Orson Scott Card has continued to dazzle and impress readers and critics alike with his excellent stories and intelligent writing. What might be his most well-known work, Ender's Game, has spawned many sequels, including Speaker for the Dead, a winner of both the Hugo and Nebula awards, and Ender's Shadow, a book which, along with Ender's Game, has earned him a lifetime achievement award from the Young Adult Library Services Association. He wrote "The Ender Saga" (Ender's Game, Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, and Children of the Mind) and "The Shadow Saga" (Ender's Shadow, Shadow of the Hegemon, Shadow Puppets, and Shadow of the Giant), as well as other novels in the "Enderverse" (First Meetings and A War of Gifts: An Ender Story).
Xenocide, incidentally, is the book which I just finished enjoying.
The book takes place on Lusitania in about the 53rd century. Lusitania is the only known planet in the universe on which is found the pequeninos, the only living sentient species besides humans known to mankind. Andrew "Ender" Wiggin is living there with his family. Unfortunately, Starways Congress, the head of all humanity, sees it fit for Lusitania to be destroyed by a extremely powerful bomb.
As can be expected, no one on Lusitania favors this idea very much at all. So Ender's intelligent and almost living computer cuts off all communication between Starways Congress and the fleet sent to destroy Lusitania. It is as if the fleet just disappeared into thin air. People on Lusitania wonder if this is enough to save their lives and the lives of the pequeninos, while some people elsewhere, especially a young Chinese girl named Han Qing-Jao, are trying to figure out how to get the fleet back.
Card makes a book that lives up to Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead. It is a worthy sequel that explores such philosophical questions as "When does a computer become more than a computer?" and "Should humanity sacrifice itself for other species?"
The characters in Xenocide are made realistic. They are believable people who seem to act just like most human beings in their capacities would. This all forms to be a book that should not be looked over.
http://www.amazon.com/Xenocide-Ender-Book-Quartet/dp/0312861877/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1224356085&sr=8-1
Grade: 8.5
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Saturday, October 11, 2008
An Ordinary Voyage
It seems that in the past few years, 3-D movies have become much more numerous than they were before. One of the more recent movies of this kind is "Journey to the Center of the Earth 3-D," starring Brendan Fraser. It did very well in the box office, but I doubt it will have the same legacy as its namesake.
Journey to the Centre of the Earth, by Jules Verne, was written during the time of the American Civil War. That was a very long time ago, and yet it is still a very well-known story. Journey to the Centre of the Earth is told through the eyes of Axel, a nineteen-year-old living with his strict Uncle Lidenbrock.
When Lidenbrock buys an ancient tome at a bookstore in town, he is very pleased to see that the book was once owned by Arne Saknussemm, a very famous Icelandic alchemist. He is even more thrilled when a note written in Icelandic falls out of the book. Axel and Uncle Lidenbrock proceed to decipher the mysterious note, and, after days of fruitless searching, they finally figure out the answer.
The note tells of a secret passageway in a crater called Sneffels (in Iceland) that leads to the centre of the earth. Axel and Lidenbrock depart immediately. With the help of their guide Hans, they embark on their treacherous journey to the interior of our planet.
Jules Verne wrote Journey to the Centre of the Earth over a century ago, so the writing style is often humorous how old it seems. The book is very slow for the most part; it does not have very much suspense or edge-of-your-seat action. Yet Verne wrote an interesting tale that has survived many years of history. Even if this "Voyage Extraordinaire" does not have the same features that a modern adventure novel today would have, it is still good, and should be read and enjoyed by present and future generations.
http://www.amazon.com/Journey-Centre-Earth-Puffin-Classics/dp/0141321040/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1223751127&sr=8-4
Grade: 7
Journey to the Centre of the Earth, by Jules Verne, was written during the time of the American Civil War. That was a very long time ago, and yet it is still a very well-known story. Journey to the Centre of the Earth is told through the eyes of Axel, a nineteen-year-old living with his strict Uncle Lidenbrock.
When Lidenbrock buys an ancient tome at a bookstore in town, he is very pleased to see that the book was once owned by Arne Saknussemm, a very famous Icelandic alchemist. He is even more thrilled when a note written in Icelandic falls out of the book. Axel and Uncle Lidenbrock proceed to decipher the mysterious note, and, after days of fruitless searching, they finally figure out the answer.
The note tells of a secret passageway in a crater called Sneffels (in Iceland) that leads to the centre of the earth. Axel and Lidenbrock depart immediately. With the help of their guide Hans, they embark on their treacherous journey to the interior of our planet.
Jules Verne wrote Journey to the Centre of the Earth over a century ago, so the writing style is often humorous how old it seems. The book is very slow for the most part; it does not have very much suspense or edge-of-your-seat action. Yet Verne wrote an interesting tale that has survived many years of history. Even if this "Voyage Extraordinaire" does not have the same features that a modern adventure novel today would have, it is still good, and should be read and enjoyed by present and future generations.
http://www.amazon.com/Journey-Centre-Earth-Puffin-Classics/dp/0141321040/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1223751127&sr=8-4
Grade: 7
Friday, October 3, 2008
The Twilight Anthology
"It was a warm afternoon in early September when I first met the Illustrated Man." That is the first sentence in Ray Bradbury's The Illustrated Man. That is not true for myself (it was actually an afternoon in March), but I am definitely glad that I read it.
Bradbury has a very peculiar style that is distinct, but excellent. Though he wrote a few novels (Fahrenheit 451 and Something Wicked This Way Comes being two of the more-well-known), the bulk of Bradbury's writing was made up of short stories. And he was definitely good at writing them.
In The Illustrated Man, Bradbury writes dark stories with chilling lessons and creepy plots. Eighteen stories (plus a prologue and an epilogue) make up this excellent anthology. My three favorites are "Zero Hour", "The Fox and the Forest", and "Marionettes, Inc." (in no particular order).
"The Fox and the Forest" concerns a couple in Mexico, 1935. They are from the future (the year 2155, actually), and used the company Travel in Time, Inc. to get to the past. Their trip was only supposed to last a few days, but they evaded security and escaped so that the husband in the relationship would not get drafted for the war in 2155. But the government figures them out and tries to catch them....
"Marionettes, Inc." is also very good. Braling and Smith are two good friends who just had a good night at the bar, when Braling says that he has to go home. They walk to Braling's home together, and Braling shows Smith how he was able to leave the house, even with his over-protective wife. It is because he has a robot that looks and is just like himself, tailored personally for him by Marionettes, Inc.
"Zero Hour" takes place on a futuristic Earth. All the kids in a certain town are playing a game that they call "Invasion" with each other. Their parents can hardly get them to do anything, they are so busy with the game. Mrs. Morris finds out that in fact it is a game that kids all across America are playing all at the same time. Very interesting.
Bradbury made an excellent collection of stories in The Illustrated Man. They all have the feel of a "Twilight Zone" episode. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone with a passion for reading and a taste for things a little bit quirky.
http://www.amazon.com/Illustrated-Man-Grand-Master-Editions/dp/055327449X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1223680907&sr=8-1
Grade: 8.5
Bradbury has a very peculiar style that is distinct, but excellent. Though he wrote a few novels (Fahrenheit 451 and Something Wicked This Way Comes being two of the more-well-known), the bulk of Bradbury's writing was made up of short stories. And he was definitely good at writing them.
In The Illustrated Man, Bradbury writes dark stories with chilling lessons and creepy plots. Eighteen stories (plus a prologue and an epilogue) make up this excellent anthology. My three favorites are "Zero Hour", "The Fox and the Forest", and "Marionettes, Inc." (in no particular order).
"The Fox and the Forest" concerns a couple in Mexico, 1935. They are from the future (the year 2155, actually), and used the company Travel in Time, Inc. to get to the past. Their trip was only supposed to last a few days, but they evaded security and escaped so that the husband in the relationship would not get drafted for the war in 2155. But the government figures them out and tries to catch them....
"Marionettes, Inc." is also very good. Braling and Smith are two good friends who just had a good night at the bar, when Braling says that he has to go home. They walk to Braling's home together, and Braling shows Smith how he was able to leave the house, even with his over-protective wife. It is because he has a robot that looks and is just like himself, tailored personally for him by Marionettes, Inc.
"Zero Hour" takes place on a futuristic Earth. All the kids in a certain town are playing a game that they call "Invasion" with each other. Their parents can hardly get them to do anything, they are so busy with the game. Mrs. Morris finds out that in fact it is a game that kids all across America are playing all at the same time. Very interesting.
Bradbury made an excellent collection of stories in The Illustrated Man. They all have the feel of a "Twilight Zone" episode. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone with a passion for reading and a taste for things a little bit quirky.
http://www.amazon.com/Illustrated-Man-Grand-Master-Editions/dp/055327449X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1223680907&sr=8-1
Grade: 8.5
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