The Ender Saga #1: Ender's Game, Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, Children of the Mind, Ender in Exile

I will first answer the question I most needed help with when I first bought this book: is it worth it to buy the whole collection, or will I only want to read Ender's game? Answer: DEFINITELY buy all five books! These are classics, and I don't mean only in their genre. I am confident they would appeal to people of all ages and fans of any type of fiction. Yes, they are science fiction, but they are so much more than that. They are books that speak about - and somehow transcend the topic of - the deepest meaning of humanity. Period. Looking back, I think Orson Scott Card is a genious. I have no doubt he will be remembered as "one of the great ones", especially in his own genre.I will try to describe each book to you and give my honest review.Ender's Game: 4.5 stars - For the record, I saw the movie before I read the book. I meant to do it the other way around, but it wasn't possible. So the surprise, edge-of-my-seat element was obviously missing in the book for me, even though it wasn't the writer's fault. I think that is why this is not rated 5 stars, it got a bit slow, since I knew what happened in the end. Still, it was well worth the read. The book is about a world that was changed by an alien atack, and the children that are trained to save it from them. One particular exceptional child: Ender Wiggin. But the book is about so much more. It's about inocence lost and hope found, it's about how much of our identity is bound by the actions we are obligated to take in do-or-die sitiations. It feels real. All the cruelty and all the kindness feels utterely human. But since it's about all the "action" that happens inside of Ender, and not so much about the real action, the book felt a little over-explained to me sometimes.The Speaker for the Dead: 5 stars - this book is about what happens to Ender long after the events of the first book. He is 35 years old (but it is 3.000 years after the fact, since space traveling changes the space-time continuum) and he has yet to find a safe place for the last hive queen. He arrives in a world where the only (other) sentient species has been found, and revives his own story in a most beautiful way. This book truly changed me in a deep level. The themes - survival, compassion, understanding, truth, what it means to be human - will rattle your humanity to the core (if you have any). I know it's cheesy (especially because I'm practically quoting a totally unrelated movie), but it made me want to be a better person. More like Ender, it made me want to use my intelligence in order to enhance my emotions and vice versa, instead of the usual letting your emotions take away your intelligence. It is possible, and Scott Card creates it beautifully! This is my favorite of the 5 books. In this one, even though you are thrown in to a million different characters all at once and the pace is still slow, I didn't feel confused or bored, or ever wanted to stop reading it. I absolutely loved this. It truly moved me.Xenocide: 5 stars - It is a bit hard for me to separate Xenocide and Children of the Mind, but I'll try since they are obviously separate anyhow (and my ratings show that). Xenocide starts where The Speaker for the Dead ended. As the name indicates, in this book Ender and the people of Lusitania are trying to prevent the xenocide of the Pequeninos and the Hive Queen, while still fighting for their lives. Jane gets more and more exiting and the introduction of the people of Path creates a really interesting mix.Children of the Mind: 4.5 stars - This is the end of the story. And the reason that I gave it half a star less is that - even though it absolutely satisfied me in an emotional level (I wanted things to end up well) it was a little to farfetched of an ending for me. Things just worked out too perfectly, people creating technologies out of thin air... It was very tender and absolutely humane, but I didn't buy all of it. Still, these bookes changed me and I'll carry their lessons around. The genius of Scott Card in putting cultures together and managing to keep their identities hole and their human characteristics shine baffles me.Ender in Exile: 4.5 stars - This book, as the author himself explains, happens between the 14th and 15th chapters of Ender's Game. So technically it should be read as the second book. But since it came last (and I enjoyed it that way) this is how I'll review it. This is the story about what happens to Ender exactly after the Formic war. I love how Scott Card organizes Ender's actions to be perfectly reasonable and perfectly generous at the same time. It's a beautiful lesson. But I did miss some info (that was referred to) that happened in the shadow books. I wish I had read them before I read this.Summing up: It is a great series in all aspects of it. I would absolutely recommend this.

After reading the entire quintet I am confident in saying the author is amazing. The stage is eloquently and simply set to invoke the readers imagination. There are small jumps here and there but everything is explained through the almost lost art of story telling. Nearly every stage of the human condition from adolescence through death is covered in these pages. It makes a person yearn to be so complete at the end of their lives as the end of a characters life is displayed before us as the reader. I hope to read more from the author and look forward to imagining a new world through his eyes. I hope that others enjoy this compilation as much as I have and can create such vivid worlds in their imagination. Thank you for writing an excellent set of books Orson Scott Card -Adam Toso

My husband and I love the Ender's books and we're looking to collect them all. This box set is a great start! They are all good quality.If you're looking for the author's definitive edition of Ender's Game, you'll have to buy that separately.

I love these books. The book set is great. The paper case is really hard to get the books in or out of, but I don't find it necessary

Great books.

I love these books

After watching the movie and hearing people discuss how it only skims the story when compared to the books. Made me eventually buy these 5 so I could not only better understand what was supposed to happen in the movie, but also continue the story. Now that I've read these I understand more whenever I'm pushed into seeing the movie. Now I understand the ansible and philotic connects. String theorist would love the "Formics/Buggers" and the father trees. It adds so much to the ender universe that you tend to get entrenched and surrounded by everything in it. I have learned that watching the movie before reading the book was a great thing, vice versa would had me throwing plates out windows. But that's my motto for movie books, always watch the movie first and enjoy it for what it is not for how accurate it isn't. A 5-10 episode(60 min each) mini series would make the first book appear amazing on screen.

Looks good and are good books no problem with shipping it was great might get a second.

The media could not be loaded.  Me salieron en descuento por 637 pesos mexicanos, el cover de los libros si vino maltratado pero no le tomo importancia, pero una página si salio rara (última foto)

Good quality books.

¿Puede una edición de bolsillo ser presentada de manera elegante y práctica al mismo tiempo? TOR me ha demostrado que sí. Encantado con el pack de Ender. Ahora, a por los demás.

Ich habe zufällig gesehen, dass diese wunderbare Buchreihe nur eine einzige, sehr schlechte Kritik bekommen hat. Das konnte ich nicht so stehen lassen.Die Buchreihe ist ein absolutes Meisterwerk der Science Fiction und hat sich von Buch zu Buch immer mehr zu meinem Favoriten entwickelt.Vornweg: Die Bücher sind anspruchsvoll. Ich möchte das gern mit Tolkien vergleichen. Wenn da auf 50 Seiten ein Blatt vom Baum fällt, dann kann sich das ganze schon mal eine Weile hinziehen. Literarisch dennoch wunderbar geschrieben. Und nichts, wirklich nichts in diesen Büchern ist zufällig. Auch wenn es über weite Strecken so wirkt, als wären Buch 1 und 2 z.B. überhaupt nicht groß miteinander verbunden, entwickelt sich mehr und mehr ein Netz aus Handlungssträngen, die immer wieder zusammengeführt werden. Keine Nebenhandlung ist nur Füllstoff, sondern treibt immer die Handlung voran. Das ist, was eine gute Geschichte ausmacht und heute leider viel zu oft fehlt!Ich kann oberflächlich betrachtet die andere Kritik fast ein bisschen nachvollziehen. Aber ich kann sie nicht verstehen, wenn man alle 5 Bücher wirklich gelesen hat: In den Büchern wird liebevoll und umständlich eine Art Paralleluniversum etabliert, ein Universum wie das unsere, das aber andere oder besser gesagt neue physikalische Gesetze hat. Man muss schon Freude daran haben, sich in solche Konstrukte reinzudenken, aber ich denke das fällt SciFi Fans nicht schwer :)Nicht nur werden neue physikalische Gesetze aufgezogen. Es wird auch die Frage nach dem Umgang mit nicht-menschlichen Lebensformen gestellt. Es wird gefragt, was Intelligenz ist und ab wann etwas als intelligent gilt. Es werden neue Ideen zu zur Sprache alternativen Kommunikationsformen eröffnet. Wie weit darf Wissenschaft gehen? Und vor allem handeln alle Bücher über die menschliche Fehlbarkeit. Es wird immer wieder die Frage gestellt, was gut ist und was schlecht, gern wird das auch von einem zum anderen gekippt, es werden verschiedene Sichtweisen zu verschiedenen Zeitpunkten der Geschichte aufgezeigt. Es gibt politische Strategieplanung und -intrigen. Es wird über den bedingungslosen Glauben an Religion philosophiert.Insgesamt ist es für mich die kritische Auseinandersetzung mit uns Menschen, eine detailliert aufgebaute Dystopie. Einige Konzepte sind klassisch dystopisch, andere waren für mich neu und erfrischend. Auf jeden Fall haben mich diese Bücher immer wieder zum Nachdenken angeregt. Wer die Geduld hat, alle 5 wirklich durchzuziehen, wird von den Büchern nicht enttäuscht werden.

I love the Ender's Game series; they're litterally my favorite books of all time! I can't wait to continue with the other Ender books!