The Enderverse - Ender's Game Series Discussion

[Vani]

*bump*

Shadows in Flight is out, and today I picked up my copy. :D
I've read the first chapter. Confused about one thing: I swear the names of the three kids Bean brought with him were Ender, Carlotta, and Poke. But, in this book, it's Ender, Carlotta, and Sergeant. I'm confused.

Also, as I was heading to get in line at Barnes and Noble to buy Shadows in Flight, I noticed A War of Gifts on a table on sale for $5 in hardback. So, I picked it up. :3


Also, Harrison Ford is going to be Graff in the movie.
Graff shoots first.

OH GOSH OH GOSH OH GOSH. I COMPLETLY FORGOT ABOUT ITS RELEASE!!!
Tell. Me. Everything that's happened so far. In spoiler tags.

Gah I forgot to reread the series :/
Oh well I'm still gonna get it and read it. Is it big?

[Luap]

OH GOSH OH GOSH OH GOSH. I COMPLETLY FORGOT ABOUT ITS RELEASE!!!
Tell. Me. Everything that's happened so far. In spoiler tags.

The first chapter focuses on Ender, Carlotta, and Sergeant. Their relationship is very similar to that of Ender Wiggen, Valentine, and Peter. Ender is a lot like Ender, Carlotta like Valentine, and Sergeant like Peter.

The story takes place 4 years (on the ship, not in real time) after Shadow of the Giant. So, the kids are all about 4/5 years old. Because of Anton's Switch, they are all geniuses.

Bean is called "The Giant" by his children. They used to call him "dad". But, they are angry at him for leaving their mom and their normal siblings behind. So, because they don't have a mom to call "mom", they don't call their dad, "dad."

Bean is dying. Apparently he's gotten so big that he can't leave the Cargo Bay.

Scientists have all but given up on trying to fix the Gigantism, even though there is the funding for it. So, Ender, refusing to accept the idea of living a short life, spends most of his time working on his own cure. Also, because he is the only one of the three kids to actually be born from Petra's womb, he considers himself "the true child," but he never says it.

We're given the impression that Carlotta is a tech-person.

Sergeant is a soldier. He actually had the idea of trying to slowly kill "The Giant" because he uses to many of their resources and because they are going to need to reclaim the nutrients for themselves if they are going to live. But, Ender goes all kung-fu on him and breaks his nose and threatens to kill him.

And, Vani, do you remember whether or not I'm correct that Bean named the third child he brought with him Poke, and that the third child was a girl? Because I don't remember Sergeant at all.

Gah I forgot to reread the series :/
Oh well I'm still gonna get it and read it. Is it big?

237 Pages.
So, not too long.

[Vani]

[Luap]

Finished it.
Will post spoilers tomorrow.~ >:3

[Vani]

:3 that was fast. Where them spoilers at?

[Luap]

I actually finished Shadows in Flights and War of Gifts in less than 48 hours. C:

So, spoilers, here they are:

Sergeant is just a nickname- his real name is Cincinnati.
The Giant is 4 1/2 meters tall, that is over 14 feet.
Also, while the Ender-Val-Peter relationship is there in the first chapter, it disappears through the novel.

Ender tells The Giant about Sergeant's plan to murder him. The Giant gets a bit angry, and explains why Sergeant is stupid for thinking they'd need to take the nutrients now. While The Giant consumes enough nutrients for 2 grown adults, the kids together only consume for less than 1 adult, since they're tiny. But, The Giant does say that once he does die, they will need to take the nutrients if they plan to survive.

Later on, Carlotta discovers something flying in the solar system they are going to go through. It's a starship. But, right away, she can tell something about it: It's not human. She sends the information to The Giant, and then calls Ender and Sergeant to go meet with The Giant with her.

Carlotta and The Giant already were thinking the same thing when they saw the other ship. It's Formic. The reason it wasn't destroyed when Ender destroyed all of them though is because this is a slowship, not capable of relativistic speeds. It wasn't present in the battle and has just been roaming the galaxy ever since. Now, it has to of been, at minimum, roaming for over 400 years. So, they believe everything on it is probably dead.

The Giant is quick to point out that something has to be driving the ship, otherwise it couldn't of gone into orbit of that planet. So, they decide to go investigate it.

The Giant wants one of them to ride the Puppy (a small ship that they have along with their starship) out to the Formic ship. If there is a Hive Queen on board, The Giant wants her to know that they are human. He's read The Hive Queen and The Hegemon, and has figured out by himself that they were written by Ender Wiggin. So, he knows that they're true, and wants to know how a Hive Queen, who will remember everything from the Formic Wars, will react. Sergeant, know Carlotta is the only one of them who can control their starship, and Ender is the one who has the best genes, decides to go.

While Sergeant is flying the Puppy to the Formic Ship, Ender and The Giant are typing messages to each other to keep them from Sergeant and Carlotta. Ender has discovered something about Anton's Key- it's impossible to get rid of the gigantism without getting ride of the intelligence. The Giant tells him that he already knew, he just didn't want to tell Ender. Ender gets angry, and asks why The Giant made him waste all that time then searching. The Giant says it's because he wanted to know whether or not Ender wanted to truly fix it.

Sergeant exits the Puppy and gets onto the ship. The Giant, Ender, and Carlotta are watching a video feed of what Sergeant sees. They seem something move. Two small creatures attack Sergeant, and Sergeant opens the door to the Formic Ship, and one of them gets vacuumed off of him. The others calms down and stops trying to kill him once he gets in the Puppy. He brings that one back for Ender to study.

Ender confirms that this creature is definitively Formic. So, they figure a Hive Queen must be on board, otherwise all the Formics would be dead. He thinks these creatures are the Formic's type of vermin. So, he comes up with a gas spray that will stun the vermin. With the gas and guns-that-I-forgot-what-they-were-called as their weapons, The Giant instructs Ender, Sergeant, and Carlotta to go to the Formic ship and find the Hive Queen.

After searching through the ship, in which they find a great lot, they do eventually come across the Hive Queen... who is dead. So, this is when they figure that these vermin must have there own consciousness, and this is the first time a Formic species was found like this. Oddly, though, the vermin are still bring food for the Hive Queen to eat, despite her being dead.

Still, they know that something else has to be on the ship. The pilots had to be there somewhere.

When they find the pilots, it's two large winged creatures who have themselves "attached" to the ship. They take notice of Ender, Carlotta, and Sergeant. End-Car-Ser don't want to scare them, because they don't want the pilots to have the ship take off in panic, because then Bean would have to track them down. Ender puts down his gun and spray, puts his hands on his sides, and walks slowly towards the pilots. When he reaches them, one jumps onto his head.

Ender groans and Sergeant is about to attack, but Ender says: "Don't, they're showing me." After some dialog, you learn that the Formic is "talking" to Ender, showing him everything of how they lived after their Hive Queen (who did survive The Formic War, but died 100 years before these events) died.

These pilots and the vermin do have their own minds/thoughts/conscious. But, the Hive Queens mind is so powerful that she bends them to their will. Once she gives them a command, they do it. So, even after she died, the last command given to them is still there, and they are still acting it out.

As the Formics are teaching Ender, Ender discovers something that he believes might help him and his family.

The Formics start to ask Ender for a cocoon. While End-Car-Ser where going through the ship, they found dead cocoons. Ender took one so he could study it later. Thinking the Formics are asking for that cocoon, he gives it to them. But, it's the wrong one. They start to ask for their new Hive Queen, who they know exists. They thought that the reason End-Car-Ser had some here was to give them the last surviving cocoon. The Formics know who was the cocoon, and shows them the face of the man. While Ender doesn't know it, this is the face of Ender Wiggin.

End-Car-Ser speak with The Giant. The Giant tells them that he wants them to join with these Formics in populating the planet they are in orbit of. He wants them to use the plant/animal species they have on their ship and the species the Formics have on their ship to make an ecosystem that they can live in. He tells them that there are artificial wombs on board the ship so they can grow their own children without inbreeding. He then wants them to lie to their children so that they won't all know that they are related and then they'll have sex and have children and slowly a civilization will emerge.

The Giant then wants to go to speak with the Formics. End-Car-Ser don't want him to go in fear that he'll die from the gravity of the Formic ship. He says that he's fine with dying.

He gets aboard the Formic ship and the Formics talk with Bean. They accept him as their new Hive Queen. He is told everything that Ender was told, plus more. After a while, he comes to a conclusion: The Hive Queen that Wiggin has been telling Wiggin lies. The Formics aren't just more parts of the Hive Queen, like arms and legs, but servants through her forcing her will upon them. They're being mind controlled.

Bean plans to use the Ansible to send Ender Wiggen a message about all of this. But, End-Car-Ser has taken the Ansible away from him. Ender Wiggen is a Speaker for the Dead and only tells the truth. In Bean got his message to him, odds are that he'd reveal this new civilization to the human race and then people would find them and also start looking for other lost Formic ships. Bean realizes this is for the best and is fine with it.

Finally, Ender reveals what he found when he talked to the Formics. He found a way to cure their gigantism without the loss of intelligence. Bean was talking with the Formics for days, and so End-Car-Ser had already took the time to try it out. End-Car-Ser got a little sick, but they recovered fast, and they believe that it was a success, but they won't know until puberty.

Bean decides he wants to stand up. So, he does. He's in the room where the Formics are keeping their species for food, and the place has an artificial sun, and plants and animals, and it seems to Bean that it's just like a planet. He never thought he'd be able to be on a planet ever again since he left Earth. He decides he's tiered and wants to lie down. He tells End-Car-Ser that Petra was the first thing he ever loved and that she's still the most important thing to her. Then, he dies.

[Vani]

awh he dies? That's sad. Well I'll still probably read it. Gonna try and get it over the weekend.

[Luap]

We're looking at March 2013 for the release date of the movie. :)
Also, the movie will have scenes from Ender's Shadow. Makes me wonder how much focus Bean's story will have, and if they don't want to make Speaker and so on into movies later whether they might try for the Shadow Saga.

Cast: Asa Butterfield | 'Ender's Game': Meet the Cast! | Photo 1 of 17 | EW.com
I think most of the cast fits, but Peter, Dap, Bonzo, and Bernard just seem like really weird/bad choices.
Ben Kingsley as Mazer and Harrison Ford as Graff both fit surprisingly well.

[Vani]

Moses Arias. Really. Ehh. The rest seem pretty cool. Peter is just not good at all. But Ender, Petra, Bean, and Alai are perfect! Not sure about Graff and Mazer though. Feel they should switch since I imagined Graff younger.

[zachen]

I just pray to god they don't butcher the plot of the original book. Also I think it'll be strange having a female playing Anderson

[Luap]

Moses Arias. Really. Ehh.

Pretty much.
Just, bleh. He doesn't seem like a Bonzo. At all.
He's too Disney to be a Bonzo.

I just pray to god they don't butcher the plot of the original book. Also I think it'll be strange having a female playing Anderson

OSC was supervising the script writing. So, there's some hope.



In other news, they launched a blog on tumblr for the movie! ENDER'S GAME BLOG

[Reagan Rayden]

Here's the first movie still:



yes that is Harrison Ford as Graff

[Luap]

That's pretty cool! :D

Two girls are in that picture. In the novel, there's barely any girls at Battle School. I wonder if that's something that's been changed. Not a huge thing, if so. Just interesting.

[The Lionheart]

Two girls are in that picture. In the novel, there's barely any girls at Battle School. I wonder if that's something that's been changed. Not a huge thing, if so. Just interesting.

I thought the exact same thing when I first saw this picture. Not a big deal, I agree, but I hope they stay true to the novel.

[Reagan Rayden]

So, an actor by the name of Han Soto is playing Graff's aide apparently. I'm not making this up haha

Ender's Game (2013) - IMDb