4.5 stars. A great collection of novellas. Polish Boy had a believable and interesting situation with a brilliant kid. This was built on in Teacher’s Pest, with the bonus of a fun philosophical discussion. The Ender’s Game novella works well on its own, but can easily be skipped in favor of the full novel, which is better. Investment Counselor was a tad weaker but still a fun introduction of Jane.

Review on Spanish.

Siento que acabo de estropearme toda la serie por leer la tercera historia, pero ya no me sorprende que el orden cronológico que ha asignado el autor no funcione contra sus propios deseos de estropear el final de su historia para los lectores nuevos. En fin.
Con este libro finalmente entendí qué es lo que me estaba fastidiando de esta serie y no me permitía darle mayor puntaje en mis reseñas. No hay narrativa buena, los personajes son trabajados solo a medias y si bien la trama es buena y los problemas que plantea son atrayentes, estos no son suficientes para dejar al lector complacido cuando la narración es tan mediocre y los personajes se pasan todas las historias explicando sus acciones y pensamientos como si fueran androides que no pudieran sentir o razonar por su falta de expresividad.
En realidad es una buena historia y sigo pensándolo después de cuatro libros, pero empiezo a temer que en los próximos libros incluso esto pierda la novedad y me haga abandonar la saga definitivamente. Leeré el siguiente libro, que es muy alabado, con fe de que el don de la cohesión llegue a la mente del autor y finalmente entregue una historia con una narrativa simple, pero eficaz (no exijo mucho, vamos).

The story of Ender's parents, the cultural environment they lived in and how they met at university. The rules set by the governments to adhere to two child policy and both their backgrounds of religious heritage which seek to defy these rules.

This was probably the worst I have read from Card. The background given was odd, and many of the scenes were extremely inconsistent with his full novels. It seems that he might not have had the same number of editors or beta readers when he wrote this one, so it is not as smooth flowing as his other books either. Still a good book, but definitely not necessary (or recommended) in reading the rest of the Enders series. (3 stars)
*Update: I learned that the short story of Ender was the original copy, before the published version. I still don’t know why he would have added it when it did not change much of the story, and had nothing to offer, so I still don’t think it was a great choice to add in this story. (3 stars)
*Update 2: After having finished the afterword in Ender in Exile, I can understand so much more why everything seemed contradictory to me. While adding the original copy of Ender’s game was still unnecessary to me, the rest now makes sense with what Card had written. (4 stars)

This is delightful. A story where we meet Ender's grandparents, and his father as a 5 year old. Then we meet his parents in grad school. And we get the novella that let to Ender's Game. Finally, a story about Ender's 20th birthday, his massive wealth, and how he became a Speaker for the Dead. This would be 5 starts, but it's just 200 quick pages. If you like Ender, this is a must.

So glad I read this before launching into the second book in the Ender's Saga series, Speaker for the Dead! I got some backstory on Ender's mother and father meeting, etc. It was great to read the original short story that became the first book in the series, Ender's Game! And, as you might expect, the final story, "The Investment Counselor," depicts Ender's life in the aftermath of his heroic win and his beginnings as "Speaker for the Dead." So glad I read this before continuing on with the series! Now I'll read Ender in Exile (Ender's Saga #1.2), then on to the second installment!

První dvě povídky byly fajn, celkem jsem se pobavila, je vidět, že jsou všichni tři děti svých rodičů.:-)
Bohužel jsem si nepřečetla, že Enderova hra je původní povídka, ze které vznikla první kniha, takže jsem pořád čekala na nějaké překvapivý nový pohled, ale byla to víceméně jen jedna pasáž z první knihy.
Na investičního poradce jsem se těšila, protože mám Jane ráda, ale moc mě to nezaujalo. A navíc mi přijde, že je to v rozporu s Enderem v exilu, protože tam mu přece Graff píše, že jeho jmění spravuje program, který vznikl z té počítačové hry. Jak je teda možné, že o tom najednou nic neví a Jane se mu objeví jako reklama?

Three short stories in the Enderverse. Two concerning Ender's parents - their backgrounds and bow they met. One about how Ender and computer program Jane began their weirdly intimate bond, and covering the impact of the Speaker for the Dead published works.

Ends with the original 1977 Ender's Game novella, which is basically an abridged version of the second of the full published book.

I enjoyed the three new stories, and while it was interesting to hear the beginnings of Ender's Game, it is almost word-for-word included in the full book text, so a little redundant if you have read the full book.

A collection of 4 short stories, these mini-works give some background to the events surrounding Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead. The first follows Ender's father from childhood in Poland to college in America. The second picks up where the first left off, but is told from the point of view of Ender's mother. Following this is the original Ender's Game short story (slightly different from the larger novel), and then a short story about Jane's first introduction. They're fun, a light read, but not Card's best work. At best, they leave you wishing that he'd written a few chapters more.
The first two (Polish Boy and Teacher's Pest) give some neat background, especially if you've read the beginning of Ender's Shadow and have some perspective on the population situation in parts of Europe. Teacher's Pest was less impressive than I hoped for, and it assumes a great deal of chance and intelligence that I simply don't find realistic. Based on these two stories, Graff is pretty much omniscient.
The third story is the original short story Ender's Game. It's an interesting read, and while a large chunk contains very similar (or exactly the same) scenes as the novel, other parts are very different and some are quite a bit better. Ender is harsher, Battle School is more militaristic, the children are raised there and not on Earth, and the enemy seems to be humans or humanoid (no mention of Buggers). As a short story, it's a great work and a refreshing read for new perspective on what Ender's Game (the novel) might have been.
The fourth story is the one for which I had highest hopes, and with which I was most disappointed. After learning how Jane came to exist during the Ender saga, I was curious to read this story and was hopeful for something truly special. It began well-enough, but at the end, instead of getting to see Ender and Jane's relationship develop (especially Ender's realization of her abilities and existence), all we got was a cute little ending with all the loose ends tied up with a bow. Yes, Jane got to be a bit of a bad a-, but it was too brief and not fully satisfying. The story felt rushed, especially coming after the much better done Ender's Game short story.

“Ender Wiggin was a stranger to the world he was being trained to save.” (134)
“Light was a pedestrian.” (134)
“Sometimes he would wake up in the middle of the night crying for a reason he didn’t remember.” (148)
“Months wore on with battles every day, until at last Ender settled into the routine of the destruction of himself.” (151)
“Ender was 12. He felt very old.” (154)
“Real. Not a game.”(159)
“So we trained children, who didn’t know anything but the game, and never knew when it would become real.”(161)

There were four short stories in this book. One story about Ender's Father's first encounter with the International Fleet Officer Graff, who runs the battle school. One story about when Ender's parents met. One story about when Ender met the artificial intelligence program Jane. And the original ender's game story.

All the stories were well written and entertaining. Also, they lent more depth and history to Ender's Universe. The Short Story version of Ender's Game is worth reading to compare and contrast to the Novel.

This book is for adolescents, so it read quickly.

I read this book because I am a big fan of the Ender's Game books.

I'm an OSC fan. I've enjoyed most of his work, and I enjoyed this one, too. However, this is mostly just a collection of bits and pieces seen elsewhere. That's fine, but the price for this was way too high. Probably not OSC's doing; just another publisher cashing in on the work of famous authors in the stable. Hey guys, this is why traditional publishing is in trouble. This is the kind of BS that makes me look at indies who don't charge more for an ebook than a paperback. The ebook has very low publishing and distribution costs; the paperback's cost is much higher, so why are they cheaper? Wake Up! Your famous authors will start walking away if you aren't careful.