wrote. It appears this is where is where his interest lies now. In this book, a girl has the ability to change her face so that it is exceptionally beautiful. A boy can defend others from attacks. There is also the ability to sense cats, make people yawn and all sorts of other smaller powers.

The plot centers around a boy who has a rough home life. His parents have separated, his little sister gets on his nerves and his social life is lacking. One day a new girl from Slovenia shows up at school. He befriends her and then discovers she lives next door. He struggles figuring out how to manage the social situation. He figures he needs a car, so asks his dad for a job. His dad encourages him to show responsibility first. He starts by taking out the trash and being nice to his sister.

He later discovers that there is a gang from Slovenia that is after his friend and his mother. He also learns that she can put on her "Helen of Troy" face - and that this is part of a curse that her mother put on her. Luckily, through an incident with a bee, he discovers his defense abilities. They meet up with others that have micropowers, and later have many incidents with the Slovene gang.

Dealing with social cues and hormones can be challenge enough as as awkward teenager. Life or death situations are just the icing on the cake. (Though having the external threats may make the "girl things" easier to deal with.)

Saturday, February 05, 2022

The Last Shadow

I had gone through most of the original Ender's Game series pretty close together. I wasn't super engaged with the first book, but I really liked were things went with the end and into the other books in the series. The post-formic wars exploration of the universe made for great stories. I also enjoyed the Ender's Shadow. Recently, I've listened to the new Formic Wars novels. However, it has been a while since I've listened to the core series. These events were not very familiar to me. I had some trouble getting engaged with this novel.

In this book, humanity, despite being spread across multiple planets, finds itself in danger of extinction. There is a virus that can do bad things. The progeny of the original heroes are here to save humanity. A computer version of the former battle school leader is also here to help. They travel to a planet with sentient birds and underground humans. Eventually they discover more about the virus and with the help of the hive queen's slugs, are able to recover from it. 

I had trouble getting engaged with how all the plot points tied together. On one hand, it was said to be something of universal importance. But on the other hand, there only seemed to be a small number of people that cared about what was going on. I was most interested in the relationship with the different sentient beings on the planet that they were visiting. My favorite part of the book was Card's afterward. I love his behind the scenes look at how and why he wrote it and what interested him. The audio production of the audiobook was also excellent.

Tuesday, February 01, 2022

Hamlet’s Father

Card tells the story of Hamlet from a different perspective. It seems to have a lot of the things that I remember from the Shakespeare version. Though, honestly, I cannot remember the actual details. In this version, Hamlet's father is engaged in some sort of misbehaviour with the other characters. Plenty of people were killed in the process. Then the tragedy ends.

Friday, May 14, 2021

Zanna's Gift: A Life in Christmases

Zanna's older brother is a hard working teenager who seems to understand Zanna's work better than others. Unfortunately, he passes away suddenly in his sleep. Zanna later learns that she had a twin sister that died at birth. She made a picture for him for Christmas that she continues to bring out every Christmas in memory of her lost brother. The novel continues the many Christmases from the great depression to the modern times. New members join the family. Many people die of various causes, but the "gift" continues.

Sunday, December 29, 2019

Lost and Found

Lost and Found centers on a lonely North Carolina high-schooler, Ezekiel Blast. People avoid him because he has a reputation of stealing things. However, what he does is "find things". He has a "micropower" that leads him to the owner of lost objects. However, he has often been accused of stealing these things that he has found, thus giving him the reputation of a thief. One day, a "grade school kid" attempts to join him on his walk. She sees that people avoid him and wants to join in the bubble. It turns out she is actually a high school student with proportional drawfism. They become friends and she helps him discover more about himself.
One day a cop asks him to help out on a missing-child case. He is not able to find "people" because they are not "lost". (He is offended when people talk about his mom being "lost". She isn't lost. She died in a car crash.) However, he can use the "lost" objects of people to find the owner. Through this involvement he helps bring down a child pornography ring that also sought his friend.
There is not a lot of heavy drama in this book. The events tend to just unfold quickly as you would like. However, the story an exploration of powers makes it something difficult to put down. The micropower support group is especially fun. It is led by a researcher who has the power to determine if somebody has an "innie" or "outie" belly button. There are also participants who can mask smells and make people yawn. These powers are difficult to control, and even more challenging to utilize positively. They all provide a lot of fun to explore. What would be the positive use of a bizarre power? Do these "micropowers" really differ very much from the "powers" that people have today. Isn't being naturually good at basketball or math also a form of micropower? It just doesn't stand out because it is normal.

Thursday, October 24, 2019

Eye For Eye

In Eye for Eye, Mick Winger learns that he has special powers. He can cause people that anger to die from cancer. This results in him eventually harming many of the people that loved him when growing up in an orphanage. He eventually discovers his family. They have been inbread to carry on their powers. However, he has much greater power than any of the others. He eventually breaks free. It is an interesting exploration of a "super power" that takes time to impact others.

Wednesday, September 11, 2019

The Hive: The Second Formic War, Book 2

The Hive is the second book in the second Formic War series. This is yet another "Ender's Game" book. Card has really milked his seminal work for all it has. (Though it would be nice if he would actually finish some the series that he has left hanging, such as Alvin Maker.) There are a number of subplots floating around. There is the pirate who gets captured by the Formics and is then used as a science experiment. (I could just see this going bad.) There is the young married couple zipping off separately in space to help with the war effort. Then there are the military people. We have a lunar refugee crisis. And then there is bureaucratic incompetence. A central theme is that military and political people can be good, but most of them have their own motives that are not necessarily in the best interest of the organization as a whole. Chain of command can often separate those with needed information from those that act on it. The "hegemone" seemingly knows everything. He and his song both have the best interests of themselves and the world at heart, though they sometimes seem corrupt. They also seem to magically know exactly how things are going on. The "good guys" always seem to have just a little more brains and intuition than would be humanly possible. The book also devolves at times into long political episodes before picking up again. It wraps up a lot of the key plot points, but leaves open plenty more for the next book.

Monday, August 26, 2019

Lightspeed: Year One

The collection of audio short stories from the lightspeed anthology. The stories are hit or miss. Many of them are very dark. (In one, space traveler eats the entire crew of his ship, only to be eaten by natives once he arrives.) There were a few that stood out positively. In one, there was a secret message from aliens that technology will lead to the downfall of civilization. In another, elephants came in to a town. They eventually knocked over some bad architecture. But people felt a little bad that they lost control.
There seems to be some good stuff in this Lightspeed, but also a lot of not-so-great to wade through.

Friday, August 02, 2019

The Town Divided By Christmas

Two postdocs are sent to a small southern town to do a genetic study. The town seems to keep its population, with even those people that leave coming back. The budding scientists want to do a genetic study to determine if there is a gene that influences this "homing" behavior. They will need to take DNA and personal information from nearly all the residents. In the process, the scientists both become attached to the town, each finding a partner. The town itself has an odd division. There are two nearly identical Episcopal churches. They divided nearly a century before over a Christmas pageant. Each wanted a different baby to play the role of baby Jesus. The members of the two churches had intermarried before the split, but now do not associate with each other. In the end, the scientists push to have their study finding published, even though they don't fall in line with the goals the funders were looking for. They also marry their partners found in the city and uncover the "dark truth" about the split.

Tuesday, December 26, 2017

Children of the Fleet

Children of the Fleet takes place after the conclusion of the formic wars. The world is celebrating a great victory. However, they are still not sure if another onslaught is coming. There is some effort made to colonize other planets as "insurance policy". However, most of the world is more concerned about internal affairs. Dabeet Ochoa is child prodigy in the vein of Ender who wants to finagle his way into the "fleet school". He learns that being the smartest kid around will not get him anywhere. He needs to learn how to work with others, both accepting their instructions and helping them to achieve on their own. He eventually gets to prove himself in a real life situation. Like other Card books, the characters just "know" what needs to be done and have elaborate plans to help get other people to do it. It makes for good entertainment, but sacrifices believability. Perhaps as a payback, we get to know about Dabeet's parentage while he has not yet figured it out. (But if he can figure out everything else, why can't he figure this out?)

Sunday, June 25, 2017

The Swarm: The Second Formic War (Volume 1)

I didn't realize this series of books could fit in the Endger's Game timeline. I had thought that the first Formic War was immediately followed by Ender's Game. However, there is the matter of Mazer Rackham having been traveling through space to be able to talk with Ender, so I guess it makes sense. This books feels like the previous Formic War series. There are some people that see what is going on. Those with power don't believe them and dilly dally until it starts to get too late. Most leaders are greedy and really in it for their own benefit. They feel threatened by people that are more capable precisely because they are more capable. The "heroes" are crazy smart, but suffer from self doubt and can be a little bit too humble. (And how is it, that the Aliens always happen to be near mining ships that know how to identify them?) Mazer is ignored and in trouble with the military. Young Jukes is working hard and tries to do the right thing, but not ruthless like his father. Victor can fix anything and is brave enough to go into space. His fiance enlists in the military and soon finds herself in command of their now commandeered mining ship. Everyone seems to understand the political reason for their actions - except for the politicians themselves.
The author's seemed to go all George Lucas on the story. In the afterward, they acknowledged that there was not a whole lot of detail on Mazer in Ender's Game. Thus, they got to make an entire backstory to fulfill a couple small, nearly throwaway lines. It must have been a lot of fun to write the story. In reading it, you know how the main arc will turn out, but there are still plenty of sub-plots to keep things interesting. There are obviously going to be a few more books in this series.

Thursday, September 01, 2016

Keeper of Dreams

Keeper of Dreams contain some lesser-known short stories of Orson Scott Card.

"The Elephants of Poznan" - The elephants are the dominant species and they use humans to help them breed. It was an interesting twist on the apocalyptic story.
"Atlantis" - The "flood story". This is an expanded version of a story told as part of the Christopher Columbus pastwatch book.
"Geriatric Ward" - A story about premature aging that I didn't care much for.
"Heal Thyself" - Neandrathals are non-infected humans. Curing all diseases causes people to "revert" to that state. Perhaps we don't want to mess with our DNA.
"Angles" - This is a fun, yet confusing story. "Oppressed peoples" are recruited to an alternate universe in the name of reviving their population. They are not allowed to bring anything with them when transferring. Alas, the alternate universe just wants to enslave them and use their talents. The Japanese group, however, have the last laugh as they are highly skilled martial artists who can fight back without weaponds.

Wednesday, May 11, 2016

Gate Thief

Danny North is a teenager in a rural Virginia high school. He is also one of the most powerful mages in the universe. I liked this book and wish I would have read it before Gatefather. All of the points of the third book in the series make a lot more since after reading this one. It is primarily about a powerful teenager coming to terms with his great power - trying to use it to help people, while not taking too much glory or hurting others. However, he is also a teenager. In a weakened state he is susceptable to problems that can cause the powers of evil to overtake him. However, through generosity he is able to limit the scope of the evil ones. Could a teenager really be this smart and this hormonally driven at the same time?)

Visitors

Visitors started out promising and then ran out of steam at the end. While it did neatly wrap up the series, it opened up many new threads to do so. It is as if a big ball of twine was considered "tied up" because it was made into a big mess. We have time travelers splitting themselves and others into multiple copies. We have the earth getting destroyed by aliens, then getting undestroyed. We have a baby getting killed by an evil king, then getting unkilled, but disowned by his own mother in another time stream. Yes, it does provide plenty of thought points concerning time travel, but that is about all it does.