posted
Good story. I liked it very much. It illustrated for me what influences would grow a child like Bonzo. You can really see how he models himself after his father: always in the center of a group of guys, has to have their respect and attetion all of the time, doesn't defer to anyone else for advice; a born leader. I suppose a lot of the pride would also make him into the ass he is, though.
posted
Actually, it's funny. I'd always assumed it was the pride before, but this story changed my mind. I think he realized he was becoming like his father, something he didn't want but didn't believe he could change, and took it out on those around him. That's why (I'm guessing) his honour was so important to him, and why he reacted so strongly when he thought someone was threatening it.
Pride definitely had a part to play, but I don't think it was the defining problem anymore.
Something else just occured to me too. He probably focused so much more on Ender because, after believing so long that all men were like his father and that to be a man he had to act this way, here comes a boy who's nothing like that. One who was a natural leader in ways more like his mother than his father.
Anyway, that's just my guess. Anyway, great story. Posts: 2 | Registered: Mar 2003
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posted
I enjoyed the story quite a bit. I hope there're many more to come!
Is Orson Scott Card going to write all of the Stories from the Enderverse (the ones for IGMS)? I seem to remember hearing that other authors might write some of the stories. I really hope this is not so. I'm curious to know why Card would have someone else write some of the future stories (if indeed he's planning on it). I can honestly say that I'd rather the stories not be written at all if they're not going to be written by Card.
Posts: 13 | Registered: Mar 2006
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posted
Elmer's Glue: Not every story appeals to everyone the same way. This one was far harder to write, because I kept getting Bonzo's motivation wrong. For me, it's now right. But ... if it doesn't work for you, what can I say? I can only tell the story I believe in and care about ...
Son of John: Eventually, others may be invited to contribute Enderverse stories. But not in the first four issues; and whenever there's an Enderverse story by somebody else, I'll have a story of my own from a different fictional world.
Posts: 2005 | Registered: Jul 1999
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posted
I just finished. Not very science-fictiony. I supposed I was imagining a longer story with some battle school stuff, or maybe a kind of reinvention of "The Polish Boy."
Up until this story, the character sketches (all two of them) have been about Graff manipulating the situation to his long term advantage. No Graff in this one, and a longer timeline too, so I think I was expecting something a bit more immediate, rather than the sort of broad story that gets laid out here.
I think, in terms of pacing, this story was also a break from the style that has been consistent in the character sketches and the Ender books (less so with the Bean books). In all the other stories, the interest was on real-time paced interactions which were spread apart by unspoken time gaps. So you have a conversation between John Paul and the Colonel, then a month later its John Paul and Graff. You don't get a whole lot of "John Paul spent the days do this and this and the other thing." What cursory information we do get is minimal. Here we get a ton of omniscient narrator (right words?) where we haven't really seen that much before in these short stories.
That's just why I think it feels different. I have to let it sit with me for a while to see if I actually liked it.
Posts: 9912 | Registered: Nov 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Orson Scott Card: Elmer's Glue: Not every story appeals to everyone the same way. This one was far harder to write, because I kept getting Bonzo's motivation wrong...
Though it might not be that he thought this story was bad...but thought that the Mazer story was just better.
I felt that way...but not because of writing quality, but just because I really always wanted to see something about Mazer's past...so it hooked me in more. I still found this story interesting and enjoyable though.
on the topic of ender short stories...have the rest of you all read First Meetings? It is an amazing collection of short stories from the Enderverse. I really love the one about Ender's Dad...though the one where Ender met Jane was a very close second.
Posts: 1901 | Registered: May 2004
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posted
The thing I wanted out of the story that I didn't get was some backstory that would explain either (a) how someone as dumb as Bonzo got into Battle School in the first place, or (b) how someone as smart as Bonzo was such a bad commander. It's clear now that (b) is the one it has to be, and I know there are those who will argue that Bonzo was a good commander, a disciplinarian who inspires a certain kind of man to follow him loyally, but what does it say about the Battle School system that someone whose pride clearly and frequently interferes with their rational judgement is given command of an army?
Posts: 5462 | Registered: Apr 2005
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