Slashdot Mirror

H_Fisher writes "Orson Scott Card, author of sci-fi classic Ender's Game and many other novels and stories, has posted his review of the much-discussed Joss Whedon film Serenity (which opened at #2 in the US box office this past weekend). Among other things, Card has this to say about Serenity: 'Those of you who know my work at all know about Ender's Game. I jealously protected the movie rights to Ender's Game so that it would not be filmed until it could be done right ... I'll tell you this right now: If Ender's Game can't be this kind of movie, and this good a movie, then I want it never to be made.'" With praise for Full House, Friends, Being John Malkovich, and Lost to boot.

Johnathon Walls writes "eGenesis, makers of the non-combat, world-building massively multiplayer online (MMO) game "A Tale in the Desert" versions 1 and 2, has signed a deal with Orson Scott Card (author of Ender's game and The Seventh Son) to develop the pre-Civil War American world of "Alvin the Maker" into a new MMO. This is also going to be a non-combat-centered, community-building world. Questions remain as to the amount of interest these non-combat games generate, and concerns about the rapidly dropping population of Tale 2 (a steady decline from 2089 subscribers on Sep 26 to 1582 subscribers on Jan 6) really bring this issue to the forefront."

Slashback tonight brings you more on recent RIAA madness, the readability of scrambled words, word of the return of Nullsoft's WASTE, another decision against the FTC's do-not-call list, and more -- read on for the details. The issue is greyer than you might think. SirFozzie writes "A Denver, Colorado judge has blocked the implementation of the Do-Not-Call List for a 2nd time, hours after the House and Senate passed the bill overwhelmingly, claiming that telemarketer's free speech rights would be infringed if this was to take affect. In the MSNBC story, judge Edward Nottingham ruled that "The Federal Trade Commission has chosen to entangle itself too much in the consumers' decision by manipulating consumer choice and favoring speech by charitable (organizations) over commercial speech." What's next? Constitutional Amendment?"

Follow-up: Can You Raed Tihs? meal worms writes "A Slashdot article appearing last Monday, which reported on the claim that scrambled words are legible as long as first and last letters are in place, was circulated to the University of British Columbia's Linguistics department. An interesting counter-example resulted:

"Anidroccg to crad cniyrrag lcitsiugnis planoissefors at an uemannd, utisreviny in Bsitirh Cibmuloa, and crartnoy to the duoibus cmials of the ueticnd rcraeseh, a slpmie, macinahcel ioisrevnn of ianretnl cretcarahs araepps sneiciffut to csufnoe the eadyrevy oekoolnr."

As demonstrated, a simple inversion of the internal characters results in a text which is relatively hard to decipher."

Addendum to Tough California Anti-Spam Law Signed On September 23, we mentioned California's new spam-ban law; srmalloy writes "The text of the new law, added by S.B. 186, is here."

Now you can WASTE away again in Margaritaville. adamsmith_uk writes "WASTE is open source small P2P network software supporting IM, group chat, file browsing/searching, and file transfer. It was released by Nullsoft and then removed by AOL, its parent company, in matter of hours. WASTE is now up to version 1.1 and back on Sourceforge. Get it while you can!"

Next time, Gadget Grandmother ... next time! FrankBama writes "The RIAA sued a grandmother for sharing over 2,000 songs (including 'I'm A Thug' by Trick Daddy). The EFF got involved and RIAA dropped the suit. This was done as a 'gesture of good faith' but the record industry spokesperson says they still think it's the right account.

260 other defendants still outstanding."

More of Orson Scott Card on Net music sharing. happy_place writes "FYI, you reported the first part earlier, here's the PART 2 of Orson Scott Card's political discussion on the stupidity of the record industry subpeona frenzy."

This part of the agenda is not supposed to be hidden. Stealthgirl writes "Note to everyone on the Hidden Agenda Contest that was mentioned over the weekend: There was a lot of feedback about only undergrads being eligible for the $25,000 prize. The rules have been clarified and full time grad students are welcome as well."

Update: Ah, yes: The Fortran bit. Thomas Beuthe writes "With regards to your slashdot Fortran article of the 16 Sept 2003 entitled 'Is GNU g77 Killing Fortran?,' I just wanted to make you aware of a fully featured alternative to g77 that perhaps everyone should consider using. Please go to Walt Brainerd's site: www.fortran.com (yes, he was the one who got *that* site!) and have a look at the "F" compiler.

I discussed the problem of the lack of a good freeware compiler and its influence on the lack of Fortran education and propagation of the language with him personally when he was here giving a Fortran course. He pointed out the "F" compiler to me. This is a fully compliant compiler which he put together himself.

The source code is actually the NAG compiler, I believe, except that he's hobbled it a bit to allow it to go out for free. This means that he has restricted the syntax a little, but not the functionality. So what you get is a fully funtional compiler which is restricted to what Walt considers to be the 'best' syntax for Fortran! This makes perfect sense for education, but also allows full useage for big projects as well!

Neat eh?"

drjkt writes "Author Orson Scott Card gives his take on mp3 file swapping." Some artists are getting the idea.

czarneki writes "This is the first book from Phobos Books, a new science fiction publisher based in New York. It's a collection of winning short stories from their 2001 fiction contest, and Orson Scott Card was one of the judges as well as the editor for the book. I knew nothing about this book before finding it in the sci-fi anthology section of the bookstore, and I only picked it up because OSC's name was on the cover. (For an unknown company and an unknown set of authors, this book has an impressive set of people associated with it: Doug Chiang, the design director for the new Star Wars movies, did the cover, and Lawrence Krauss of The Physics of Star Trek wrote a foreword.)" With that pedigree, I'm sure you'll want to read the rest of czarneki's review, below. Empire of Dreams and Miracles author Orson Scott Card and Keith Olexa pages 262 paperback publisher Phobos Books rating 9 out of 10 reviewer czarneki ISBN 097200260X summary A good science fiction anthology of new authors who write well

I'm a regular reader of the sci-fi magazines, and I have to say, the stories in this collection are so much better than 95% of what gets published in those magazines. Maybe it's because the big-circulation magazines are so desperate for readership that they prefer to publish only stories from well-known authors, and many of them seem to use the short-story format only as a place to dump ideas that just don't quite make it into novels. The unknown authors in this anthology, on the other hand, seem to come up with fresh ideas and take pains to craft good short stories around them. This is probably what OSC is referring to when he writes in the foreword to the collection that in order "to find deep novelty, readers of science fiction must find new writers as well as new tales from old friends."

Okay, enough of that. What are the stories like? There's a lot here that Slashdot readers would find provocative and interesting. My favorite in the collection is "Twenty-Two Buttons" (my first reaction when I saw this title was: On a mouse or keyboard? Alas, that's not the sort of buttons we are talking about). The story takes place in a future where pollution, crime, and lawlessness have turned the Outside into a myth, and people spend all of their time inside their houses. They manage to go to work and school, find friends and lovers, and have contact with people outside the family only through the Net (ok, ok, so some of us already are living that way, but still), which is heavily censored and monitored by the government -- in fact, the story implies that the dangerousness of the Outside is exaggerated in order to justify the government's control over the Net (draw your own paranoid analogies with the present). This has some fascinating consequences. For example, children make play dates over the Net and rely on VR projections to learn to socialize. Families meet each other through a kind of Net dating service for whole families, and though two families may be from opposite ends of the continent, they manage to sit down "together" to have dinner, the VR screen going down the middle of the table. (I actually kind of wish that were true. Why should I be stuck with the people who happen to have moved in next to me?) Since physically moving yourself and your possessions from one place to another is so expensive, once you are married you are pretty much truly stuck. The main character in the story had an affair over the Net because he connected with the woman he could only touch through the mediation of technology so much better than his wife, but when the affair was discovered he was too afraid of the Outside to join the other woman. In the end the other woman did in fact leave the protected life on the Net and go Outside, and she tantalizingly sent him the buttons from her blouse, inviting him to "come out and play." (The actual story is so much better than my crappy summary, sorry.) This is the story in the collection with the most un-sci-fi-ish prose style, but it actually works really well.

"Carthaginian Rose" is based on an idea from Ray Kurzweil's Age of Spiritual Machines. Basically, the idea is that we'll soon (as in within 30 years) be able to scan people's brains into computers powerful enough to simulate neural activities -- and instant immortality! The scanning technology initially will be kind of crude, and so we might need to do it destructively on some people to try it out (Kurzweil speculated that a person facing imminent death may volunteer to be the first test subject). The story takes this idea and speculates on what kind of person that first volunteer would be and how someone might be driven to happily, willingly, and even work hard at being destructively scanned.

The title story, "Empire of Dreams and Miracles," is probably the craziest story of the bunch. It involves a future so far off that people literally kill for sport (the victims are then brought back to life). The entertainment industry is centered around competition among the killer-artists to bring the most pleasure and novelty to each kill, and the psychology of a culture with no real death but a lot of colorful imitations of it is described with a great deal of detail and imagination. The images are eye-popping and they come at you one after another, giving you almost no time to absorb each one (so you end up feeling a little like the sensation-saturated inhabitants of this future). The fascination with violence, death, and the sexual energies in both can be seen as a satire of our own world or just really good mood setting.

"Who Lived in a Shoe" is about alien house hunting. For any slashdot readers who have looked for a dwelling the story will resonate. It's a funny, light piece that is less sci-fi than fantasy. Some of the houses that the main characters visit on their search may well appeal to the crowd here. This story shows the wide range and styles in this collection.

There are eight other stories in the collection, ranging from Twilight Zone-like horror to cosmology-as-religion. There are space stations and artificial intelligences, social commentary as well as pure fantasy. All of the stories are well-written short stories, not aborted attempts at novels or sketches that go nowhere. OSC wrote an introduction to each story and it's interesting to get his take on each.

To be sure, sometimes the writing in these stories is not as polished as one could wish, but you see that kind of roughness even in the mass-circulation magazines. After all, we are talking about sci-fi here, not the Atlantic Monthly. All in all, given the diverse range of ideas, characters, and styles in this collection and the fact that these are all fresh, new talents in the field, this is my second favorite short fiction anthology for the year (it was my first favorite anthology until Ted Chiang's Stories of Your Life -- you just can't argue with all those Nebulas).

You can purchase Empire of Dreams and Miracles from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.

Slashback is loaded with updates to recent (and not-recent) Slashdot postings. More opportunity to hot-rod your Dreamcast with an ethernet adapter, continuing seed-patent madness, more stolen moon rock, an update to Chrisd's favorite MP3 player and more, all below.

Not a paperweight. 13Echo writes: "CSI, the manufacturer of the Dreamcast broadband adapter, is extending its reservations option by another week. They wish to meet a goal of 1,000 units before production will start. A rough Babelfish translation can be found here. This device is very beneficial in Dreamcast home-brew software development, and is also supported in the various Linux and BSD distributions on the Dreamcast. It is available for pre-order from this page at NCSX, or other import shops at a price of US $49.00. If any other Slashdotters are interested, now is the last time that we will be able to get one of these things. I've already placed my order with NCSX."

How about sell moon bits to sponsor the trips up there? Anonymous Coward points to this AP report which begins: "Four grains of moon dust brought to Earth by the first manned lunar mission were stolen from a space exhibit in Sweden, a museum official said."

Will the stolen moon rock madness ever end?

The race is on, Apple. SailorBob writes "The NexII got good reviews on slashdot (Review: Nex II CF MP3 Player) a while back and now a newer version named the NexIIe is shipping. Some nice functionality has been added such as drawing power from the usb while copying files and being able to hook to an external AC adapter. They've also told me via e-mail that they're considering adding Ogg Vorbis support, which wouldn't be a problem after the fact since the player can be updated for new formats with a firmware update."

Graphomania has a name, and it is Orson. Binestar writes "Author Orson Scott Card has released his latest book, Shadow Puppets. As usual, the first 3 chapters are available online. He's definitely one of my favorite authors."

Just kidding, folks -- just kidding. Afraid to play video games in Greece? Elonka indicates this BBC story (Court Allows Greek gamers to play on), excerpting: "In reference to the recent law enacted in Greece which bans all computer games, a court in northern Greece today threw out the case against two internet cafe owners who were arrested for allowing clientele to play Counter-Strike and online chess. The court said the law was unconstitutional."

Monsanto should invest in helicopters and lawyers for a whole new revenue stream. dwprice writes "A Saskatchewan farmer loses a patent infringement case when it turns out patented canola is growing in his fields and he didn't pay for it. He claims it blew into his field." When this farmer, Percy Schmeiser, lost the first round, I figured it was a simple lapse of sanity and would be overturned on appeal. No such luck.

Best TV news I've heard in a while. Masem writes "Offical word has been announced that Futurama will be shows on Cartoon Network (most likely as part of the Adult Swim Comedy block) starting in Jan 2003, according to Cartoon Reasearch. No indication of new episodes, but CN will have all 72 episodes that have been made."

Slashback is loaded with updates to recent (and not-recent) Slashdot postings. More opportunity to hot-rod your Dreamcast with an ethernet adapter, continuing seed-patent madness, more stolen moon rock, an update to Chrisd's favorite MP3 player and more, all below.

Not a paperweight. 13Echo writes: "CSI, the manufacturer of the Dreamcast broadband adapter, is extending its reservations option by another week. They wish to meet a goal of 1,000 units before production will start. A rough Babelfish translation can be found here. This device is very beneficial in Dreamcast home-brew software development, and is also supported in the various Linux and BSD distributions on the Dreamcast. It is available for pre-order from this page at NCSX, or other import shops at a price of US $49.00. If any other Slashdotters are interested, now is the last time that we will be able to get one of these things. I've already placed my order with NCSX."

How about sell moon bits to sponsor the trips up there? Anonymous Coward points to this AP report which begins: "Four grains of moon dust brought to Earth by the first manned lunar mission were stolen from a space exhibit in Sweden, a museum official said."

Will the stolen moon rock madness ever end?

The race is on, Apple. SailorBob writes "The NexII got good reviews on slashdot (Review: Nex II CF MP3 Player) a while back and now a newer version named the NexIIe is shipping. Some nice functionality has been added such as drawing power from the usb while copying files and being able to hook to an external AC adapter. They've also told me via e-mail that they're considering adding Ogg Vorbis support, which wouldn't be a problem after the fact since the player can be updated for new formats with a firmware update."

Graphomania has a name, and it is Orson. Binestar writes "Author Orson Scott Card has released his latest book, Shadow Puppets. As usual, the first 3 chapters are available online. He's definitely one of my favorite authors."

Just kidding, folks -- just kidding. Afraid to play video games in Greece? Elonka indicates this BBC story (Court Allows Greek gamers to play on), excerpting: "In reference to the recent law enacted in Greece which bans all computer games, a court in northern Greece today threw out the case against two internet cafe owners who were arrested for allowing clientele to play Counter-Strike and online chess. The court said the law was unconstitutional."

Monsanto should invest in helicopters and lawyers for a whole new revenue stream. dwprice writes "A Saskatchewan farmer loses a patent infringement case when it turns out patented canola is growing in his fields and he didn't pay for it. He claims it blew into his field." When this farmer, Percy Schmeiser, lost the first round, I figured it was a simple lapse of sanity and would be overturned on appeal. No such luck.

Best TV news I've heard in a while. Masem writes "Offical word has been announced that Futurama will be shows on Cartoon Network (most likely as part of the Adult Swim Comedy block) starting in Jan 2003, according to Cartoon Reasearch. No indication of new episodes, but CN will have all 72 episodes that have been made."

Slashback is loaded with updates to recent (and not-recent) Slashdot postings. More opportunity to hot-rod your Dreamcast with an ethernet adapter, continuing seed-patent madness, more stolen moon rock, an update to Chrisd's favorite MP3 player and more, all below.

Not a paperweight. 13Echo writes: "CSI, the manufacturer of the Dreamcast broadband adapter, is extending its reservations option by another week. They wish to meet a goal of 1,000 units before production will start. A rough Babelfish translation can be found here. This device is very beneficial in Dreamcast home-brew software development, and is also supported in the various Linux and BSD distributions on the Dreamcast. It is available for pre-order from this page at NCSX, or other import shops at a price of US $49.00. If any other Slashdotters are interested, now is the last time that we will be able to get one of these things. I've already placed my order with NCSX."

How about sell moon bits to sponsor the trips up there? Anonymous Coward points to this AP report which begins: "Four grains of moon dust brought to Earth by the first manned lunar mission were stolen from a space exhibit in Sweden, a museum official said."

Will the stolen moon rock madness ever end?

The race is on, Apple. SailorBob writes "The NexII got good reviews on slashdot (Review: Nex II CF MP3 Player) a while back and now a newer version named the NexIIe is shipping. Some nice functionality has been added such as drawing power from the usb while copying files and being able to hook to an external AC adapter. They've also told me via e-mail that they're considering adding Ogg Vorbis support, which wouldn't be a problem after the fact since the player can be updated for new formats with a firmware update."

Graphomania has a name, and it is Orson. Binestar writes "Author Orson Scott Card has released his latest book, Shadow Puppets. As usual, the first 3 chapters are available online. He's definitely one of my favorite authors."

Just kidding, folks -- just kidding. Afraid to play video games in Greece? Elonka indicates this BBC story (Court Allows Greek gamers to play on), excerpting: "In reference to the recent law enacted in Greece which bans all computer games, a court in northern Greece today threw out the case against two internet cafe owners who were arrested for allowing clientele to play Counter-Strike and online chess. The court said the law was unconstitutional."

Monsanto should invest in helicopters and lawyers for a whole new revenue stream. dwprice writes "A Saskatchewan farmer loses a patent infringement case when it turns out patented canola is growing in his fields and he didn't pay for it. He claims it blew into his field." When this farmer, Percy Schmeiser, lost the first round, I figured it was a simple lapse of sanity and would be overturned on appeal. No such luck.

Best TV news I've heard in a while. Masem writes "Offical word has been announced that Futurama will be shows on Cartoon Network (most likely as part of the Adult Swim Comedy block) starting in Jan 2003, according to Cartoon Reasearch. No indication of new episodes, but CN will have all 72 episodes that have been made."

Reader Aaron Gifford contributed this review of Shadow of the Hegemon, by the prolific Orson Scott Card. (What? An author with the "ability to make smart characters actually act and behave intelligently"? The sky is falling!) Given the movie plans in the works from Card, it's great to see the bookshelf expand with possible sequel material, too.

Shadow of the Hegemon author Orson Scott Card pages 365 publisher TOR rating 8 reviewer Aaron Gifford ISBN 0-312-87651 summary Betrayal and murder litter the path to power as the child geniuses who helped Ender defend Earth return home to be kidnapped as a new struggle begins.

It's out, the new Orson Scott Card book, Shadow of the Hegemon. I don't want to give away any more of the plot than is already apparent in the summary above, so let me tell you about the book indirectly, about my own reactions, what I liked about it.

First of all, I must admit it. I'm a Card fan. I was introduced to his work like many other Slashdot readers as a teenager when I read Ender's Game. The intensity of that story and the believable brilliance of the main characters hooked me from the start. The sequels, Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, and Children of the Mind continue Ender's story, but are substantially different in style and tone from the first. Card's more recent bold experiment, Ender's Shadow returns to the events in Ender's Game and retells them in parallel through the eyes of a different character, Bean. That book recaptures some of the essence and style of Ender's Game while making the story into something completely new and original.

Shadow of the Hegemon charts new territory as a sequel to Ender's Shadow telling the stories of the aftermath of the Formics War. This is not a parallel book like its predecessor. It takes place during those years mentioned only briefly in Ender's Game as Ender travels through space on the colony ship. Ender plays no part in this book.

The book definitely has action, and I love it! While Card often writes so much about the inner thought processes of his characters that sometimes his stories can slow down, there's enough action and adventure and a fast enough pace to make this book a really fun read. I might characterize it as a cross between the slower moving intellectual style in the later Ender series books and the fast paced intensity in Ender's Game. It's a blend that works.

Among the many things I enjoyed in this book is Card's excellent development of Bean's human emotional self. While Bean is intellectually brilliant, as the book opens, he seems to go through the motions of human emotional interaction without truly having felt the emotion. Card seems to have captured the shortcoming that children who suffer deprivation of human contact early in life sometimes exhibit, and included it in the character of Bean. As the story progresses, Bean slowly develops genuine emotional ties with other human beings and the emotional side of his character matures considerably.

Like any work of fiction, there must be a suspension of disbelief. The character Achilles, Bean's enemy from his earlier years growing up in Rotterdam and again at Battle School, returns as a highly connected villain worthy of any James Bond movie. In Ender's Shadow Bean exposes him as the psychopathic murderer he is. Achilles, also a genius, has escaped from an institute for the criminally insane to wreak havoc on the world in general, and on Bean and his personal enemies in particular, as he ensconces himself in positions of power. In several places, Achilles seems to have a nearly omniscient ability to monitor the actions and whereabouts of his personal enemies, stretching my suspension of disbelief a bit thin as I read.

I truly enjoyed Card's character work in this book. I appreciate his willingness to create characters with backgrounds from many different cultures and locations. Card conscientiously takes the time to study and learn enough about other cultures and peoples. As a result, his characters have a depth and background beyond those in many novels.

Card creates characters with religious beliefs that are real to those characters who hold them. Even those characters who are atheist or agnostic in their own beliefs hold tightly to those beliefs every bit as tenaciously and religiously as do those characters who espouse a particular recognizable. Card always seems to treat religion with the respect others often neglect. His characters in this book, in particular Sister Carlotta, Ender's mother, and several characters from India and Pakistan, through their words and interactions, show how their own profound religious beliefs make up their core and affect their choices.

Another Card talent exhibited in this book, if not as strongly as it did in Ender's Game, is Card's ability to make smart characters actually act and behave intelligently. So many authors resort to devices that seem to say, "This character is smart because I'm telling you so," without any supporting evidence other than the author's word, or perhaps on the word of the author's supporting characters who may say in agreement, "Yes, that character is smart."

Card does sometimes tell the reader that his characters are smart, but he always backs it up with intelligent decisions, thought processes, and actions that make it believable. He's not perfect, but he is definitely among the top talents.

I was delighted and amused whenever I noticed one of the characters speaking or thinking and idea that I recognized as one of Card's own opinions or ideas. If you have read much of Card's work and are familiar with his own opinions as often expressed his non fiction and on his various Web sites (you can see some examples Card's political commentary at www.ornery.com) you too will catch his characters presenting some of those same ideas.

With so many intellectually gifted characters playing on the stage, sometimes they begin to sound a bit like each other. It's almost unavoidable for any author who writes as prolifically as Card to keep each character unique, fresh, and new. Card is one of the best at avoiding this problem, but it does crop up here and there.

When you finish the story, read the Afterword. Card's inclusion of a few words of commentary about the story writing process, how the book came to be, and about the decisions he had to make as he wrote it is fascinating. If you like Card, you will like this book. If you like action and international power plays, you will like this book. If you appreciate good writing and character development, you will like this book.

If you haven't yet read Ender's Shadow, I suggest you read it before you read this book. Like most of Card's work, this book can stand on its own, but it works better as a sequel since the book expects you to be familiar with the several main characters and their backgrounds.

You can purchase this book at ThinkGeek.

dschuetz writes: "On January 14, 2001, I had the opportunity to attend a book signing event by Orson Scott Card, at Bailey's Crossroads, in northern Virginia. This was the last stop on his tour to promote Shadow of the Hegemon, and, unfortunately (for us), his last book tour, ever. Just like the last time I saw him, though, it was a terrific time, and we all learned all kinds of things about his upcoming projects. Since discussion of Ender's Game seems to be popular here, I thought I'd write up some notes I took during the event and share them with Slashdot." Read more below about what Card had to say about his plans for an Ender movie (perhaps you can make your younger brother a famous child actor), and about his other work both recent and upcoming. Huge thanks to dschuetz for taking these detailed notes for those not lucky enough to be near a book-tour stop.

Ender's Game Movie

The movie is, as OSC said, the same place it was five years ago: Looking for money. Well, maybe not exactly the same place -- they're still working and re-working the script. In short, OSC said that Ender's Game is a scary movie -- not for filmgoers, but for filmmakers. Because its stars are all children, and young children at that, it's a real challenge for anyone to make well enough to be financially successful, and that scares the heck out of the studios. So, OSC's challenge is to come up with a script that keeps the emotion and "truth" of the story intact, while also reducing the fear that studio execs feel while considering how to make a movie out of it.

Despite what you might think, OSC said Ender's Game is tough to make into a movie -- as most of the important stuff happens inside Ender's head. Hard to go there in a film. Card's brought in Richard LaGravense, who wrote The Fisher King, to help with some of the problems, and one of the first things he suggested was that Card should combine Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow. The idea there would be to help remove the need to have Peter and Valentine in the movie, eliminating some complications, and to help add some story elements surrounding the "bonds of brotherhood" between Ender and Bean, and also some more of the rivalry between them. Card loved the idea, and he's working with that in mind now. He also wanted us to remember that "I have absolute power over the film. Why? Because I've taken no money." So, any major change that you don't like, he said, is probably his idea. He's very aware of how important keeping the film as close as possible to the published stories is to his fans, but he's also very much more aware of how difficult it is to get a film made, and how much more difficult it is to make a great film. So he's willing to make some sacrifices in order to get the story told, and told well. But he's not going to hurt the story itself -- some changes will happen (for example, he's considering revealing halfway through the film that Gaff is really Mazar Rackham), but they won't hurt the story as a whole. And, since he's still in control, they'll be done "right."

Anyway, he's still looking for money, still looking for a director, still looking for an actor. The right actor for Ender is probably about 6 years old right now, so it won't be anyone we know -- not Jake Lloyd, not Haley Joel Osmond. Both would have been great if they could have made the film 3 or 4 years ago, but now they're both too old.

Other Film Projects

When I last saw OSC (for the Ender's Shadow book tour), he spoke of some other film projects. I asked him yesterday what was up with those. A TV pilot, Bordertown, that he'd been getting filmed in Mexico, just didn't work. Apparently, the crews they had simply weren't that good, and they didn't get enough usable film to make any good cut of the pilot. He hopes to go back to Mexico with a U.S. crew, rather than Mexican, and try again. He hopes to start this fall on Homebody, an adaptation of his 1998 novel. He's hoping to work soon on a script for Enchantment, which he described as his "favorite novel." The animated mini-series adaptation of Treason is still waiting for a good script, which Card hasn't been able to get to yet. And, finally, his "most anthologized short story," a cyberpunk attempt called "Dogwalker," is in the scripting stage, and he hopes to shoot that in New Orleans.

The Shadow Series

Originally, Card had hoped to have three books in the "Shadow" series (for which he still doesn't have a good overall name to reference it by). But somewhere while writing Shadow of the Hegemon, he realized that he needed to write another (like that's ever happened to a Card series before!) So, there will be an additional two novels in the series. In the afterward of SoH, Card talks about possible titles for the next one, centering on the 23rd Psalm ("The valley of the shadow of death") But his publisher told him that books with "death" in the title sell half what their predecessor sold, so he's changing the title. Currently, his favorite title is Shadow Puppets. After that will come Shadow of the Giant, referring primarily to Bean, but he's considering whether to connect, in some way, to the Giant's Drink from Ender's videogame in Battle School. He was also asked why he changed from "Buggers" to "Formics," and Card had a two-word answer: "Starship Troopers." Actually, it was far longer than two words, but centered around wanting to make sure that nobody who saw a preview for Ender's Game thought of Starship Troopers. And, in retrospect, he says he likes "Formics" much better, anyway.

Also, the copy of SoH currently on the market is, in Card's words, "defective." They printed the wrong draft. Someone pointed out that Ender didn't actually grow up in Greensboro, but that his parents moved there after Ender went to battle school. So an entire scene got rewritten. There'll be a second edition coming out soon, but until then, you can get the "patches" from OSCs web site. Other Forthcoming Books

He still has to write Crystal City, the next (#6) book in the Alvin Maker series. He said that from the beginning, Alvin Maker was meant to be an allegorical retelling of the story of Joseph Smith, but partway through he realized, "I?m adding magic to America. American history couldn't possibly come out the same." So, it became a sort of alternate history series as well, and grew from the original envisioned 3-volume set into a 7-volume series.

Rasputin (the next book in the Mayflower series, where a sentient cat is sent to kill Lovelock) is still exactly where it was two years ago -- stuck on Chapter 7. Card and Kathy Kidd are alternating chapters, like on the last book, and guess who's assigned #7? Actually, he said that there's "something just not right" about the book, and he hasn't been able to figure that one out yet.

He still has two Pastwatch books he wants to write -- the Flood (of Noah), and Eden (about Adam and Eve), and two books in the Women of Genesis series -- Rebecca, and Rachel and Leah.

Finally, Card is working on a project called Slow Leak, about magic "erupting" in Baldwin Hills. He's been hounded by a friend about not having a credible black hero in any of his stories, and Card's stumbling block has been that he's been deathly afraid of venturing into depicting a culture of which he knows nothing. So this will be an attempt at such a novel, and, just as Enchantment was vetted by experts in Russian folk literature, he'll have all kinds of help making sure that this story is true to the community he's trying to depict.

Other Information

As always, the talk before the signing was interesting and informative. It was amazing to see how many people were there (the cafe was packed, standing room only), and great to see so many young people there, as well. There's a lot more to be seen on Card's Web site, and I urge anyone interested in further information to check it out. You might also want to check out a transcript of an online chat with Barnes and Noble.

I'm not sure what OSC's plans are for the future, with no further big tours on the horizon, but hopefully he'll stay in touch through the web site. Maybe we can get him for a /. interview sometime ...

Note: That interview sounds like a good idea, we'll see what we can do :)

dschuetz writes: "On January 14, 2001, I had the opportunity to attend a book signing event by Orson Scott Card, at Bailey's Crossroads, in northern Virginia. This was the last stop on his tour to promote Shadow of the Hegemon, and, unfortunately (for us), his last book tour, ever. Just like the last time I saw him, though, it was a terrific time, and we all learned all kinds of things about his upcoming projects. Since discussion of Ender's Game seems to be popular here, I thought I'd write up some notes I took during the event and share them with Slashdot." Read more below about what Card had to say about his plans for an Ender movie (perhaps you can make your younger brother a famous child actor), and about his other work both recent and upcoming. Huge thanks to dschuetz for taking these detailed notes for those not lucky enough to be near a book-tour stop.

Ender's Game Movie

The movie is, as OSC said, the same place it was five years ago: Looking for money. Well, maybe not exactly the same place -- they're still working and re-working the script. In short, OSC said that Ender's Game is a scary movie -- not for filmgoers, but for filmmakers. Because its stars are all children, and young children at that, it's a real challenge for anyone to make well enough to be financially successful, and that scares the heck out of the studios. So, OSC's challenge is to come up with a script that keeps the emotion and "truth" of the story intact, while also reducing the fear that studio execs feel while considering how to make a movie out of it.

Despite what you might think, OSC said Ender's Game is tough to make into a movie -- as most of the important stuff happens inside Ender's head. Hard to go there in a film. Card's brought in Richard LaGravense, who wrote The Fisher King, to help with some of the problems, and one of the first things he suggested was that Card should combine Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow. The idea there would be to help remove the need to have Peter and Valentine in the movie, eliminating some complications, and to help add some story elements surrounding the "bonds of brotherhood" between Ender and Bean, and also some more of the rivalry between them. Card loved the idea, and he's working with that in mind now. He also wanted us to remember that "I have absolute power over the film. Why? Because I've taken no money." So, any major change that you don't like, he said, is probably his idea. He's very aware of how important keeping the film as close as possible to the published stories is to his fans, but he's also very much more aware of how difficult it is to get a film made, and how much more difficult it is to make a great film. So he's willing to make some sacrifices in order to get the story told, and told well. But he's not going to hurt the story itself -- some changes will happen (for example, he's considering revealing halfway through the film that Gaff is really Mazar Rackham), but they won't hurt the story as a whole. And, since he's still in control, they'll be done "right."

Anyway, he's still looking for money, still looking for a director, still looking for an actor. The right actor for Ender is probably about 6 years old right now, so it won't be anyone we know -- not Jake Lloyd, not Haley Joel Osmond. Both would have been great if they could have made the film 3 or 4 years ago, but now they're both too old.

Other Film Projects

When I last saw OSC (for the Ender's Shadow book tour), he spoke of some other film projects. I asked him yesterday what was up with those. A TV pilot, Bordertown, that he'd been getting filmed in Mexico, just didn't work. Apparently, the crews they had simply weren't that good, and they didn't get enough usable film to make any good cut of the pilot. He hopes to go back to Mexico with a U.S. crew, rather than Mexican, and try again. He hopes to start this fall on Homebody, an adaptation of his 1998 novel. He's hoping to work soon on a script for Enchantment, which he described as his "favorite novel." The animated mini-series adaptation of Treason is still waiting for a good script, which Card hasn't been able to get to yet. And, finally, his "most anthologized short story," a cyberpunk attempt called "Dogwalker," is in the scripting stage, and he hopes to shoot that in New Orleans.

The Shadow Series

Originally, Card had hoped to have three books in the "Shadow" series (for which he still doesn't have a good overall name to reference it by). But somewhere while writing Shadow of the Hegemon, he realized that he needed to write another (like that's ever happened to a Card series before!) So, there will be an additional two novels in the series. In the afterward of SoH, Card talks about possible titles for the next one, centering on the 23rd Psalm ("The valley of the shadow of death") But his publisher told him that books with "death" in the title sell half what their predecessor sold, so he's changing the title. Currently, his favorite title is Shadow Puppets. After that will come Shadow of the Giant, referring primarily to Bean, but he's considering whether to connect, in some way, to the Giant's Drink from Ender's videogame in Battle School. He was also asked why he changed from "Buggers" to "Formics," and Card had a two-word answer: "Starship Troopers." Actually, it was far longer than two words, but centered around wanting to make sure that nobody who saw a preview for Ender's Game thought of Starship Troopers. And, in retrospect, he says he likes "Formics" much better, anyway.

Also, the copy of SoH currently on the market is, in Card's words, "defective." They printed the wrong draft. Someone pointed out that Ender didn't actually grow up in Greensboro, but that his parents moved there after Ender went to battle school. So an entire scene got rewritten. There'll be a second edition coming out soon, but until then, you can get the "patches" from OSCs web site. Other Forthcoming Books

He still has to write Crystal City, the next (#6) book in the Alvin Maker series. He said that from the beginning, Alvin Maker was meant to be an allegorical retelling of the story of Joseph Smith, but partway through he realized, "I?m adding magic to America. American history couldn't possibly come out the same." So, it became a sort of alternate history series as well, and grew from the original envisioned 3-volume set into a 7-volume series.

Rasputin (the next book in the Mayflower series, where a sentient cat is sent to kill Lovelock) is still exactly where it was two years ago -- stuck on Chapter 7. Card and Kathy Kidd are alternating chapters, like on the last book, and guess who's assigned #7? Actually, he said that there's "something just not right" about the book, and he hasn't been able to figure that one out yet.

He still has two Pastwatch books he wants to write -- the Flood (of Noah), and Eden (about Adam and Eve), and two books in the Women of Genesis series -- Rebecca, and Rachel and Leah.

Finally, Card is working on a project called Slow Leak, about magic "erupting" in Baldwin Hills. He's been hounded by a friend about not having a credible black hero in any of his stories, and Card's stumbling block has been that he's been deathly afraid of venturing into depicting a culture of which he knows nothing. So this will be an attempt at such a novel, and, just as Enchantment was vetted by experts in Russian folk literature, he'll have all kinds of help making sure that this story is true to the community he's trying to depict.

Other Information

As always, the talk before the signing was interesting and informative. It was amazing to see how many people were there (the cafe was packed, standing room only), and great to see so many young people there, as well. There's a lot more to be seen on Card's Web site, and I urge anyone interested in further information to check it out. You might also want to check out a transcript of an online chat with Barnes and Noble.

I'm not sure what OSC's plans are for the future, with no further big tours on the horizon, but hopefully he'll stay in touch through the web site. Maybe we can get him for a /. interview sometime ...

Note: That interview sounds like a good idea, we'll see what we can do :)

enthalpyX writes: "According to The Philotic Web, Orson Scott Card's series, which began with 'Ender's Game' didn't end quite yet with Ender's Shadow. Due to be released January 2, 2001, 'Shadow of the Hegemon' will delve into Bean's life helping Peter rule the "old world" Ender left behind. You can read the first five chapters over at hatrack.com."

enthalpyX writes: "According to The Philotic Web, Orson Scott Card's series, which began with 'Ender's Game' didn't end quite yet with Ender's Shadow. Due to be released January 2, 2001, 'Shadow of the Hegemon' will delve into Bean's life helping Peter rule the "old world" Ender left behind. You can read the first five chapters over at hatrack.com."

CMU_Nort writes "Orson Scott Card is at it again. Hot on the tail of Ender's Shadow, he's writing another sequel to the Ender's Game story. This one seems to cover the story of the immediate history following the original story when all of the children return home. Called Shadow of the Hegemon, it should give us some of the story of what happened to Peter. The first five chapters are already available online." The rest of his website looks interesting too.

CMU_Nort writes "Orson Scott Card is at it again. Hot on the tail of Ender's Shadow, he's writing another sequel to the Ender's Game story. This one seems to cover the story of the immediate history following the original story when all of the children return home. Called Shadow of the Hegemon, it should give us some of the story of what happened to Peter. The first five chapters are already available online." The rest of his website looks interesting too.

wtpooh writes "CNN has a review of Ender's Shadow, an upcoming book by Orson Scott Card which retells the events of Ender's Game from the perspective of Bean, one of the children under Ender's command. I always liked Bean, so I'm really looking forward to this. According to Amazon, it will be available on August 31. You can also read the first four chapters of the book at Card's web site". Despite all the recommendations, I've never bothered to read Ender's Game. I think that will have to change very soon.