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Please help a new reader to decide in what order to read all 8 of the Ender Series (if I am correct about the number). If not, please list which books in which order. Thanks
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Ender's Game Speaker for the Dead Xenocide Children of the Mind Ender's Shadow Shadow of the Hegemon Shadow Puppets Shadow of the Giant
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I would read them in the order they were written (which is what Illidan just gave you).
Alternatively, I would read Ender's Game, then read the Shadow books in the order written, and then read the Speaker books in the order written.
Ignore anyone--including OSC --who tells you to read Ender's Shadow before Ender's Game. Regardless of which series you read first, I would start with Ender's Game. And not because Ender's Game is the best of the lot--I personally think Speaker for the Dead is, while most teenage readers seem to prefer Ender's Shadow. But because reading Ender's Game first doesn't take away anything from your enjoyment of any of the other books. Reading Ender's Shadow first will most certainly spoil Ender's Game for you.
(Also, don't necessarily commit to reading all of both series. They are, essentially, two rather different series that happen to have the same first novel. Therefore, depending on your preferences in what you read, one or the other might possibly not be for you, and your experience of the one series won't necessarily be incomplete for not having read the other. The characters are different, and so are the tone and the setting. At the risk of gross oversimplification, the Speaker series is sociological science fiction with a heavy dose of philosophy. Is that your thing? The Shadow series, after Ender's Shadow is action-oriented international intrigue/thriller. Is that your thing?)
Posts: 13680 | Registered: Mar 2002
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When a new Shadow book comes out, I reread Ender's Game and then all the Shadow books, but I don't (any longer) reread the Speaker books. When the "bridging" novel comes out--or if another book in the Speaker series could somehow come out--I would reread Ender's Game and then the Speaker series.
Which might not seem relevant to your question as a first-time-reader, but I am just reemphasizing that they are two different series.
Posts: 13680 | Registered: Mar 2002
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"The Polish Boy" "Teacher's Pest" <The as-yet-unwritten Battle School Christmas Story, I imagine, along with a slew of stories set to come out in OSC's Fantasy Book, or whatever the magazine gets called> Ender's Game Ender's Shadow Shadow of the Hegemon Shadow Puppets Shadow of the Giant "Investment Counselor" Speaker for the Dead Xenocide Children of the Mind <The as-yet-unwritten "bridge novel," which will really screw this list up, because it probably will begin chronologically somewhere around Shadow of the Giant and end after Children of the Mind, if I am not mistaken.>
::hopes he hasn't made any mistakes up there::
<---- too much time on his hands, evidently
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After you finish Ender's Game, think about what you're more interested in. Are you more interested in what happens to Ender or what happens to Earth directly after the war? If the former, read the Speaker series first. If the latter, read the Shadow books. In my opinion, at least.
Posts: 853 | Registered: Feb 2004
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That's a good answer, Jaime, but I would still also emphasize what kind of story leorob wants to read, because a lot of readers--often young readers--looking for stories as action-packed as Ender's Game end up disappointed in the Speaker Series (though I prefer it, personally).
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The reason I would read the speaker books before the shadow books is that when you start reading Ender's Shadow, you get a rush of memories about Battle School and such. You could even read Ender's Game a second time before the Shadow series.
If you are going to iclude "Investment Counselor" then it is probably best to go with Icarus's choice.
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Icarus - That's true. I read the Speaker books when I was 12 and I strained really hard to keep up with the slow pace to get the full story. I'm still like that a little bit but I think I appreciated the philosophy in the Speaker books more now that I've reread them. I still prefer the faster pace of the Shadow books, though.
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I enjoyed the Speaker books a lot more than the Shadow books, because the Speaker books were more focused on science fantasy, and the Shadow books were full of tactics and warfare. I just happened to be more into sci-fi.
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You must read Ender's Game first, otherwise Ender's Shadow just spoils it for you. I would go ahead and read Speaker after it and if you like it continue reading the rest of the series. If you don't like it that much read the Shadow series.
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I started with Ender's Game and read all the books once, Speaker series first. If you plan to read all the books, don't get sucked into reading in chronological order. For example, I watched the Star Wars movies 1-2-3-4-5-6 and also read Isaac Asimov's Robot/Empire/Foundation series according to the timeline. I don't think I received nearly as much pleasure from either as I would have if I'd done them according to release date. To avoid re-reading books, if that's not your thing, read in rapid succession with few other books in between.
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About the Star Wars, I never got into them until recently, when a friend lent them to me (third one illegally, don't tell). It must have been VERY difficult to wait for the final one to come out for people who'd seen all the others!
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I think he means RotS. But when the Star Wars sequels were coming out, did people anticipate the next one as much as they did RotS?
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--who tells you to read Ender's Shadow before Ender's Game. Regardless of which series you read first, I would start with Ender's Game. And not because Ender's Game is the best of the lot--I personally think Speaker for the Dead is, while most teenage readers seem to prefer Ender's Shadow. But because reading Ender's Game first doesn't take away anything from your enjoyment of any of the other books. Reading Ender's Shadow first will most certainly spoil Ender's Game for you.
