Is the Ender universe one in which America "lost" the Cold War? I am asking this in response to several things in the books. One is the mention of the Warsaw Pact in Ender's Game. Another in the policy in which only two children are allowed per family. That sounds like the One child policy in communist China, which might be the case if we had lost a war to a communist country. Thirdly, in the second chapter of your new "Ender" book about Petra, the characters include America as a nation which used to have power but does not anymore. Anyway, I was just curious if these books were set in an universe where the U.S. lost the cold war, since it never actually says this in the books.

-- Submitted by Sara Chatfield

OSC REPLIES: - September 4, 2000

No, Ender's Game is set in a universe in which America, having "won" the Cold War (we didn't -- that's just a current foolish delusion), continues on its current path of decline, while other nations, more vigorous, are in the ascendancy. The population policy is a wartime rule designed to force the focusing of resources on defeating the common enemy rather than dealing with increases in population. I don't regard any of these things as Good Things. They are simply things that might happen in some version of the future. After all, a lot can happen in a century. Think of how the world was a century ago, for instance ...

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