In the last two weeks I've been re-reading some of Card's books (Ender's saga) and I have to say that, even though I know exactly what's going to happen I still get anxious with the conflicts and suffer when the characters do. I suppose that is what happens when the story you read is truly brilliant.

The first time I read Ender's game it was incredible. I thought that I could never read a book that kept me involved so intensely with the feelings of one character. Then came Speaker and the unbelievable happened. Here Card is capable of getting you involved with not one, but serveral characters (really a lot of people).

And here comes my question:

Do you know of any other book where tha author had to deal with so many different characters and their relationships? I'd be interested in them.

Ender's game was great. The first time I read the book (I've read it a dozen times since), it took me less than a day to go through it. Somewhere near the end, tears came to my eyes -- not a good thing when you're surrounded by hard-charging US Marines, which I was at the time. (I feigned a cold, which didn't pass muster since we were in the hot California desert at that moment.)

Right. I have a particular fondness for Harry Turtledove's alternate realities. Most notably the "Worldwar Series." There must be about 8 or so protagonists and a few dozen antagonists to follow along in the four-book saga. Additionally, it's quite funny -- though I'm not sure if he intended it to be or not; I laughed anyway.

One factor is that Card has made a conscious effort to develop these themes in his own thought and in his writing. If you have any of his short story anthologies (which are collected systematically in Maps in a Mirror), you'll find that the little mini-essays he writes about each story, and the way that he's chosen to group them by what he considers their dramatic themes rather than by genre or milieu and so forth, speaks to this point. If you haven't seen them, the stories of The Worthing Saga, together with his meditations on how those stories came about, are a lesson in how Card develops his themes.

Now, that formal sort of development might be a disappointment to some romanticists, but I think that it is probably necessary for the author to consciously consider some theory of how humans find meaning in life and in fiction. Not every author has written extensive essays on the subject, but most should at least consider it.

Anyway, the other component is whether you as an indivitual are opwn to the ideas that Card uses in his work. Many people worry that this means "Mormonism", which is actually a pretty shallow notion. It is true that for many writers, the ethical system to which they owe formal alligience is the beginning and end of their sources for ideas about how humans deal with the existential problems of what is to be sought in life and how it is to be achieved. Certainly there are strong Christian elements in Card's writing and his philosophy. But if you regard Christianity with one means of answering the universal question, "Why do I exist?", it isn't so unusual for such a question to inspire somewhat Christian musings.

It isn't a matter of "doctrines" or such, after all, but a matter of whether certain portrayals of the teleological struggle of humanity makes sense to you personally. And that is a matter of your experience of what it means to be a sentient being searching for a reason to exist, and whether Card's representations echo your own experiences.

Which is to say, there are a lot of books where the various authors have had to deal with many different characters, and it isn't easy to say that you would enjoy any of them. It isn't just a matter of being a talented writer, there must be some affinity between the reader and author about what constitutes drama.

I understand that merely meeting the criteria of having to deal with several characters does not imply that the story is going to be a good reading to me. I just wanted to read how other authors dealt with the same problems Card faces in speaker. I completely agree with what Survivor said. I was just thinking more about the technique.

Thanks, again.

Note: About my triple-post. When I realized I had sent the same post two times and I wasn't able to delete one of them, I felt stupid. The third post tried to share that feeling. I see now it was unnecessary. I was going to say "sorry" again, but that would almost be quadruple-posting, so I'll refrain. I'll just promise not to double or triple post again, if I can help it.

(Technically this is double posting, isn't it? )

Her name is Kage Baker, and after reading all her published work to date, she is officially on my "Favorite Authors-The Short List". She writes both fantasy and sci-fi.

Her novels of the Company are fascinating and combine science fiction with historical fiction in a way I've never seen done as well before. In the Garden of Iden is the first book in that series.

The Anvil of the World is a fantasy novel about a caravan of people, and also has some great character work.

Either one would be good to start with. Or if you aren't willing to commit to a whole series, or even a novel-length work, her novella Empress of Mars is hilarious and wry, and also has a bunch of well-painted characters.

The Riftwar Saga by Raymond E. Feist
and
The Dragon Prince series by Melanie Rawn

Those are the two with the largests casts that I feel did an excellent job making me interested in many of the characters, not just a few.

Some others with smaller casts but still more than just one or two characters are:

The Mistwraith series by Janny Wurts
and
The Liveship Traiders Trilogy by Robin Hobb
and
The Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind (though this one could almost go up in the large cast section simply because of the number of books and therefore characters but I leave it here in the smaller casts section because there is not an enormous amount of characters in any one book - just all of them as a whole - if that makes any sense.)

Hope that helps. Let me know what you think if you do try any of them.

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Do you know of any other book where tha author had to deal with so many different characters and their relationships? I'd be interested in them.

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I am having a terrible time typing the word "because" lately...it is driving me nuts.