Conference noted::sf

    	See Topics 295, 436, 539, 601, and 612.
    

    
    Thanks, but I've done that already.  I just re-checked these notes,
    and the only addition I could find was _Capitol_ which is an anthology.
    I just want to be sure that I've got *everything*.
    
    Mat.
    *:o)
    

  Omni magazine had a couple of short stories by O.C.C when they first
    came out in '79.Check out the first 36 issues.
    One was called "Fat Farm" a great 2 or 3 page story about a narcissist who
    changes bodies every few years.
    The other one was about a man who's memory was transfered to a clone
    while he was being executed. This process was repeated until he
    "confessed" to crimes against a totalltarian state.
    
    Post all your findings!
     
     Domenic
    

    I've got a bibliography stashed away somewhere at home. I'll
    dig it up.
    
    --- jerry

    Hi Mathew,
    
    I have a copy of Songmaster that you're welcome to.  I didn't really
    like it that much and I can use the space on my shelf for something
    else.
    
    I'll send it along to your mail stop.
    
    ... Bob
    

    
    Well I can cross Songmaster off my `wanted' list!  Many thanks,
    Bob.
    
    Of course, I've now got to add "'Prentice Alvin"(?) to the list
    (see note on Seventh Son).  Has anyone read this through yet?  Has
    OSC fallen into the trap of many sequel-writers, or has the third
    book retained the high quality of the other two?
    
    Mat.
    *:o)
    

    _'Prentice Alvin_ was excellent.  It does for slavery what _Red
    Prophet_ did for the Indian.  A must read.

    I have heard rumour of another Card book called _Abyss_.  Did I read it
    somewhere in here, or not?  Anyone got any pointers?
    
    Mat.
    *:o)
    
    PS  I've done a SH KEY/FULL ABYSS, SEARCH/NOTE=20.* ABYSS,
    	DIR/TITLE=ABYSS, and come up with nothing.

    
    You are referring to Card's novelization for the James Cameron
    (Terminator, Aliens) film The Abyss, scheduled for release this summer.
    The novelization is all over bookstores in the Northeastern U.S.
    
    DFW 

    
    Okay.  Thanks for the info.  I'd heard the name of the film, and
    wondered if it was just a coincidence.  Perhaps I'll wait till people
    have seen the film before I ask for comments on how good the book is,
    and whether it contains much additional creativeness on Card's part.
    
    Cheers,
    
    Mat.
    *:o)
    

    re:.9, .10
    
    I have the book, but I'm waiting for a nice long plane flight
    next week to read it.
    
    First of all, it's not written from the script. Card did write it
    from the script originally, but then Cameron provided him with miles
    of videotape dupes of working prints, and Card trashed what he'd
    written and did it all over again from the film itself.
    
    Second of all, Card (if his and Cameron's afterwords can be believed)
    added significant background material. Both he and Cameron consider
    the book a legitimate novel as opposed to a novelization (it's
    certainly much thicker than the usual novelization). It's like
    thinking of Clarke's 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY as a novelization of
    the film.
    
    --- jerry

    re: THE ABYSS
    
    I'm starting a new topic on THE ABYSS, with the idea that it can
    be used for discussion of the film. I'll start it off, though,
    by reviewing Card's novel based on the film.
    
    --- jerry

================================================================================
Note 746.13                     Orson Scott Card                        13 of 15
STKHLM::LITBY "...and he built a Crooked House"      10 lines  10-JUL-1989 04:22
                  -< what were the nice little pets called? >-
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


re early issues of Omni -

I remember reading an OSC short story in Omni some time in '79 or '80; it was
about a guy who acquired some interesting termite-like animals and kept them
as pets. From what I can remember, they ended up eating his house...

Anyone remember what the story was called?

/POL

================================================================================
Note 746.14                     Orson Scott Card                        14 of 14
RUBY::BOYAJIAN "Protect! Serve! Run Away!"           13 lines  10-JUL-1989 05:26
                                 -< Sandkings >-
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    re:.13
    
    Actually, I believe you're thinking not of a story by Card, but
    one by George R.R. Martin called "Sandkings", which appeared in
    the August 1979 OMNI (won both Hugo and Nebula Awards the next
    year as well). It's the title story in one of his collections,
    and can also be found in another collection, SONGS THE DEAD MEN
    SING (published only in a limited edition in the US, but in
    mass-market paperback in the UK), not to mention various "best of"
    anthologies from the early 80's. Last, but not least, DC Comics
    adapted it into a "graphic novel" a couple of years ago.
    
    --- jerry

================================================================================
Note 746.15                     Orson Scott Card                        15 of 15
STKHLM::LITBY "...and he built a Crooked House"       6 lines  10-JUL-1989 06:25
                                  -< Righto. >-
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Jerry, you're right - I was thinking of "Sandkings". For some reason I got the
authors mixed up.  It's an excellent story in any case.  Sure would like to
read it again if I can find it somewhere; SF bookstores don't grow on trees
here in Scandinavia...

/POL

    Card has revised _A_Planet_Called_Treason_ and the new version is
    called simply _Treason_.  I have started reading it but I'll be
    finishing it tomorrow on the plane to Hongkong.
    
    --Simon
    

    I am about halfway through "TREASON", very strange concepts for
    Card, especially around the advanced genetics in a primitive society.
     
    Quite unlike any of his other works, but as usual an excellent
    story.
    
    Ian
    

    The ending had a strange twist to it; maybe I wasn't trying to outguess
    the author and didn't see it coming.  Also, I wonder (since about 10%
    of the book was new material since the original version) if Card
    rewrote that part.
    
    One thing which was not explained (in my mind) was how the Ambassador
    was supposed to work.  I can only explain it as a limited-scope faster-
    than-light teleportation device; however, the civilization that exiled
    the rebels to Treason (3000 years before the time of the story) didn't
    have FTL technology.
    
    --Simon
    

    Maybe the Ambassador wasn't FTL, but 'communicated' with a ship in
    orbit.  Strange book, and didn't 'feel' like Card to me.  Not a bad
    read, but I should have read Red Prophet instead (it's in my backlog).
    
    Willie

    re .0:  Fans of Orson Scott Card who want to read as much of his works
    as you can get your hands on, there is now a book that "brings together
    nearly all of Card's stories from his first publications in 1977 to
    work as recent as last year." (from the dust jacket)
    
    Maps in a Mirror: the short fiction of Orson Scott Card
    
    ISBN 0-312-85047-6
    A Tor Book, published by Tom Doherty Associates, Inc.
    49 West 24th Street, New York, N.Y. 10010
    
    "In this enormous volume [675 pp. of smaller than usual print] are 46
    stories, broken into five books: Ten fables and fantasies, fairy tales
    ...; eleven tales of dread ...; seven tales of human futures ...; six
    tales of death, hope, and holiness ...; and twelve lost songs.
    
    "The Lost Songs are a special treat for readers of this hardcover
    volume, for here are gathered tales which will not see print again.
    Here are Card's stories written for Mormon children, a pair that were
    published in small literary magazines, a thoughtful essay on the
    writing of fiction, and three major works which have, since their
    original publication, been superseded by novel-, or more than novel-
    length works [Ender's Game, Songmaster, and the Tales of Alvin Maker]
    ... ``Mikal's Songbird'' will never be published again. ..." (ibid.)
    
    As you may have guessed, I have the book in front of me.  At $22.95,
    this is probably the most expensive (to-date) book of this genre I have
    bought.  I consider it a Christmas present for myself.
    
    --Simon
    

    Another book by Card that I have seen (in paperback) is Folk of the
    Fringe.  (Not sure about exact title)
    
    --Simon
    

Greetings
I'm new to this conference but look forward to keeping track
of new Sci Fi as they come out.

Anyway, I read ENDER'S GAME and SPEAKER FOR THE DEAD and found
both excellent!!  I was left with the feeling that there would
be a 3rd volume after SPEAKER.  Did anyone else get that impression?
Does anyone know if a sequal is planned?

Thanks
Kevin

Re: .20 
        
Orson Scott Card recently turned in the third "Ender" novel,
tentatively entitled XENOCIDE, to Tor books.  Look to see it
in hardcover in late 1991/early 1992.

				Andrew

    So far, I have touched only one section of Maps in a Mirror, and read
    the original Ender's Game (which was later rewritten as a novel of the
    same name) and Mikal's Songbird (which was later rewritten as the novel
    Songmaster).  In the Afterword to this section, Card explained how he
    went about the rewrite of these and others of his stories.  Apparently
    "hardly a sentence from the original books remained in the new version"
    [of the Worthing Chronicle, as with Songmaster and Ender's Game].  I
    read Ender's Game and Songmaster (the novel versions) sufficiently long
    ago that I only remembered the general story lines, so a re-reading of
    the original short versions was still enjoyable.
    
    Incidentally, the original Ender's Game was Card's first science
    fiction novelette he sold, and Mikal's Songbird was the fourth.
    The novella Songhouse, on the other hand, was excerpted from the first
    part of the Songmaster novel.
    
    In both Ender's Game and Songmaster, Card expanded the story by going
    back earlier in the life of the protagonist, Ender Wiggin and Ansset,
    respectively.
    
    Two other novellas that turned into novels, Hart's Hope and Wyrms,
    followed a different pattern -- the novellas were basically compressed
    versions of the novels.  (Unwyrm, the novella, actually never appeared
    in print.)
    
    Maps in a Mirror didn't include any of the novels: Ender's Game,
    Speaker for the Dead, the three Tales of Alvin Maker stories, the
    aforementioned Songmaster, Hart's Hope, and Wyrms, or Treason.
    
    Treason was a somewhat hastily revised version of A Planet Called
    Treason, pressured by his publisher (St. Martin's Press, in this case,
    not Tor) in the face of the commercial success of Ender's Game.  As a
    result, only the opening was revised and the rest was merely edited
    "heavily" so that the result was "no longer embarassing."  Card would
    have liked to rewrite the story with "many more characters and subplots
    that would make it one of [his] deepest novels instead of shallowest."
    However, we'll not see it happen because he said a third version of the
    same book would be "too absurd to contemplate."
    
    One other novel of his that I have not read before and not included in
    Maps in a Mirror is the Worthing Chronicles, which is a rewrite of
    Hot Sleep (his first novel) and the collection Capitol, his first book.
    The Worthing Chronicles, which I just finished reading, is included in
    The Worthing Saga, which also included some (the?) Capitol stories as
    well as three Worthing stories: Worthing Farm, Worthing Inn, and
    Tinker.
    
    Lastly, there is the collection The Folk of The Fringe, which I have
    bought but not yet read.
    
    To end this note, here's a listing of the short stories in Maps in a
    Mirror:
    Eumenides in the Fourth Floor Lavatory
    Quietus
    Deep Breathing Exercises
    Fat Farm
    Closing the Timelid
    Freeway Games ("Hard Driver")
    A Sepulchre of Songs
    Prior Restraint
    The Changed Man and the King of Words
    Memories of My Head
    Lost Boys
    A Thousand Deaths
    Clap Hands and Sing
    Dogwalker
    But We Try Not to Act Like It
    I Put My Blue Genes On
    In the Doghouse
    The Originist
    Unaccompanied Sonata
    A Cross-Country Trip to Kill Richard Nixon
    The Porcelain Salamander
    Middle Woman
    The Bully and the Beast
    The Princess and the Bear
    Sandmagic
    The Best Day
    A Plague of Butterflies
    The Monkeys Thought 'Twas All in Fun
    Mortal Gods
    Saving Grace
    Eye for Eye
    St. Amy's Tale
    Kingsmeat
    Holy
    Ender's Game
    Mikal's Songbird
    Prentice Alvin and the No-Good Plow (poetry)
    Malpractice
    Follower
    Hitching
    Damn Fine Novel (as Noam D. Pellume)
    (the rest as Byron Walley)
    Billy's Box 
    The Best Family Home Evening Ever
    Bicicleta
    I Think Mom and Dad Are Going Crazy, Jerry
    Gert Fram
    
    The section starting with Ender's Game will not be included in
    paperback versions of this book.  So if you are a real Orson Scott Card
    fan, you may want to buy the "ridiculously expensive" (his very words)
    hardcover edition.
    
    --Simon
    
    P.S.  Also see reply .18 for the ISBN number

    
    re .18, 22
    
    OSC *is* my favorite.  Imagine my surprise when, this Christmas, my
    (16-yr-old) presents me with a copy of Folk of the Fringe...which of
    course I already have and didn't have the heart to tell him.  I was
    just so surprised and pleased that he actually knew who my favorite
    author was!  Now I see that there is an OSC publication out there that
    I can quietly exchange it for....
    
    Thanks, 
    
    Helen
    

Card is a wonderful writer.
As a caster of prose, he is unsurpassed.
As a caster of plot, he is almost as good.
I often find that I have to force myself to slow my reading speed so I can 
savor the prose rather than race through the plot.

However, I wish he was not limited to writing about adolescents with special
powers or exceptional genius coming of age and saving their worlds.
Ender, Alvin, Gloriously Bright, the princess in Wyrms, the prince in Treason,
the kid in Worthing, and more I can't recall right now.
Is this a rut?

I'll keep reading it, but I >am< getting a bit tired of his apparent 
first premise of characterization.

- tom]

	Read Maps in a Mirror.  Many of his stories there are not variations 
on the wunderkind theme.

Tracey 

    Folk of the Fringe was wonderful. It has a strange, pastoral quality
    which lends it a dreamlike beauty - and the author's afterword was very
    interesting as well.
    
    I'm coming to like OSC more and more. Ender's Game was brilliant, in
    this humble reviewer's opinion - one of the best things I've read this
    decade.
    
    Max
    
    

    
    Regarding Folk of the Fringe, .26, I had a completely different
    experience with the book.  I tend to really enjoy OSC but I felt that
    this book was terrible. I felt let down when reading this book, for me
    it was not a page turner. I did buy his collection of short stories and
    am looking forward to these. I would agree with your opinion of Ender's
    Game.
    
    				Jim

    I also vote "Enders Game" as best.
    
    If OSC is influenced by Heinlen's "Number of the Beast" (just read)
    then I won't bother any more...I am SO SICK of Lazarus Long...:-(
    
    K
    

The replies previously numbered .28 through .46 have been moved to
topic 1003 beginning at reply 1003.1, as they deal specifically with
_Xenocide_.

Dave C.
moderator, SF

    Hi,
    
    	I read "Ender's Game" and "Speaker for the Dead" last year pretty
    much back-to-back, and enjoyed both of them.  I'm currently reading
    "Xenocide," but there are a couple of details from the first two books
    I can't quite remember.  Can someone please post (behind a form-feed)
    or mail me a brief answers to these questions:
    
    
    
    How did Ender and Jane came to know each other?  Also, there are a
    couple of references to their relationship not being as close as it
    used to be.  How come?
    
    Thanks,
    -Tom

>     <<< Note 746.30 by MAST::FITZPATRICK "Me upon my pony on my boat." >>>
>                        -< A couple of Ender questions >-
>
>    Hi,
>    
>    	I read "Ender's Game" and "Speaker for the Dead" last year pretty
>    much back-to-back, and enjoyed both of them.  I'm currently reading
>    "Xenocide," but there are a couple of details from the first two books
>    I can't quite remember.  Can someone please post (behind a form-feed)
>    or mail me a brief answers to these questions:

questions & responses behind formfeed    
    
    
>    How did Ender and Jane came to know each other?  

         Jane read & was impressed the books that were written by Ender 
         so she tracked down the author & enetually revealed herself to him
   
>    Also, there are a couple of references to their relationship not being as
>    close as it used to be.  How come?

         Ender disconnected the device in his ear when Jane kept interupting
         a conversation he was having