Hatrack River Forum: Ender Series Book Covers: What do they mean?

This is topic Ender Series Book Covers: What do they mean? in forum Discussions About Orson Scott Card at Hatrack River Forum.

To visit this topic, use this URL:
http://www.hatrack.com/ubb/main/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=002314

Posted by andrewski (Member # 6387) on :

[Wave]

Hi all.
I have a question about the covers of the Ender series books. I'm just finishing them up (and enjoying them!) and all along, I have not been able to figure out what the covers have to do with the books. I could see, with the help of a friend, if Ender's Game was something relating to the simulator, though I would not have guessed that myself. Can anyone offer some clues?

(It looks like this has been asked before--I searched the forum--but none of the seemingly-pertinent topic links worked.)

[ March 29, 2004, 05:47 PM: Message edited by: andrewski ]

Posted by Miro (Member # 1178) on :

The first three covers were originally drawn for some other scifi trilogy that the publisher was planning to produce. For whatever reason, that trilogy did not go through and the covers got put on the Ender series.

So, basically, the answer to your question is nothing.

BTW, welcome. [Smile]

[ March 29, 2004, 06:19 PM: Message edited by: Miro ]

Posted by Kabederlin (Member # 6304) on :

I've always wondered who that yellow ship belonged too...

Posted by captainmoriar (Member # 6416) on :

I am pretty sure that that is one of the fighters that they manipulate through the computer and the ansible to fight the buggers.

EDIT: Well that was my interpretation of it anyway...

[ April 06, 2004, 01:51 AM: Message edited by: captainmoriar ]

Posted by mr_porteiro_head (Member # 4644) on :

I almost never pay attention to the covers anyway...

Posted by String (Member # 6435) on :

I always thought that cover of Enders Game was of the yellow battle school shuttle boarding the battle school station. just a thought.

Posted by Da_Goat (Member # 5529) on :

I get my books from the library or second-hand, so I usually don't have one of these newfangled covers.

Posted by pooka (Member # 5003) on :

I dreamed the other night that Ender's Game was re-released with a plain yellow Jacket, with just the title really big in red-almost orange in one of those dictionary style fonts. I think I must have realized I was dreaming.

[ April 15, 2004, 05:25 PM: Message edited by: pooka ]

Posted by Farmgirl (Member # 5567) on :

I always thought it depends on which country you're in, which cover you'll see (different ones for different translations). Isn't that right?

Are you talking about the American editions, or which?

Farmgirl

Posted by Anna (Member # 2582) on :

Farmgirl, you are right. It depends on which edition you are talking about (pocket or hardcover, for exemple) and they are often different in different countries, even if in the same language (I remember arguing about the cover of Harry Potter, and it was different in America and in England, I had the English edition).
French covers :
Ender 1
Ender 2
Ender 3
Ender 4, pocket edition
Ender 4, hardcover edition

[ April 16, 2004, 05:27 PM: Message edited by: Anna ]

Posted by mr_porteiro_head (Member # 4644) on :

Ooh! I really like that fractal hand cover.

Posted by Kabederlin (Member # 6304) on :

We got Gipped in America...

Posted by littlelf (Member # 6145) on :

Did we really get gipped? What if we all passed on the book b/c we didn't like the cover? Then, a large percentage of us would not be part of this community or would have had the experience of a single book changing our lives (OK, that last bit was MHO). That would have been criminal.

Posted by Yozhik (Member # 89) on :

Anybody else think the Ender on the French version of Speaker for the Dead *looks* French?

I mean, check out that turtleneck! All he needs is a beret and a cigarette.
[Smile]

Posted by DaveEEE (Member # 6457) on :

I think the ambiguity of covers in sci-fi(or any genre of book for that matter) is important. I want to draw my own interpretations of what aspects of the story look like(especially characters). I like the American version covers of the Ender books(at least I am assuming I own the american covers...I am in Canada). Those French covers that someone posted(thanks btw! I didn't know that different covers were released) really force upon the reader a pre-conceived idea of what characters look like. Ender does not look like that, to me, when I read the book; the father trees(or mother trees) do not look like that when I read the books.
This is the problem I have with movies based on books I have read(especiialy ones I love). Now, sometimes it works out(for example, Legolas in LOTR and ESPECIALLY Sauruman!!! but on a side note I thought they made Gimli a baffoon as they did, as well, the King of Gondor).....but, movies based upon classic books have often let me down. Harry Potter the movie changed(in my mind) the way I saw many of the main characters, to the point of making me not want to see the other movies. I don't know if it is only me but I DID NOT see Hagrid in that foolish, un-educated(for lack of a better term) way that the movie portrayed. Again, this is IMO. That is why I love the Ender book covers. I seriously didn't even take them into cosideration when I read the books....other than know that they books were of the sci-fi genre. That is how it should be.

Posted by pooka (Member # 5003) on :

Thanks, Anna, those were really fun to see.

I went to one of the less racous sounding lectures at EnderCon, "Bibliography of OSC" and was treated to some mind blowing cover art. P.S. There have been some interesting covers of sci fi mags. I'm thinking of the "Analog" with a story of "Gloriously Bright". An excerpt of Xenocide , I think.

:wonders if OSC has been translated into Arabic very much:

[ April 19, 2004, 12:09 PM: Message edited by: pooka ]