This collection of four fun short stories about Ender and his parents gives interesting background info. The stories are pretty good, but too short to really get into. Still, they're worth reading for any Enderverse fan.

The Polish Boy
This is about six-year-old John Paul Wiggin in Poland. There’s a lot of talk about government and religion. The International Fleet marks John Paul as Battle School material for his ability to read human behavior, and he meets Captain Graff during his testing. John Paul refuses to go to Battle School, and makes a deal to go with his family to America instead. The IF knows that later he’ll be too old, but they want his kids.

Teacher’s Pest
This is about John Paul in college, meeting Theresa. They discuss the Hegemony and global politics. They believe that the Hegemony’s population laws were designed not for a need to limit population, but to make nations detest it, so it wouldn't last after the war with the Formics.

Ender’s Game
This is the original 1977 Ender’s Game novella, which makes up 31% of the book. I skipped it because I’ve read Ender’s Game more than once.

Investment Counselor
This is about Andrew (age 20) and Valentine landing on a planet and Andrew having to pay taxes. Jane introduces herself to Andrew for the first time, and helps him out of a tight spot.

After re-reading the Shadow Series I wanted to spend more time with Ender's parents. The second story in this book "Teacher's Pest" is my favorite. I liked seeing how Ender's parents first met, and seeing them use all the brains that got passed on to him.

(I am listening to the audiobook)

When I started Enders Game (Book #1), after less than 1 hour I was hooked, and had to finish it in less than 2-3 days.

I recently started also listening to this one, and I am already 2 hours in (from 14 hours long audiobook) and still don't feel I like it, I already stopped for the moment as I have other books I want to try first.

I loved reading the background stories to Ender's Parents, but was sad when their story stopped so abruptly. They barely have one good day together, and it's like Paul Harvey steps in with his famous tag line, "and now you know the rest of the story". I wanted more, and felt robbed. Then the story quickly jumps (no transition) to a portion that seemed to have come straight out of Ender's Game, only there were discrepancies. There's a discrepancy with Graff's character and his age(within this book, not even considering the other stories), and also with who was in his "jeesh" for the final battle. The next story that's told is of Jane's existence. I enjoyed readying the background story for her and Ender, but when finished I simply wanted more.

The stories were well written, but had I not been familiar with the Ender Universe, I wouldn't have had the slightest idea what was going on at the start of the short story Ender's Game in the book. I expected First Meetings to be a fun stand alone story about Ender's parents, somehow fitting in an introduction to Jane. Instead, I read about 70 really fun pages of the parents, then was jumped into Ender's Game for a bit, and then brought into Jane's world for the last part. This book should've been focused on Ender's brilliant parents and their journey to love and parenthood. I would've loved reading about them as young parents of overly bright kids. Jane's story should've been another seperate tale. There's so much depth to that character, 70 or so pages couldn't do her justice.

This is a collection of different short stories that cover different time periods and and different characters from this universe. We get to see Ender's dad in a couple of these stories and it ends with the original short story of Ender's Game that was eventually made into the famous novel.

I am a fan of background information and world building in the many different universes that I read. Unfortunately this one was not that great. The first story was the best one as this cover Ender's grandparents and their time back in their home country. They do not conform to the child limitation decree and I liked this look into that as it has ties to the real world. I thought all the other stories fell short. The second story was the meeting of Ender's mom and dad. I was actually liking this story but it just ended out of nowhere. It was such an abrupt ending I actually thought I fast forwarded on the audiobook. Then we spend time on the story that started it all. The problem with this is that chances are that you most likely already read the novel that came from this short story. So basically this was a retread of stuff I already knew and it is the definition of not adding anything to the lore. It was a waste of time.

I wasn't really expecting much from this side piece. That being said I was expecting a little more than it offered. The term cash grab is used often when describing side pieces and this is a good example of a cash grab. It really doesn't add much to the universe. With its terrible decision to stop stories when they should not be ending or a retread of stories that have been most likely read I would say pass on this side piece and concentrate on the novels of this universe.

So, four stories.

The first is a wonderfully optimistic and pessimistic prequel that leads into the next novella.

The second is the college years of Ender's father and is even more mixed in tone.

The third is the an alternate take on one of Ender's Battle School days (I think it's the short story that started the series).

The last is the most important. It's our introduction to Jane and to Ender the Speaker for the Dead.

I read the original Quartet of books a few years ago. In fact, it was the series that rekindled my love for reading after many years of not even opening a book. So, to now further explore stories in the same universe is heartwarming and welcoming.

This book has some short stories in it, that fill in some history. And It has the original novella of Enders Game in it. I would have loved that Novella in high school, when I first read Ender's Game. I loved the two short stories and giving history with the hegemon and the two child policy. The author does a good job showing moral issues in stories without making it too obvious.

These stories give great insights into the world of Ender's Game, and even explains some of the unexplained in Speaker of the Dead. A great read!

So, this wasn't a badly written set of short stories. My 3 star rating is more because I felt like some of the stories were either changed from the original book, Ender's Game, or were already mentioned in the book.

I personally think short stories should be something to give a little more insight into what made someone the way they are. The first 2 short stories were definitely interesting and enjoyable because they were about Ender's parents. After that, though, I just felt a disconnect almost from the book.

Now, after saying all of that, I definitely would encourage anybody who loves the world of Ender to check it out! If you've never read Ender's Game, though, you need to start with it.

For those who don't know, these are very much in the Sci-fi regime. They are also for a middle grade level of reading which means they are pretty clean! I thoroughly enjoy reading about Ender even as an adult because he's so mature for his young age.

Interesting to read the original version of Ender’s Game. I think the changes he made were the right choice.

Also, this book confirms that Ender was the result of IQ eugenics, which is… discomforting. It’s done by the bad guys, technically, but it’s implied that it would work out well if we tried it.

Fue un libro interesante de leer, no pude soltarlo hasta que lo terminé. Abarca 4 relatos cortos, el primero sobre el papá de Ender, el segundo es el cómo se conocieron los papás de Ender, el tercero es la historia original que después llevó al autor a desarrollar el libro de "El juego de Ender" y el cuarto nos presenta a Jane, un programa financiero, aquel que utilizará Ender.

This book contains four novellas.
The Polish Boy follows John Paul Wieczorek, the seventh son of his parents. He is being homeschooled (badly in his opinion) while others have grade-appropriate things that he overhears and picks up. The testing for the Hegemony singles him out, and he is able to manipulate Captain Graff into moving his family to America from Poland.

Teacher's Pest is also about John Paul, but now he is a college student. He meets Theresa Brown, a woman who makes him think. The novella describes their background and the possibility that they have a further relationship.

Ender's Game is an extremely shortened version of the full-length novel. There's also a scene here with Graff and Anderson that is not in the novel.

Investment Counselor is set quite some years after the events in Ender's Game. The Hegemony set up a trust for Ender. Until he turned 18, he did not have to worry about taxes on planets they arrived at in their (Ender and Valentine) travels. But now he has calculated that he is actually 18, and must pay taxes. The tax collector planned to blackmail Ender. An AI computer program named Jane does multiple things: protects Ender from blackmail, calculates his taxes, and continues to care for his fortune.

The blackmailer is killed in prison and Ender finds his vocation as a Speaker for the Dead.