Just for fun, I thought I'd post this list of my favorite OSC books, in reverse publication order.
I haven't read them all yet: still two more to go!
It seems like most members on this forum get introduced to OSC through the Ender books. Maybe my Top 12 has a few entries that surprise people:
Shadow of the Giant (2005) Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus (1996) Lovelock (1994) Lost Boys (1992) Maps in a Mirror: The Short Fiction of Orson Scott Card (1990) How to Write Science Fiction & Fantasy (1990) The Folk of the Fringe (1989) Wyrms (1987) Seventh Son (1987) Speaker for the Dead (1986) Ender's Game (1985) Hot Sleep (1978)
And if I were to expand the list to Top 14:
The Ships of Earth (1994) Ainge (1982)
Posted by Orson Scott Card (Member # 209) on :
I'd love to provide a list of my 60 favorite books by OSC, but it's already listed elsewhere on this site.
Oddly enough, I believe that Ainge is Ainge's least favorite book by OSC ...
Posted by Craig Childs (Member # 5382) on :
You don't give yourself enough credit. Your explanation of the Ainge family dynamics was extremely interesting and insightful. I feel like I understand that family better than my own.
Now, granted, Ainge is a little outdated. But, you can't be blamed for the fact Danny kept making noteworthy achievements after your book was published.
Posted by Orson Scott Card (Member # 209) on :
The odd thing about that book was that I wrote it almost as a family memoire - my ONLY sources were interviews with family members. EVERY story in that book was told to me by a family member - mostly the mother.
I think she was appalled at the reaction of her own children to her account of her memories, because she was livid with me for my "distortions." Weird - I wrote down her accounts exactly as she told them. But she wasn't prepared for how those accounts would sound to the kids themselves <grin>.
Anyway, the family were rather outraged by the thing, but we never heard a complaint from Danny himself (with whom we had a pretty good long interview right at the end of the research on the book). I think I got it right - the family dynamic, I mean - and since I liked everybody I wrote about in it, I think people outside the family would have liked them, too!
Still, it didn't sell very well, because it wasn't what sports fans want to read. They want game after game, not the childhood; and I didn't care about any but a few key games, and the childhood was precisely what I was most fascinated by.
Maybe that was the problem for sports fans who didn't buy the book and the family members who didn't like it - the book was NOT what they expected, and was far more about the whole Ainge family than about Danny the Hero Athlete. But I think Danny himself was perhaps rather entertained or amused by that.
The thing is - we gave Danny, but ONLY Danny, approval of the content. He gave the approval, and we printed the book. And I'm still proud of it.
Posted by SingerGuy59 (Member # 5934) on :
Oh my word. I just discovered an OSC book I haven't read. I thought my list was complete.
No, I'm not obsessive. There's nothing to see here people. Keep moving along.
Oh, and my favorite; Storyteller in Zion. I especially love the speach given at Sunstone. I've drawn from that well many times.
Posted by Craig Childs (Member # 5382) on :
Well, AINGE certainly made me like the family -- and I'm not even a fan of BYU.
I have to admit, though, that my opinion of the Ainges has dropped considerably in the past two years since Eric (their nephew, I think) started playing quarterback at the University of Tennesee. As a University of Alabama alumnus, I just can't abide those Vols! :-)