First Meetings: Three Stories from the Enderverse [Hardcover]

Orson Scott Card (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 2002

In July 1977, "Ender's Game" appeared as a novelette in Analog magazine. The science fiction community immediately embraced it, nominating it for a Hugo award, and when Orson Scott Card turned it into a novel in 1985, it won both the Hugo and Nebula Award.

Now, twenty-five years later, First Meetings celebrates "Ender's Game" by reprinting that original story along with two others, one of which has never before been published anywhere.

In "The Polish Boy," Ender's father, as a child, has a chance to end the persecution that his parents have suffered because they defied the law and had more than two children.

"Investment Counselor" takes place after "Ender's Game," when Ender first meets Jane, the extremely useful--though temperamental--personal digital assistant who will transform his life.

The Subterranean Press edition of First Meetings is the only edition, with a full-color wraparound dust jacket, as well as a two-color illustration for each story.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A quarter century after the world first learned that "the enemy's gate is down" in Card's groundbreaking "Ender's Game," comes a collection bringing together that novelette with two more recent stories that expand on the concepts and philosophies bound up in the story of Ender, the uncannily brilliant boy who is forced to sacrifice himself to save the world from alien "Buggers." "The Polish Boy" a previously unpublished tale of how Ender's father, John Paul, at the age of five manipulated Captain Graff of the International Fleet into saving his "noncompliant" family showcases Card's talent at developing the inner life of a character. John Paul possesses a mind that marries a child's lack of worldly experience with a preternatural sense of the people and goings on around him. "The Investment Counselor," a fun if relatively slight story, explains how the AI named Jane first formally introduced herself to Ender. As for "Ender's Game," even those who are intimately familiar with the concepts of the Game from later Ender books will be struck anew by Card's virtuosity. His powerful voice and startlingly clear vision will draw many new readers into a lifelong love of science fiction. This accessible collection will impress even non-sci-fi buffs, besides being a must-have for Ender saga devotees.Hugo in 1977 and in its better known book form the story collected both Hugo and Nebula awards in 1985.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

No continuing characters in sf are more fascinating than those Card introduced in the 1977 story "Ender's Game" and developed in the award-winning novel of the same name and its six sequels. Here that story reappears, accompanied by two recently written ones set, respectively, 30-odd years before and well after the events of their great progenitor. In "The Polish Boy," recruiters for the Battle School in which "Ender's Game" occurs come to screen a poor Catholic professor's precocious offspring and decide that the best prospect among them, though he will never attend Battle School, bears continued watching. In "Investment Counselor," Ender has attained age 20 and must pay taxes; almost unimaginably wealthy from investments begun for him when he was Earth's 12-year-old savior, he needs help and gets it from an uncannily knowledgeable software program. Like "Ender's Game," which concludes this book, these stories demonstrate the assured scene setting, apparently effortlessly sustained suspense, and moral preoccupation with the responsibilities of kinship and friendship that distinguish Ender's entire saga. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Details

• Hardcover: 149 pages
• Publisher: Subterranean Press; First Edition edition (July 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1931081697
• ISBN-13: 978-1931081696
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,436,845 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Nice addition to the Ender novels in your bookcase, December 4, 2002

By 

Fosky Bob "human" (Vacaville, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: First Meetings: Three Stories from the Enderverse (Hardcover)

The chief attraction of this collection is that you can finally have ALL of the Ender stories in hardcover on your bookshelf. That and the enjoyable stories.

"Ender's Game" is the Hugo-nominated novelette that served as the basis for Card' sprawling Ender series. The short story begins when Ender is in Battle School, whereas the novel begins much earlier. Both stories tell the same tale, but the short contained herein is a superb short story.

"Investment Counselor" was previously published in Robert Silverberg's 'Far Horizons' anthology. This story relates how Ender first met Jane, the artificial intelligence that is his constant companion in several books of the series. This is an enjoyable story that was unjustly criticized by several reviewers in its initial publication.

"The Polish Boy" is original to this collection. It's the interesting story of Ender's father's childhood. It tells an entertaining story, but I'm not sure exactly what Card is trying to do here. Why did this story need to be told? It doesn't seem to fit into the Ender stories. We learn that Ender's father was a precocious child from a large family. We see a bit of the history behind the Hegemony, the worldwide government that has fallen into disarray by the time "Ender's Game" occurs. We learn how Ender's family arrived in the United States. The story of a precocious young child has been told better by Card in "Ender's Game" and "Mikal's Songbird". I can only assume that the story was written to fill-in the Ender univese for devotees of the series. As such, it's an enjoyable piece of work.

As a whole, this is a nice collection. The stories range from excellent to enjoyable, a spectrum that many authors would love to have! Outside of my reservations regarding "The Polish Boy", this is a very entertaining collection.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars From humble origins....., September 12, 2002

By 

J. Chovan "bronx" (San Bernardino, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: First Meetings: Three Stories from the Enderverse (Hardcover)

This small book contains jems from the Enderverse. Included is the version of Ender's Game that appeared in an Analog magazine in 1977 and introduced us to Ender, Buggers, and Battle School. It is a very fun read and it is amazing to see how the story expanded to novel form. A second short story included in the book is called Investment Counselor. This story introduces Jane, Ender's living computer friend, to Ender as he is traveling on a colony ship. Again, the story is short and fun. Finally, the third story in this book is called the Polish Boy. Readers will see Ender's father as a young boy living in noncompliant Poland. A young International Fleet officer named Graff (ring a bell, Ender fans?) plays a role in guiding this young child's future before Ender was even a twinkle in his father's eye. Overall, this book is a good additional collection of information relating to Ender. While not necessary to understand the other novels, they do add tidbits of information that makes the Enderverse all that much more enjoyable. I highly recommend it. Signed copies are available at Orson Scott Card's official web page-hatrack.com

5.0 out of 5 stars Three Stories from the Enderverse, February 24, 2011

By 

Doris M. Young "Marge" (Farmington Hills MI) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: First Meetings: Three Stories from the Enderverse (Hardcover)

Book in great shape and timely in arrival. I have finished the first story and it is Card's usual good work.