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Ender's Saga #0.5

First Meetings in Ender's Universe

orson scott card

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Meet Andrew "Ender" Wiggin, the unforgettable boy-hero of Ender's Game--winner of the Hugo Award and the Nebula Award for Best Novel--and enter his Universe through this collection of stories.

"The Polish Boy" is John Paul Wiggin, the future father of Ender. In the years between the first two Bugger Wars, the Hegemony is desperate to recruit brilliant military commanders to repel the alien invasion. They may have found their man--or boy--in John Paul Wiggin....

In "Teacher's Pest"-a novella written especially for this collection--a brilliant but arrogant John Paul Wiggin, now a university student, matches wits with an equally brilliant graduate student.

"The Investment Counselor" is set after the end of the Bugger Wars. Banished from Earth and slandered as a mass murderer, twenty-year-old Andrew Wiggin wanders incognito from planet to planet as a fugitive--until a blackmailing tax inspector compromises his identity and threatens to expose Ender the Xeoncide.

Also reprinted here is the original award-winning novella, "Ender's Game," which first appeared in 1977.

212 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1,1999
Series
Ender/s Saga

This edition

Format
212 pages, Mass Market Paperback
Published
September 1, 2004 by Tor
ISBN
9780765347985
ASIN
0765347989
Language
English

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About the author

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orson scott card

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Orson Scott Card is an American writer known best for his science fiction works. He is (as of 2023) the only person to have won a Hugo Award and a Nebula Award in consecutive years, winning both awards for his novel Ender's Game (1985) and its sequel Speaker for the Dead (1986). A feature film adaptation of Ender's Game, which Card co-produced, was released in 2013. Card also wrote the Locus Fantasy Award-winning series The Tales of Alvin Maker (1987–2003).
Card's fiction often features characters with exceptional gifts who make difficult choices with high stakes. Card has also written political, religious, and social commentary in his columns and other writing; his opposition to homosexuality has provoked public criticism.
Card, who is a great-great-grandson of Brigham Young, was born in Richland, Washington, and grew up in Utah and California. While he was a student at Brigham Young University (BYU), his plays were performed on stage. He served in Brazil as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) and headed a community theater for two summers. Card had 27 short stories published between 1978 and 1979, and he won the John W. Campbell Award for best new writer in 1978. He earned a master's degree in English from the University of Utah in 1981 and wrote novels in science fiction, fantasy, non-fiction, and historical fiction genres starting in 1979. Card continued to write prolifically, and he has published over 50 novels and 45 short stories.
Card teaches English at Southern Virginia University; he has written two books on creative writing and serves as a judge in the Writers of the Future contest. He has taught many successful writers at his "literary boot camps". He remains a practicing member of the LDS Church and Mormon fiction writers Stephenie Meyer, Brandon Sanderson, and Dave Wolverton have cited his works as a major influence.

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Community Reviews

Rating(3.9 / 5.0, 99 votes)
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99 reviews All reviews
Profile Image for Kimberly .
monosyllable
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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Absolutely enjoyed the story’s included in this. It’s interesting to hear the story of Ender meeting Jane. My favorite, however, was the story’s of John Paul, Ender’s dad. It helped paint a picture of the world between the first formic war and the 3rd.

As for the audio production, the music that played at the beginning and end of some of the short stories was rather distracting and at some points, louder than the narrator. It didn’t last long, thankfully, but i don’t think that music added anything to the story, they could have don’t a shorter transitional audio rather than having it cover the beginning of the next short story.

Absolutely recommend reading this if you are working your way through the Enderverse. I would read the main ender quintet and the shadow series before diving into this novella.
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PandaFanForLife
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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why I read this book: I love “Enders Game” and “Speaker for the Dead.” I’m currently working my way thru other books in the Ender universe. I didn’t know this book existed.

format: got the audiobook from the library. Good narrators.

“Polish Boy” is about Ender’s father- a polish catholic in a large family that is illegal because of population laws. I found it unrealistic that “Captain Graff” was involved. And I’m getting tired of the author making Every Single Character so completely genius smart smart special!!

“Teachers Pest” is also about the father- later in life, during his genius special smart smart college years. This guy is extremely difficult to like. Arrogant and condescending. And his special super smart “teacher” isn’t any better.

“Investment Counselor” is definitely the highlight of the book for me. When we see Ender in “Speaker,” he’s already deeply bonded with his computer “bridge” Jane. This story goes back and shows us their first interactions. Some cute moments with young Jane.

I will def read “Investment Counselor” again in the future but I’ll probably skip the others.

3 stars- I enjoyed listening to it & it held my attention. Nothing particularly special tho.



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MorgansGFX
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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Not at all recommended. I was not able to get the audiobook for a while but frankly, had I read this book, I would not have continued the series. I am not even sure why I continue reading it. This book is a full-throated support for eugenics version 2.0, where the author is aware that pairing skin color and gender with inferiority doesn not make sense but still fully believes in eugenics and supports a continuation of eugenics in modern society (and, if you read his words outside of this series, despite recognizing that race and gender based eugenics does not make sense, he continues to be sexist and racist). I hate that I am so far along that I will probably finish the full series (through library audio books only) to see how the currently unpublished books wrap up the whole thing, but the ethical belief system of this author is shit.
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Sid19960919
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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I read this book years ago when it came out in hardcover and didn't include one of the stories in this edition. But I found a copy for a dollar at a Half Price Books, so I picked it up and read the whole thing again. It's a quick book.

I enjoyed it. If you enjoy the Ender's Game series and want to read more of it, this book is more of it. If you haven't read Ender's Game, though, start there.

This collection includes the original Ender's Game short story, which is very similar to part of the first novel but contradicts it in lots of minor ways. This collection also includes two stories about Ender's parents, who are treated pretty blandly in the original and given more credit in some of the sequels.

It's interesting to see a talented writer go back to the same material and revise and expand it in different ways.

I'm looking forward to the day that all the various short stories in this universe--including the handful published in Card's subscription-only online magazine--are collected in one edition.
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Vancomycin
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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Four short stories in one: Ender's Father meeting Colonel Graff, Ender's Father meeting Ender's Mother, Ender meeting Jane, and an abbreviated version of "Ender's Game."

My favorite by far was Ender's Father meeting Ender's Mother. "Enderverse" is known for incredible minds applied to science and tactics; This however, is extremely smart people flirting and it's very funny and impressive.
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PyGno_
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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fascinating backstory on some of the most interesting Enderverse characters
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zveer
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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⭐️ 5

Once again I find myself falling back into Ender’s universe. I struggle with this series because Ender’s game was such a formative book for me in my younger years and I still compare many books to it in my adult years, but the next books in the series have put me into series (like 9 month long) reading slumps. All that being said I was nervous to break my nearly a year long hiatus to jump back into this series, but this book was a refreshing jump back into Ender’s world that helped bridge Ender’s Game and Speaker for the Dead for me a little more. I wish I had read this before because it might have helped the transition feel less jarring. I especially loved meeting Jane in this book- I felt that I had missed out when I read Speaker for the Dead. I am currently reading Xenocide (which of course feels more in line with Speaker for the Dead) so I am hoping I can ride the high of this book to get me through the next 19 hours of Xenocide….



Content: (spoilers ahead)

•Xenocide
•Murder
•War
•Mental Health Problems (in children & adults)
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Bluesander
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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For some reason I delayed reading this book for a long time and now, when I finally read it, I feel like I should have picked it earlier. A great space sci-fi book I’ve been looking for a long time.
I knew nothing about the series and was sure that John Paul Wiggin is Ender, but was surprised to discover that he’s actually his father.
The first two novellas are about Ender’s father and the last one is about Ender. It was a bit confusing, but I assume that’s because I know nothing about the Ender’s universe. Probably you should first read the original story and at some point jump to this one.
My favorite was the Teacher’s Pest. He is so bold there and I like how he approaches the professor. They fit together greatly.
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