The HitchHiker’s Guide To the Galaxy
I have already read each one of those books twice and I can never get enough of them. Unique in so many ways. The amazing books of Douglas Adams are by far my favourite. I can write nothing here that will fully explain what these books are all about. I provide links to a Wikipedia page where a brief description of each is given but again you have to read them to fully appreciate the brilliance of Douglas Adams and to understand what these books are all about. Besides you will also find the Answer to Life the Universe and Everything in these books!!!Worth your time! NOTE: The movie was a disappointment to me so I suggest that you follow the advice below:
if ((seen_movie == False) and (read_books == False)):
read_books_ first()
see_movie_last()
elif ((seen_movie == True) and (read_books == False)):
read_books_and_dont_judge_by_the_movie()
1: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to The Galaxy
2: The Restaurant at The End of The Universe
3: Life, the Universe and Everything
4: So long and Thanks for All the Fish
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The Ender Saga
Ender’s Game
“Ender’s Game (1985) is one of the best-known novels by Orson Scott Card.[1] It is set in Earth’s future where mankind has barely survived two invasions by the “buggers”, an insectoid alien race, and the International Fleet is preparing for war. In order to find and train the eventual commander for the anticipated third invasion, the world’s most talented children, including the extraordinary Ender Wiggin, are taken into Battle School at a very young age. The book takes place around the year 2135, and its sequels, Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, Children of the Mind, A War of Gifts, Ender in Exile: Ganges, following Ender to different worlds as he travels far into the future.” (Wikipedia 6/4/2008).
I also suggest in this series The Speaker of the Dead and Xenocide which I have read and have found equally (or even better than) good to Ender’s Game. They are the story of Ender and his sister Valentine who travel at near light speed to colonize one of the planets that has been conquered by the Buggers. Ender becomes the Speaker of the Dead while trying to understand his old enemy the Hive Queen who he exterminated while playing a ‘game’. These two books have quite a different theme from the first book posing a vast amount of ethical questions for us human beings, the answers to which are neither easy nor obvious…
The Shadow Saga
Ender’s Shadow
“Ender’s Shadow (1999) is a parallel science fiction novel by Orson Scott Card with a plot covering some of the events in Ender’s Game from the point of view of a supporting character named Bean. Bean, the main character in the book, is an orphan living in the hellish streets of a future (roughly 2170 A.D.)
Rotterdam, after escaping as an infant from an illegal genetic engineering laboratory. Being hyper-intelligent but extremely young, Bean’s experiences all center around his need for food. He joins a small gang of children led by Poke and sets up a system in which they can all receive nourishment at a local soup kitchen. His incredible mind, creativity, and determination bring him to the attention of Sister Carlotta, a nun recruiting children to fight a war against the Buggers. At the training facility, Battle School, Bean meets Ender Wiggin, upon whom the fate of the world has been rested. From hacking through the system’s computers, to drafting Ender’s famous Dragon Army, Bean becomes Ender’s friend… “.(Wikipedia 6/4/2008).
As a continuation to the above – first book – of the Shadow saga, I strongly recommend all three of the following books “Shadow of the Hegemon”, “Shadow Puppets” and finally the conclusion(?) in “Shadow of the Giant”. In this series of books the personal stories of the rest of Ender’s jeesh is being told as they have returned from Battle School after exterminating the alien Buggers. Now each of these militarily brilliant children, are being manipulated by their Earth-based governments in order to try and rule over the rest of the world. Throughout the Shadow saga, there is a lot of military strategy and politics involved -although oversimplified in a lot of cases- and a lot of personal moments of reflections and wisdom where the reader gets to know each of these characters a lot better than before. The most incredible story told is in my opinion that of Julian Delphiki, a.k.a Bean. who due to a genetic modification before his birth has become the most intelligent living being on Earth, an intelligence that comes at the price of a very short life because of his heart’s limitations in supplying his ever increasing brain. But beyond Bean there is the story of Petra, of the ‘goddess’ Virlomi, of the Hegemon Peter, of Caliph Alai and emperor Han Tzu, all of the children in Ender’s Jeesh that saved the human world from the alien invasion. It is also the story of the notorious Achilles De Flandres, the sociopath yet extremely talented and intelligent kid who manipulates the leaders of the world and achieves to influence history through his own political and militaristic ambitions.
This is really a great series of books read with a single breath, always keeping the reader thrilled at the prospect of the coming events. Thankfully (?) the last book leaves a lot of unanswered issues before concluding and this is giving me hope to believe that sooner or later Orson Scott Card will get his pen down to write further stories of Bean, Petra, Ender and the rest of his brilliant characters….
Nice website!!