Talk:Ender's Game series

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Assessment comments

The Ender's series was awesome. The second best series I've ever read, the first being The Alvin Maker series. The first of the series, Ender's Game, was by far the best of the series.

Ender's Game was truly spectacular, and Ender's Shadow is even more so. The 'Enderverse' as they call it, is a very cool world.

I think this page could use some editing. Maybe talk about the world, how the Russian Empire under the Second Warsaw Pact stretches from the Netherlands all the way to Pakistan, the inventions of the world such as the nuclear shield, and Dr. Device. The political situation on Earth in the Enderverse catches my eye and I'd like for this page to explain it at least a little.

Contents

[edit] 16Feb06 - TDT

I removed the term 'space opera' from the opening line of the article, as science fiction is about people in general. I don't recall which, but one of the great science fiction founders was asked by his publisher to write a 'science fiction' story, when it hadn't even really emerged as a genre in the '30s or '40s. His reply was "I don't write about things, I write about people". His publisher's response was basically that that's exactly what he wanted him to write about...people and interractions between them, as that is what good writing is typically based on. The thing that made this science fiction writing was that the setting would be futuristic, or include then-non-existent inventions(if anyone can find a reference for this event, please mention it).

Hence when reading the 'Space Opera' entry that says: "It meant an action-oriented tale of space adventure instead of "respectable" science fiction story that concentrated on effects of technological progress and inventions" and that it "emphasizes romantic adventure, interstellar travel, and space battles where the main storyline is centered aroundinterstellar conflict and character drama", it seems it is definitely an errant term to begin with. If anything, it would be more appropriate to label science fiction that is more focused on "things" than people as something like techno-science-fiction, or dry-sci-fi, rather than apply the term to the style used by 99% of the writing in the genre

Space Opera doesn't really have the strong negative connotation some apply to it. It is pooly defined though, and makes for interesting discussion. It seems to be used often in lieu of "science fiction fantasy", Star Wars being the actual standard. But it's true it only weakly applies to some things, and Ender's series has many elements of both science and fantasy.
The term you're looking for is "hard science fiction" - sf primarily about science rather than adventure. I doubt that 99% of science fiction is space opera, just the most visible stuff on the shelves. The above-quoted definition of space opera is correct: a better example would be the show "Babylon 5" or the Uplift series by David Brin. "Science fiction fantasy" implies a magical aspect to it, such as the Force in Star Wars, which isn't necessary in space opera.Pooneil 05:07, 5 April 2007 (UTC)
I see no need to apply it if is questioned. --Shadow Puppet 14:14, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] UN

The Shadow series gives vauge mention of a spectacular end to the United Nations.

This is likely true, but I don't want ppl to think we are trying to imply a theme of hypothtical or fictional end to an evil UN. I'm going to look it up and reword this tonight. --Shadow Puppet 14:10, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Changes made 25-Mar-2006

Hi. I went to fix a one-letter typo in the article and ended up doing a whole bunch of changes, mostly to do with putting book titles in italics and short story titles in "double quotes", per Wikipedia:Manual of Style (italics). There are still a few problems with the grammar. (I haven't read any of these books since Xenocide, so I can't comment on the content of the article.) Feel free to boldly edit my changes! —Chris Chittleborough 18:12, 24 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Multiplicity of articles

There seems to be a tendency to generate new pages that discuss bits and pieces of the fictional creation related to this series. Usually, it is better if those pieces are merged into the main article. I have suggested one such example for merging. Rather than list them all, it makes more sense to just use the "What links here" as they all reference this page. NThurston 20:27, 6 April 2006 (UTC)

Please see the following examples for the rebuttal to this argument: Category:Star Wars, Category:Star Trek, Category:The West Wing (TV series), Category:The Simpsons, etc etc etc. — Scm83x hook 'em 20:46, 6 April 2006 (UTC)
Hm. I'd more or less agree -- it would seem preferable in many cases to have a series of redirects, if the majority of articles just end up being brief stubs. But in the particular case of the species categorization, I feel that particular idea might be notable enough to warrant its own article. The way I see it, it's not so much an issue of having too many articles, but more about whether those articles are fleshed out, could potentially be fleshed out, or are worthy ideas in their own light. Luna Santin 18:48, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Predators as Varelse

This is my first time to comment on Wikipedia, I hope I don't break any conventions. I don't want to jump in and start editing things, so I figured I'd put this as a question. The article mentions the movie monsters 'Aliens' and 'Predators' as varelse, impossible to communicate with or peacefully coexist with. Should Predators be included in this? At the end of Predator 2, the Predator chief gives Danny Glover's character an old pistol after he kills a Predator, and then leaves him in peace, and in Alien vs. Predator one of the Predators cooperates with the human woman against the Aliens. BaikinMan 03:10, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

Heey. I'm pretty new, too. You bring up a good point. Reading that, I think it mentions Predators, but only specifically calls the Aliens varelse. Which seems right. I'll admit I'm not too familiar with the AvP (etc) series, but it seems the Aliens would fit far more readily into the category. The Predators may usually fight humans, but if a situation did arise where they had a mutual interest, I have little doubt that their ability to communicate with each other would prove useful. Maybe. That said, I'm not entirely comfortable with the mention... feels like it's just a plug, or worse, an implication that the Ender series needs to lean on AvP for legitimacy. Luna Santin 18:44, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

I've been thinking on it, and I believe that the text indicates that Predators are included as 'varelse,' so I've removed that portion of the article for the reasons I mentioned above, leaving only the 'Aliens.' BaikinMan 21:10, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

Hm, good point, just remove confusing phrase altogether. =3 I rewrote the sentence, just since it felt a bit awkward, syntax-wise. And also added a link to Xenomorphs, now that I did a little more reading up on this. Luna Santin 22:03, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Added graph

I just added a timeline graph. Any comments? MarkRofler 10:22, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

Awesome graph, but now it needs "A War of Gifts" ... I haven't read it yet, so I can't really say where it fits in.128.187.0.164 17:27, 3 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Intergalactic Medicine Show

I am a little confused about the short stories from this webzine. On this wiki, it lists four short stories from the webzine, that are a part of the Enderverse. The first three are correct. But the fourth, listed as "Gloriously Bright", I can't seem to find anywhere. Is that indeed a short story from the webzine, set in the Enderverse? On top of that, according the webzine's official website, the fourth and fifth stories included in the fourth and fifth issues, respectively, are titled "A Young Man with Prospects" and "A Gold Bug". Yet these aren't listed. I admit that I haven't read the stories, so I didn't want to add/change them in the wiki entry. Anybody have any insight on these? P.S. Yes, these books are great.


[edit] just finished reading

what happens after he passes the end of the world? who is Enders speaker for the dead? is it ever explained to the people how he was tricked into xenocide and that he wasn't a bad person? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.111.213.212 (talk) 02:44, 21 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] The movie

I would like to point out that there is now a movie in pre production based on Enders game and shadow to be directed by Wolfgang Petersen —Preceding unsigned comment added by 194.144.4.89 (talk) 03:58, 18 February 2008 (UTC)