This book has a lot of gems of knowledge. I agree with most all of it and the stuff I didn’t agree with gave me some very interesting thoughts and perspectives to consider.
I definitely recommend this for all speculative fiction authors. It’s a easily digestible read with no-nonsense advice and just enough references to other books that I didn’t drown in them or feel like there were insufficient examples for the points he made.

The last few pages might not be super relevant anymore since the publishing industry has changed and I’d love to know his take on the current state of it.

A really good guide to thinking through fantasy/scifi world building. Short and to the point.

Generally, I heartily recommend George Gopen's The Sense of Structure as the most important book on writing. But where I find books such as Eats, Shoots & Leaves entertaining and not unhelpful, owning more than one book of that type is generally unnecessary (though I own quite a few). Books such as How to Write Science Fiction & Fantasy, on the other hand, offer additional genre help and advice regarding writing groups, length of book, etc. Great insights, and I see my husband (who is a budding sci-fi writer) repeatedly refer to its advice.

The first two chapters of this slim volume were helpful. “What is science-fiction?” is not an easy question, especially in distinguishing it from fantasy and the broader category of speculative fiction. Basically, Card says sci-fi concerns experience that is not yet possible but is technologically or theoretically on the horizon, whereas fantasy is never going to happen (dragons, wizards, etc.).

In speculative fiction, the author proposes an idea or MacGuffin, and the story is the unfolding of all its ramifications. For example, in Card’s most famous novel, “Ender’s Game,” a military sci-fi story, Earth is about to be invaded by some aliens too tricky to beat so the brilliant strategy is to use a group of children who think they are playing a video game but are actually defending the planet. That’s the “conceit” or key idea of the speculative fiction. The rest of the story is about how that idea plays out.

Unfortunately, that description of speculative fiction excludes too little. Any good story should have a main “concept,” the basic “what-if” proposition of the novel. That’s true of fantasy, mystery, even romance novels. The category is only useful in allowing a space between hard sci-fi and traditional fantasy. Still, even this unresolved discussion was useful to me in clarifying marketing categories. I asked the owner of my local bookstore if she had a shelf for “speculative fiction,” and she said no. It’s either sci-fi or fantasy, and it’s often difficult to tell the difference.

The second chapter on “world creation” was fun because of a list of nearly all possible ways to achieve faster-than-light travel, from “Warp speed, Mr. Sulu,” to wormholes, and the list of possible ways to accomplish time travel. I was gratified to learn that my invention for FTL travel seems to be unique. I’ve never tried time travel.

The rest of the book uses sci-fi and fantasy examples and contains generic advice any writer can benefit from, such as how to write character arcs, how to handle backstory, narrative exposition, and levels of diction. His useful MICE mnemonic stands for milieu, idea, character, and event – important structural elements of any story.

Unlike Stephen King, who is a seat-of-the-pants writer, Card insists that a good SF story requires a preliminary outline or story sketch. That’s the best way to achieve coherence, which is paramount in this story-driven genre, even if you end up deviating from the plan. I have to agree.

The last chapter is on how to market and sell your manuscript and how to improve your writing and your confidence with conferences, classes, and workshops. Much of that advice is dated. Hard to believe, but 1990 was pre-internet, so some of his recommendations are no longer germane. The book is indexed.

For ten bucks or less (used), it’s a worthwhile read just for the first two chapters. The middle two chapters, with general advice on good writing won’t hurt you. You can skip the last chapter.

As with all writing advice books, you take some and you leave some. Card includes a lot of really practical advice. In particular, I really appreciated his discussion on where a story should start and end (what he calls the "MICE quotient", knowing whether your story is about milieu, idea, character, or event) and his advice about finding/creating a "Wise Reader".
Writing is subjective, both in terms of content and approach. I love Card's stories, but I think if I took his exhaustive approach to writing I would burn out in a fortnight. Does that make me an unprofessional, weak writer? Maybe. I do find it comforting that there are exceptional writers out there with a process more similar to my own, who still manage to write insightful, heart-wrenching stories. (I will be eternally grateful to Russel T. Davies' "The Writer's Tale" for helping me come to this realization.)
I think it is important for any aspiring writer to take any advice on writing seriously... but also to seriously consider whether it works for them. And if not, that's okay. Don't dismiss the experience of the professionals, but don't deify them either. Take what you can use, and leave behind what you won't. There is always something to be learned, but copycatting someone else's writing style down to the minute details is more likely to stagnate your work than improve it. Find what gives life to your writing, and make your own process.
And on that note, I don't care what Card says, I will never give up caffeine as part of my writing process! Sitting down with a cup of tea on hand as you begin to work is one of the great pleasures and privileges of a writing habit.
Take some, leave some. That's all.

Overall, I didn't find this book extremely helpful. I don't know if it was because I have been writing fantasy for about 6 or 7 years, but I think you can learn more from writing a book in your specified genre than reading about writing one. Everything Card said in this book I already knew (or was so outdated, that it almost didn't matter anymore). The only thing that I found helpful was the final chapter on the publishing industry. That was the only reason I gave this book 3 stars. It was so helpful that it was worth reading all the other slightly unhelpful ramblings in order to get to the last chapter.

Interesting and enjoyable. Some of the publishing advice is out of date, but the rest is helpful.

How to Write Science Fiction & Fantasy is Orson Scott Card’s guide to the craft and business of writing for these respective genres.

It’s impossible to review this book objectively, as it was first published in 2001 and the business of writing has changed a great deal. Therefore, my reading and review of this book primarily reflects my thoughts on how useful and entertaining it is to a contemporary audience.

Unfortunately, this renders as much a third of the book obsolete from the first, except as a curiosity concerning the publishing business frozen in amber as it was at the dawn of the 21st century. Chapter 5, ’The Life and Business of Writing’, contains Card’s perspective on the industry, work ethic, the writing scene, expectations of compensation, and maintaining a work-life balance that incorporates writing. Virtually all of these paradigms have been shattered by the proliferation of Internet access and the use of the Internet as a tool in generating, critiquing, sharing, monetizing, representing, and soliciting your work.

Moreover, much of the rest of this work is equally rooted in the sensibilities of the late 90s, in general, and of Card, in specific. These sensibilities manifest as rather traditional attitudes about what science fiction and fantasy ought to encompass as genres, how one should go about creating one’s fictional world, how one should construct a narrative, and how one should approach the craft of writing. I don’t feel that any of it is necessarily incorrect or bad information, per se, but it is a very coloring-inside-the-lines approach to the craft. It’s very conventional.

There is something to be said for coloring inside the lines, though, especially for newer writers, for whom this book was written. Much of Card’s advice is elementary: create credible settings; consider cause-and-effect; consider history; consider culture; be certain that your protagonist has a need and agency; begin the story at the beginning; how to use exposition sparingly, and the like. These are vital fundamentals of genre fiction and often overlooked in a lot that I’ve read, so it's worthwhile to have them explained and thoroughly unpacked.

The appearance of Card’s personal politics in the text calls the overall work to suffer, however. I described this book as “conventional”, but a better word might have been “conservative”, which Card very outwardly is. This conservatism extends beyond a handful of confusingly inserted admonitions against what one ought not put in their story, shaping Card’s entire perspective on what these genres are and what they are capable of doing. He approaches the craft and business of writing from the perspective of a deeply religious, politically conservative, white, American male who squicks easily, and it shows in this book.

Ultimately I think that this book is worth a read as a primer for new writers and a refresher on fundamentals for more established writers, but Card’s treatment of the subject is rather basic for a modern audience; where it is not basic, it is mildly sanctimonious and wrongheaded; where it is not sanctimonious and wrongheaded, it is simply out of date. You could get almost everything worthwhile out of this book by reading chapters 2, 3, and 4 only.

Worth reading, some great points. Two stars because I'm not going to reread it.

Really reinvigorates the writing passion dormant in me and im sure for other readers. The way he writes makes Orson Scott Card seem like a real swell fella!

There's one useful chapter in this book, and it's the one about the MICE quotient/story structure analysis/planning tool. Other than that, I think Brandon Sanderson's YouTube writing lectures are far more informative (and up to date) than this.

It's been a while since I read this, but some of Card's inspiration have stayed with me as I've honed my craft over the last decade. Great stuff!