(by 3 people)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
Orson Scott Card (born August 24, 1951 is a prolific and best-selling author working in numerous genres. Card's launch in the publishing industry was with science fiction (Hot Sleep and Capitol) and later fantasy (Songmaster). He remains best known for the seminal Ender's Game, which has been among the most popular SF novels ever since its publication in 1985. Ender's Game and its sequel Speaker for the Dead were awarded both the Hugo Award and the Nebula Award, making Card the only author (as of 2005) ever to win both of SF's top prizes in consecutive years. Card continued the series with Xenocide, Children of the Mind, Ender's Shadow, Shadow of the Hegemon, Shadow Puppets, and the 2005 release of Shadow of the Giant. Card has also announced a 'Christmas in Battle School' book, a book that connects the "Shadow" series and "Speaker" series together, and a book that takes place after Shadow of the Giant and before Card's short story The Investment Counselor. Furthermore, Card recently announced that Ender's Game will soon be made into a movie (see Ender's Game (movie)).
He has since branched out into contemporary fiction, such as Lost Boys, Treasure Box and Enchantment. Other works demonstrating his versatility include the novelization of the James Cameron film The Abyss, the alternate histories The Tales of Alvin Maker and Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus, the comic book Ultimate Iron Man for Marvel Comics' Ultimate Marvel Universe series, and Robota, a collaboration with Star Wars artist Doug Chiang.
His writing is dominated by detailed characterization and moral issues. As Card says, "We care about moral issues, nobility, decency, happiness, goodness: the issues that matter in the real world, but which can only be addressed, in their purity, in fiction."
Some of his novels, for example Stone Tables, about the life of the prophet Moses; his Women of Genesis series; The Folk Of The Fringe stories; and Saints, about Latter-day Saint pioneers, have explicit religious themes. In his other writings, the influence of his Mormon beliefs is less obvious; Card's Homecoming and Alvin Maker sagas are partly retellings of the Book of Mormon and the life of LDS founder Joseph Smith, Jr.
In addition to his novels and short stories, Card has had an active career as a nonfiction writer. During the 1980s he wrote many technical articles and columns, primarily for Compute!'s Gazette and Ahoy!, two magazines covering Commodore home computers.
My Favorite OSC Books
Ender's Game (Ender, Book 1)
Amazon Price: $6.99 (as of 10/12/2008)
The Worthing Saga
Amazon Price: $7.99 (as of 10/12/2008)
Enchantment
Amazon Price: $7.99 (as of 10/12/2008)
Treason
Amazon Price: $10.17 (as of 10/12/2008)
Ender's Shadow (Ender, Book 5)
Amazon Price: $7.99 (as of 10/12/2008)
Important OSC Links
- Orson Scott Card's InterGalactic Medicine Show
- This is OSC's latest publishing project, an online magazine featuring hand-picked stories (you can submit your own work) and, for the die-hard OSC fans, each month he adds the untold stories of the bit characters in the Ender's series.
- Hatrack River - The Official Site of Orson Scott Card
- A great site that includes the full body of his work, his reviews of popular media, essays on life and the world, and tools for up and coming writers.
- The Ornery American
- On this website, OSC and friends look for the voices of those Ornery Americans -- the common folk who don't pretend to be intellectuals or elite in any other way, but who are just stubborn enough to think that we ordinary folk are the ones to whom this nation was entrusted from the start.
- OSC Bio
- A short bio of the author.
- Bibliography
- From the Hatrack River site, a complete bibliography of his works.
The Ender Wiggin Series
Ender's Game (Ender, Book 1)
Amazon Price: $6.99 (as of 10/12/2008)
Speaker for the Dead (Ender, Book 2)
Amazon Price: $7.99 (as of 10/12/2008)
Xenocide (Ender, Book 3)
Amazon Price: $7.99 (as of 10/12/2008)
Children of the Mind (Ender, Book 4)
Amazon Price: $7.99 (as of 10/12/2008)
OSC on the Ornery American
I recently read an opinion piece in which the author ridiculed the very concept of a "war on terror," saying that it makes as much sense as if, after Pearl Harbor, FDR had declared a "war on aviation."
Without belaboring the obvious shortcomings of the analogy, I will agree with the central premise. The name "war on terror" clearly conceals the fact that we are really at war with specific groups and specific nations; we can no more make war on a methodology than we can make war on nitrogen.
However, there are several excellent reasons why "War on Terror" is the only possible name for this war.
1. This is not a war that can be named for any particular nation or region. To call it "The Iraq War" or the "Afghanistan War" would lead to the horrible mistake of thinking that victory would consist of toppling certain governments and then going home.
In fact, it is precisely the name "War in Iraq" that is leading to the deep misconceptions that drive the Democratic position on the war. If this were in fact a war on Iraq, then in one sense we won precisely when President Bush declared victory right after we occupied Baghdad. And in another sense, we might not see victory for another five years, or even a decade -- a decade in which Americans will be dying alongside Iraqis. For a "War in Iraq" to linger this way is almost too painful to contemplate.
But we are not waging a "War in Iraq." We are waging a world war, in which the campaigns to topple the governments of Iraq and Afghanistan were brilliantly successful, and the current "lukewarm" war demands great patience and determination from the American people as we ready ourselves for the next phase.
2. We cannot name this war for our actual enemies, either, because there is no way to name them accurately without including some form of the word "Islam" or "Muslim."
It is our enemies who want to identify this as a war between Islam and the West. If we allow this to happen, we run the risk of achieving the worst of all possible outcomes: The unification of one or both of the great factions of worldwide Islam under a single banner.
President Bush and his administration have shown their grasp of our present danger by stoutly resisting all attempts to rename this war. We call it a "War on Terror" because that allows us to cast it, not as a war against the Muslim people, with all th
OSC on eBay
Fetching new data from eBay now... please stand by
What is your favorite OSC series?
What is your favorite OSC book?
|
Christian
By far, my favorite book is The Worthing Saga. It is a wonderful story of the consequences of removing the consequences of choice. The book is sci-fi, spiritual, and moral, and I'm reading it for the third time. Posted November 10, 2006 |
