Ender's Game Alive: The Full Cast Audioplay
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Audie Award Finalist, Multi-Voiced Performance, 2014
Audie Award Finalist, Original Work, 2014
Experience Ender's Game as you've never heard it before! With an all-new, original script written by Orson Scott Card, Ender's Game Alive is a full cast audio drama that reimagines the Hugo and Nebula Award-winning classic.
Ender’s Game Alive puts you into Battle School with young Andrew "Ender" Wiggin, as he trains to become the general who will lead Earth against the Formics, the alien "buggers". Removed from his family at the age of six, Ender must prove his strength and his leadership, even as he fights his own doubts. The stakes are nothing less than the fate of humankind.
Ender's Game Alive is performed by Kirby Heyborne, Stefan Rudnicki, Theodore Bikel, Scott Brick, Samantha Eggar, Harlan Ellison, Susan Hanfield, Roxanne Hernandez, Janis Ian, Rex Linn, Richard McGonagle, Jim Meskimen, Emily Rankin, John Rubinstein, Christian Rummel, and a full cast.
Directed by Gabrielle de Cuir
Original Score by John Rubinstein
Valentine's Theme by Janis Ian
Additional music and arrangements by Mark Mitchell
- Listening Length7 hours and 24 minutes
- Audible release dateOctober 22, 2013
- LanguageEnglish
- ASINB00E3UJ6IK
- VersionOriginal recording
- Program TypeAudiobook
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Product details
| Listening Length | 7 hours and 24 minutes |
|---|---|
| Author | Orson Scott Card |
| Narrator | Full Cast Recording |
| Audible.com Release Date | October 22, 2013 |
| Publisher | Audible Originals |
| Program Type | Audiobook |
| Version | Original recording |
| Language | English |
| ASIN | B00E3UJ6IK |
| Best Sellers Rank | #48,989 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals) #1,048 in Space Opera Science Fiction (Audible Books & Originals) #3,562 in Space Operas #5,765 in Fantasy (Audible Books & Originals) |
Customer reviews
Reviewed in the United States on October 19, 2013
Top reviews from the United States
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Because MP3 CDs are not the same as typical CDs, this may or may not work in your CD player - it depends on your device. But if you have a media player (and who doesn't?), loading the MP3s into iTunes or your media player of choice is a snap on PC or Mac. The disc comes in a DVD case with a jacket, and has 21 tracks in 192 kbps, which - though compressed - sound quite clear.
Now that the meta stuff is out of the way, the actual audioplay is fascinating. Rather than a straightforward read of Ender's Game (since Rudnicki's read was so solid), the audioplay incorporates material from Card's other pieces in the Enderverse, such as some of the prequels and short stories. In some respects, the play weaves a more complicated tapestry than the novel does and gives backstory that even seasoned EG veterans might not know.
While I can't say I agree with all of the casting choices (just like in the recent movie, Ender is too old), I wouldn't say that anyone involved does a bad job. This is far and away one of the best productions of this story available (besides the novel itself). While I would certainly recommend this to fans, I would not submit this as my choice for anyone's first exposure to the story. As one might expect, the novel (and Rudnicki's read) take pride of place.
If you're a fan of the story, give this a listen. Though it does not measure up to the source material or Rudnicki's original read, it beats the movie and the graphic novels by a long shot. With its intriguing music, plausible foley work, and diverse cast, the audioplay paints a vivid picture of the scifi classic we all know and love.
The folks at Skyboat Media have breathed new life into an old format: the radio play. Ender's Game author, Orson Scott Card, has rewritten the novel from ground up as an audio play. I've been pretty excited about this new art form (or, at least a form pushed to new levels) ever since I became aware of the project. This is a first rate audio play.
Be fully immersed. Don't go into this like it's an audio book. You'll look for the narration to tell you where you are in the story. Here, it's done with sounds and theme and dialog and a little monologue, but not straight out narration. Let me emphasize the quality of this production. One way to bring this out is how I rip and experience this. I typically listen to audio books while mobile so I rip them. I often "save space" if I own CDs of audio books, I'll rip them at 128 Kbps. After all, spoken word doesn't have the same level of complexity as a symphony. Not this production. I rendered it with a lossless codec although around 320 variable bit rate mp3 would be fine. I listened to most of it on Grado SR 80s (quite decent cans). This is an amazing experience. They use left and right channel well with a large sound stage even while being immersed in the sound. You feel as if you're in the dialog, a part of the conversation and the action.
While content is king and the best production can't make up for bad story or lousy acting, what really sets Ender's Game Alive apart is a focused script of a great story (not a slightly edited text to account for being read aloud), terrific actors and narrators and first rate production value. They are truly boldly going where, oh wait, that's another franchise... they are pushing the edges of the audio play to new levels and Ender's Game Alive shows off the audio play at its finest.
For full review: wp.me/p2XCwQ-nw
The performance by the cast is really well done. I bought into every one of the performances. Readers do a great job making different voices while reading but it seems like these performances gained something since each voice was performed by a unique individual. I think this is my favorite audio performance to date.
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The production values are superb overall, and really brings the story to life in a way that the basic audiobook cannot. Acting quality is excellent throughout, and Kirby Heyborne is a superb Ender. I wasn't entirely convinced about Emily Rankin voicing Bean at first, but she won me over eventually.
Minor criticisms - sound design is so important at creating the right atmosphere, and although it's very good, I felt that it just fell short of being outstanding. The 8-bit sound effects for the 'game' sounded particularly anachronistic, and some of the background atmospheres could have been a bit more developed. There are a couple of moments where the dialogue has to resort to characters providing descriptions of what's going on, which can sound a little contrived; but you have to balance this against the heightened sense of immersion and realism that having a full-cast audioplay with soundscape provides.
Overall, I'd give it four and a half stars.











