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.

The Tusks of Extinction

The Tusks of Extinction

the setting is Jurassic Park, but with wooly mammoths. There are Russians that helped bring back the animals,  but also go about hunting them. Then there is a girl who has loved elephants for most of her life. She dies and ends up becoming one with the herd. There is an anti-poaching message here along with some science fiction elements. It gets a little jumbled, but it is a quick read.

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.

Ender's World

Ender's World is made up of a number of essays about Ender's Game. Most are by literary types describing how the novel impacted their lives and writing career. Interspersed with the essays are some short Q&As and other short bits from Card providing details on the book and his writing process.

What I found most interesting was some of the commentary about the end of Ender's Game. One started out describing how he initially wanted to change the ending to keep a strong "action" story. After reading again, he later realized the ending was useful after all and decided to keep it. I had almost the exact opposite experience. I did not care much for Ender's Game. It just seemed to be a lame action story. However, the ending really turned me on. It showed that there was some promise, and lead me to read the excellent sequel, Speaker for the Dead. (In one of the essays, Card mentions that the novel form with its ending was written to set up Speaker for the Dead.)

When Ender's Game was released, I was reading a lot of Science Fiction. However, I have no recollection of the story. Either it had no impact on me, or I never read it. (I'm guessing I never read it, since I did enjoy some of Card's other Mormon humor and Commodore 64 computer writings.)

Did Ender's Game really have a big role on literature and society? One essay talked about the true independent world-changing child protagonist. Previously, children would have things happen to them, but now it seems every story is lead by a child or a teenager. Was Ender's Game really that influential in bringing out the strong-willed child? Or did it just go along for the ride? The Narnia children did a pretty good job of saving the world on their own. Roald Dahl's children lead the narrative. Charlie Bucket may have been dominated by Willy Wonka's machinations, but Mathilda sure enacted plenty of change on her own. Today we have Percy Jackson, Hunger Games, Twilight and Harry Potter. All are stories where a child or teen needs to make decisions to help save the world. Have we swung too far in the direction of strong-willed child? Are adults just not interesting anymore? Do books need to be centered on functional adolescents to be successful?

Another interesting essay was from a military leader who used Ender's Game to train other military officers. I was amazed to hear that Card did not have any military experience. He seems to dive deeply into the experience of a true leader - the person that controls rather than the person that wears the stripes. I can see how the story would be useful in modelling leadership. The "crusty" military are concerned more with their own position and rank, and are more able to sit in an office than fight a war. The "leaders" need to be able to think on their own and value the goal above personal gain. (It is interesting to hear that both Card and the military leader were giddy about their meeting.)