I really enjoyed the story of John Paul Wiggin, Ender's dad. It was so freaking engaging with the introduction to how the hegemony affected common people in Europe and how America and Canada were still the beacon of liberty (contrary to now, huff!).

Wish I had more of the story on how John Paul met Theresa, although it is just a short glimpse of it in the short story. And holy crap I didn't know that the original Ender's Game book was based on the novella in this collection.

This book just keeps you wanting for more knowing that you will not ever get any more.

There are three encounters in this book, but one of them is literally the same text directly taken from Bean's and Ender's meeting in battle school. What was the point of that.

I think the other two stories are good, but they are just too short and clearly tried to publish an idea rather than a real story. They aren't bad, it's just the book is short.

My 100th book this year! I loved this book. I've come to totally love Orson Scott Card's books in the Ender's series. This was 4 short stories including the original short story Ender's Game and then we got to meet Ender's Father as a child, find out how Ender's parents met and how Ender first met Jane. Fun reading for any Ender fan.

This was an interesting read although personally I found it a little hit and miss. I really enjoyed the first short story which deĺved into John Paul Wiggins childhood. The presentation of such an early incarnation of these characters is very well done and it begins to fill in some gaps in the world building. Personally, I found the romance aspects sappy in the second tale and it simply didn't hold my attention.

The third tale, the originally published Ender's Game, was intriguing from a purely literary perspective. It's an opportunity to see the very beginnimg where it all started, as well as giving you a rare opportunity to see where the changes were made. That said, it adds little to existing canon other than interest piece for the geek world. The final story gives a brief interlude into the years before Ender became Speaker for the Dead and is also really interesting.

All in all, for an existimg fan of the series this is certainly worth picking up. Fans of sap may enjoy the secomd tale more than I did, but as a collection this does add nicely to an existing world.

First Meetings in Ender's Universe
Ender's Saga #0.5
Orson Scott Card

I really enjoyed the first three stories, shorts, novellas...
Polish Boy; meeting Andrew's father when he was young, how he dealt with the IF and his deal with them, the coming of Wiggens family from Poland to America;
Teacher's Pest; I really enjoyed this one, How I Met Your Mother kind of a story, Paul and Theresa, their conversations were great and they themselves hinted that all of this might be planed by the IF.
The Investment Counselor; is this the first manifestation of Jane? another good story, how Andrew became a Speaker for the Dead.
Then there was the 4th one that I did not like...
Ender's Game the original novella that started the universe, I did not like it not because it was bad but that it felt out of placed being in here.
A very great book;
Quick read;
And the Saga continues...

Este libro contiene 4 relatos sobre los primeros encuentros de ciertos personajes del Universo de Ender con toda la mitología creada por Orson Scott Card.

1. El niño Polaco: Nos cuenta sobre el padre de Ender, John Paul, y como la Flota Internacional se dio cuenta del potencial que tenía para ser un genio en la batalla. También se explica como la familia de John Paul dejó Polonia para llegar a Estados Unidos, que es donde realmente nació Ender.

2. La peste del Maestro: Aquí conocemos a la madre de Ender, Theresa, y como inició el romance con su padre. Una historia de amor por demás intelectual.

3. El juego de Ender: La novela corta que dio origen al libro que iniciaría una de las mejores sagas que he leído. Se centra en la etapa de Ender en la escuela de batalla hasta el fin de la 3 guerra insectora.

4. La asesora financiera: Han pasado más de 1000 años desde que Ender se convirtió en el Genocida, en uno de sus viajes junto con su hermana Valentine descubre la profesión de ser Portavoz de los Muertos y como llegar a serlo. También tiene su primer encuentro con Jane, una inteligencia artificial que lo acompañaría el resto de su vida

Half of it is stuff you've already read; a quarter of it nauseatingly sexist. I can't help thinking there could have been a better way to package the first story, which is really quite good, in itself and in context of Ender's story.

3,5/5 estrellas.

Y con este libro doy por concluida la lectura de la Saga "Los juegos de Ender" (No incluyo otras historias del universo de Ender como la saga de la sombra o de las guerras fornicas que no he leído).

Colección de cuatro relatos que como bien el título indica, la relación son los primeros encuentros de personajes relevantes en la saga (excepto el relato original corto del Juego de Ender), recomendables a las personas que quieran seguir descubriendo más historias relacionadas de este universo. No me esperaba que el libro fuera ilustrado.

n  El niño polacon (4/5 estrellas)

Este relato trata sobre la infancia del padre de Ender, y es el relato que más me gusto de la colección, de primeros encuentros nos encontramos el de John Paul con el capitán Graff.

n  La peste del maestron (3,5/5 estrellas)

Este relato trata del primer encuentro entre John Paul y Theresa (los padres de Ender), se ve los intereses de ambos y su pensamiento con el mundo y sus reglas, y lo cercano que sus pensamientos están a la realidad de su mundo.

n  El juego de Endern (3/5 estrellas)

La Novela original de 1977, fue interesante de leer para ver cuanto termino cambiando a su versión larga, lo cual fue para mejor, como novela uno no se adentra a los personajes y se ve menos profunda, a pesar de tener el mismo cambio en la historia.

n  La asesora financieran (3,5/5 estrellas)

Relato sobre el primer encuentro entre Ender y Jane, que tendrá más sentido si se leyó a lo menos el libro "La voz de los muertos", ya que es en ese libro donde Jane entra en escena, también en este relato se da a conocer la razón del trabajo posterior de Ender.

Ender's Game fascinates me. I always go back and back and back to it. I've heard from many different people, all sci-fi lovers to varying degrees, their opinions on Orson Scott Card's Ender series and the majority of these folks caution me not to waste my time reading further into the series - reportedly the books grow weaker and lean more heavily on the past books.

Here's the thing though - I'm not finding that to be true at all. They're riffing off each other, sure. But that's the best part! I ADORE seeing the same story told from different sides - I ADORE having these people's characters fleshed out more and more. It's vastly interesting to me. I wish everyone wrote this way!

This book was passed along to me without a book jacket. I read it blind - no googling to see what it was about or anything. I was REALLY surprised to learn that John Paul - the precocious boy IF wanted in their program was Ender's dad! Reading the little stories without prior knowledge allowed me to be surprised and that was delightful.

I had read that original Ender story in Analog magazine when it came out, but I didn't remember it very well. I was glad to have a chance to reread it without buying the now high-priced copy of Analog. I read the Ender and Ender's Shadow series, so I was glad to read a little more in the same style that provided some historic background into Ender's ancestors and Jane. Good for a few hours of entertainment.

Great collection of short stories in the Ender's Game Universe. But whoever picked the transition music for the audiobook should be given a clean punch to the throat.

Update: Relisten. Enjoyed it just as much the second time. Only came back to make sure I included a throat punching comment.

When this first came out, I was a little miffed at old Orson for dragging out the highly successful and (to me) hallowed Ender saga for one more flogging, so I refused to read it. However, somehow it wound up in my possession (as book-shaped things are wont to do), and I'm glad I gave in.

I've always felt that Card had at least two very interesting and valuable talents: one is creating fleshy, breathy characters (in a good way), and another is having interesting ideas about all sorts of things, usually about politics, history, economics... big-picture stuff about the way things work, the way the pieces of the puzzle fit together and move. Sometimes the two disconnect, as in the more recent books of the Ender series, where I felt that he was much more excited about the ideas than the characters, and just wanted to use my childhood friends as propagandists. The ideas were interesting nonetheless, but I didn't care as much about the people participating in the overarching story.

Anyway, the two were woven together well in this case, and I really enjoyed it. Especially in "Teacher's Pest," which is an account of Ender's parents' first meeting, I thought the views they espoused fit very nicely with the genius parents of my favorite genius. It's a good read. It made me think, sometimes angrily, and I love that.

This book also contains the first version of Ender's Game ever published, in Analog, 1977. It's a fascinating study of the evolution of a story and a writer, coming from this good-but-not-great beginning. The story is virtually the same, but it's so much more heavy-handed... direct references to crucifixion and all that. It gave me a greater appreciation for subtlety, and all of that thick characterization bubbling under the surface.

Not a bad way to spend a sick day. :)