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Your opinion on Orson Scott Card

infinix

infinix

Fleet Captain
Fleet Captain
I loved and I still love Ender's Game and Speaker of the Dead. But it has been 25 years. The fact that Card has written only ONE story that is not related to Ender Wiggins is very disappointing.

The man obviously has talent (or could that be HAD talent?) Please write something new and fresh.

So my question: Where do you rank Orson Scott Card on the pantheon of great Sci-Fi writers? If at the very top you have Issac Asimov and Arthur C Clark, then Ray Bradbury, Larry Niven, and Frank Herbert. I don't think Card belongs to this elite group. By my book, he would be lucky to be counted in the top 50.

What's your take?
 
I've read Ender's game in November. A fun read. Not great, but fun. The twist was kinda predictable (at least I figured it out). One of these days I'm gonna get my hands on the sequel, but I'm not in a hurry.
 
By reputation, he's a drittsek, but I forget the details. Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead are decent enough, but I wouldn't say that they're outstanding.
 
The Speaker of the Dead had a more substantive story than Ender's Game.

I thought the idea of **spoiler**

a species allowing itself to be destroyed out of penance for its sins is both interesting and questionable.
 
infinix said:
I loved and I still love Ender's Game and Speaker of the Dead. But it has been 25 years. The fact that Card has written only ONE story that is not related to Ender Wiggins is very disappointing.
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Whaaaat?

Card has written many other things besides Ender, which is probably his most over-rated work - IMHO anyway. I found Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead fairly meh. I love the first three books of his Tales of Alvin Maker series, though he seriously writes himself intoa corner at the end of Prentice Alvin. Saints, the story of the founding women of the Mormon Church, is a very interesting book as well. His novelization of the movie The Abyss was quite good too and added a lot of characterization to the movie.

The man obviously has talent (or could that be HAD talent?) Please write something new and fresh.

So my question: Where do you rank Orson Scott Card on the pantheon of great Sci-Fi writers? If at the very top you have Issac Asimov and Arthur C Clark, then Ray Bradbury, Larry Niven, and Frank Herbert. I don't think Card belongs to this elite group. By my book, he would be lucky to be counted in the top 50.

What's your take?
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Card's strength to me is his characters and atmosphere, more than his ideas, which tends to be what Asimov and Clark are valued for. Bradbury, Niven and Herbert are more atmospheric, and Niven and Herbert can manage some pretty memorable characters. But the real test is time. Ender's Game, as uncompelling as I personally find it, seems to have real resonance for the core SF reading audience - guys age 12-25 (that is for guys who encounter Ender's Game in this period of their life), and resonance which has lasted through more than one generation. In another 20 years, if it's still around, Card may be considered at least a 2nd tier classic SF author.

But The Tales of Alvin Maker are a lot more fun than the Ender's stuff.
 
infinix said:
So my question: Where do you rank Orson Scott Card on the pantheon of great Sci-Fi writers?
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My top five is Asimov, Heinlein, Clarke, Campbell, and Serling (Yes, I count Rod Serling). Orson Card isn't on any of my lists, top 5, top 50 or whatever. Frankly, I've read Ender's Game the novel and frankly don't understand all the love. (the original short story was much better.)

So if that's all he's done really... [shrug]
 
infinix said:
Asbo Zaprudder said:
By reputation, he's a drittsek, but I forget the details. Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead are decent enough, but I wouldn't say that they're outstanding.
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Really? I didn't know that.
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And neither do I. I've seem plenty of vitriol directed at him around these parts but the reasons were entirely unmemorable. I can only judge him on the couple of books that I've read, and I have no interest in his political views.
 
Ender's Game was good, but I just refuse to read any of his stuff based on his article where he declares his work superior to Star Trek and it's tie-in fiction. Just laughable.
 
infinix said:
The fact that Card has written only ONE story that is not related to Ender Wiggins is very disappointing.
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Card has written many novels unrelated to Ender Wiggin. In addition to the ones Lapis Exilis mentioned, there are Hart's Hope, Wyrms, Treason, Song Master, Pastwatch, Homebody, Treasure Box, Lost Boys, the Homecoming series of novels, and others.

He used to be my all-time favorite author, but I have found his post 1995 fiction mostly dull. I think 1984 to 1995 was his golden age. I haven't read the fiction he has written in last seven years or so.

His non-fiction is often annoying. I used to read his "Uncle Orson Reviews" column on his website, but gave up.
 
i like him. i had the chance to sit in on a seminar he gave at my work, and it was fascinating. we were just kinda brainstorming some story ideas. It was great seeing the attention to detail even for a brainstorming idea. 'If this species could do this, how would their society evolve' constantly making sure that things made sense. i came away very impressed.
 
Argus Skyhawk said:
He used to be my all-time favorite author, but I have found his post 1995 fiction mostly dull. I think 1984 to 1995 was his golden age. I haven't read the fiction he has written in last seven years or so.
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'95 sounds about right. I'd place Card's peak with Lost Boys, which was 1992. The Memory of Earth was also solid, and that was '92 as well. I won't say that Card's work was in decline after '95, but Children of the Mind was a disappointment, Homecoming fizzled out, the magic of the Alvin Maker books was lost when Card returned to the series, and after the promise seen in Lost Boys Card seemed to lose it in Treasure Box. I look at what he's published since then, and none of it stands out as memorable (or, in some cases, even worthwhile).
 
My mom bought me his new novel "Pathfinder" for Christmas. I haven't read it yet, but I'm looking forward to it. I introduced her to "Ender's Game," and we both love all the sequels (some more than others, obviously).

I really don't give a shit about his personal opinions or politics or whatever. I read novels for the story, not for the motives of the author. That said, aside from his Ender stories, I haven't found too many that I've enjoyed too much. His worlds are always very unique, but sometimes the stories themselves are rather dull.

Still, "Pathfinder" has a pretty cover, so I'm gonna read it just for that. :p
 
I've never read any of his fictional works, and due to him being an enormous douchebag, I don't plan on ever changing that.
 
I have no opinion on the man, but I enjoyed Ender's Game. I haven't read any of his other books.
 
I don't really see any validity in the parallels that are made between Ender Wiggin and Adolf Hitler to try to show that the Ender books are an apologia for the Nazis, and by inference OSC and TCOLDS are therefore also Nazis. Hitler knew full well what he was doing in his single-minded policy of exterminating European Jewry (and other groups he felt unworthy of life); Ender is grief-stricken to find out that he has been used as an unwitting pawn to exterminate the Buggers and tries to redress the balance. I can't imagine Hitler trying to make amends for his crimes by assisting in setting up the state of Israel.
 
I find the comparison between civil rights based on race and supposed new rights being granted for what amounts to deviant behavior to be really kind of ridiculous. There is no comparison. A black as a person does not by being black harm anyone. Gay rights is a collective delusion that’s being attempted. And the idea of ‘gay marriage’ — it’s hard to find a ridiculous enough comparison.
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Who says stuff like that? Oh... OSC
 
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