Ok, the reasons for me asking these questions are because I am unintelligent and can't pay attention to anything. That being said...
1. In the end of the book, whenever the Bugger's built the land from the Fantasy Game, where there giant was, how did they get into Ender's Mind? I know they said it had to do with the ansible, but how did they read his mind?
2. I believe they said a trip from Earth to the bugger planet where Ender is governing takes 50 years. A year (or a little more or less maybe?) after they landed on the planet, you hear that the second ship is headed their way, and it specifically says that the ship said via ansible they would arrive in less than a year, wouldn't that mean that Ender and everyone on that planet would be 50 years older? It portrayed them as still children....he was looking for a new place for the newcomers to live with his 11 year old companion, Abra.
3. Whenever he is in the battles with the buggers on the "simulator", were his friend's (Bean, Alai, Hot Soup, Dink, etc...) actually in the ships commanding people, or were they really on Eros with him, commanding the ships from simulators just as Ender was doing? His friends come and visit him just days after he wins the battle, and travelling through space would take a lot of time, so I am guessing they are actually on Eros with him?
Well, those are my questions, and now I must decide if I want to read Speaker for the Dead or Ender's shadow now that I have finished Ender's Game! Give me some advice!
Posted by Vadon (Member # 4561) on :
I think I can answer these...
1. Ender had to communicate through ansible to his troops, the buggers already used ansible, so they found out everything about Ender, my guess is that they found out what happened to him in the mind game and built his game into a planet.
2. Relativity, plus another ship could have been sent only a small short while afterwards.
3. They were on Eros with him, this is answered in Ender's Shadow. Ender was put in Iso so they couldn't find him/him find them.
And, Welcome!
Posted by vwiggin (Member # 926) on :
Welcome to you both!
Vadon did a great job answering the three questions. I can only add that dafadox's first question is not completely answered in Ender's Game. You will learn more about how the Buggers hacked into Ender's mind in the later books Xenocide and Children of the Mind.
Speaker for the Dead is a great book, I liked it a lot more than the Shadow series.
Posted by ketchupqueen (Member # 6877) on :
If you want to know what happens on Earth right afterwards, though, you should read the Shadow books. I liked them more than the Ender books, but that's largely got to do with the way you look at the world, I think.
Posted by Achilles_de_Flandres (Member # 6672) on :
The answer to your questions can be answered by reading (in order): Speaker for the Dead Xenocide Children of the Mind _______________________
Shadow of the Hegemon Shadow Puppets Shadow of the Giant (forthcoming)
And a tie in book has been announced. Go on and read them, they're quite interesting.
Posted by MidnightBlue (Member # 6146) on :
Your questions have mainly been answered, but I felt I had to clarify a couple of things: The buggers don't use ansibles, they communicate mind to mind using the philotic links they already have together, which is the priciple behind the ansible, which is a machine. When Ender was spending so much time trying to learn how the buggers think, he formed a strong philotic link to the buggers. This is more clearly and thoroughly explained in Speaker for the Dead and the books following.
Also, to expand on what Vadon said to answer number two: When Ender and the colony group left Earth, it took them 50 years to reach the colony planet. However, due to the fact that they were travelling at relativistic speeds (i.e. really really fast, close to the speed of light) it only seemed like a couple of years to those on the ship. It's the same reason that Mazer was able to be Ender's teacher even though he should have been long dead.
Posted by dafadox (Member # 6885) on :
I am not sure that I was very clear on my second question. I'll give it another shot. I understand the theory of relativity, and I understand why the people on the first ship would only age 2 years, while the rest of the world would age 50. Let's assume that the second ship left exactly 1 earth-year after the first one left. That means, whenever Ender's ship lands, the second ship would be halfway through their voyage. Which means that the second ship would be in space for a whole spacetime year AFTER ender's ship lands. That means that Ender and his group would age 25 years before the second ship even arrives, because 1 spacetime year is equal to 25 Earth/new planet years! I hope I explained/asked that well enough, because I am confused!
[ September 27, 2004, 02:56 PM: Message edited by: dafadox ]
Posted by Morbo (Member # 5309) on :
Welcome, dafadox.
You are unneccesarily dragging relativity into the problem. Both ships experience relativistic time dilation during their journey. Assuming the ships have identical speeds and accelerations, the time dilations are similar for both groups of passengers. So the important fact is how long between departures. If the ship 2 left 1 years after ship 1, it will arrive approx. 1 years after ship 1. Relativity is not needed.
[ September 27, 2004, 03:33 PM: Message edited by: Morbo ]
Posted by Solo_Espoir (Member # 6913) on :
Just to clarify, don't think of it as spacetime/planet time. There are the people zooming along at close to the velocity of light (call it Ship X), and then there is everyone else. If a spaceship is standing still, the people in it would be classified as everyone else. By a simple version of the relativistic theory, as Ship X gets closer to the speed of light, time slows more and more for it and it's passengers--while it continues "normally" for everyone else.
Here's where I think the confusion came in. Ship X left Earth, then one year later Ship X-2 left Earth. Well, one year later for whom? One year later for "everyone else," but for Ship X, if we keep the 50 to 2 year ratio in mind, only 2/50, or 1/25, of a year had passed before Ship X-2 left--make it 14 days. You see? Once they get to "new planet," 50 years has passed for "everyone else," and 2 years minus 14 days has passed for Ship X-2. For Ship X-2's passengers, it only feels like they have 14 days to go, not 1 year or 25 years, and for everyone else, they have 1 year to go.
[ October 06, 2004, 07:20 PM: Message edited by: Solo_Espoir ]
Posted by Brian_Berlin (Member # 6900) on :
1. Jane did it. (keep reading) 2...
I forgot the rest of the questions
[ October 06, 2004, 03:05 PM: Message edited by: Brian_Berlin ]
Posted by dafadox (Member # 6885) on :
Thanks guys! Your responses along with finishing up Speaker for the Dead helped me understand it better!
Posted by chase (Member # 6988) on :
it would take 50 years on earth for the ship to get there. if only 1 year had passed on earth than the ship would only be 2% into its journy...I see what you are saying and it is a verry difficult loop to get out of, you simply have to find one timezone and stick to it
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
![[Wave]](graemlins/wave.gif)