posted
I actually read Xenocide first. I have always been more of a fantasy fan than Scifi. However, a quite a few years ago I was visiting my parents and saw a book called Xenocide. I didn't have anything else to read, so I read it. I thought it was an interesting book. A few things confused me (since it was in the middle of the series), but I thought it was enjoyable.
A few Christmas later I had some gift certificats to book stores. I was randomly walking down the shelves, and saw Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow sitting on the book shelf. I rememebered that I liked Xenocide so I picked them up. I also noticed Alvin maker books, and remembered that I liked the short story by Card in Legends...so I picked some of them up as well.
Since then I have read the Ender books and the shadow books (except shadow of the giant...which I will get in a couple of weeks...when my masters thesis is done) and all the Alvin maker books.
Posts: 1901 | Registered: May 2004
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posted
I haven't done that with any of OSC's series, but I have done it before, with Robin Hobb's Assasin trilogy. I'd read the first one and picked up what I thought was the second. Once I realized I'd in fact missed a book in between, I was enough pages in that I figured I'd just read the book. (As a side note, why would Assasin's Quest come after Royal Assasin? Isn't a more typical pattern to go on a quest and subsequently earn your royal status? Anyway...)
I loved the experience. With a poor author it would probably be frustrating, but with an author that adequately fills in back story it's amazing - all these tantalizing hints about people and events that you care about so much. And then to go back and read that backstory, and see how it all came to pass - knowing how it ends up, how much is lost in the end, makes every scene that much more intense.
Posts: 47 | Registered: Mar 2005
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Nowadays people read The Chronicles of Narnia out of order all the time. *grumble*
I've read the Star Wars novels out of order, but that doesn't really count. All of OSC's stuff I read in order, though, except I read The Crystal City before Yazoo Queen and White Prophet (if he ever writes it). Oh, and I read the 5th "Myth-adventure" before any of the others.
I've heard arguments for different orders of reading the EG series, but I think you're the first I've known to put Xenocide first, whether intentionally or not.
quote:Nowadays people read The Chronicles of Narnia out of order all the time. *grumble*
Do you mean the people who read book 6 first because it's a prequel? My brother tolt me that when he was in elementary school his teacher read book 7 to the class first. I'm not sure why...
Posts: 1569 | Registered: Dec 2004
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I read books out of order. Like the books themselves. I'm pretty sure I've read all of Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon, but I'm not absolutely certain, because I just randomly picked spots and read until I was bored, at which point I picked another spot. I think it was much better that way personally.
Of course, I did the same thing with Othello, which turned out to be a mistake, because our English final was an essay question, "How did Shakespeare develope and pace the story to increase tension?" Heh.
Posts: 4655 | Registered: Jan 2002
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posted
I read Ender's Shadow first, then bought the other shadow and Ender books, as well as most of the Alvin Maker books (Thanks Mom for the gift certificate, and friend Kirsten for the heads up on the Alvin Maker series).
I took the whole stack and put them in a big canvas bag, and randomly picked them out one at a time and read them. I got Seventh Son first, and from there Ender, Shadow, and Alvin were all mixed up and out of order.
It was really quite interesting to do it that way. I have since then read them in order, starting with Shadow, then Alvin, and then Ender. They're interesting in that order too, and much less confusing.
Posts: 772 | Registered: Feb 2005
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