I was reading Science Fiction since I was able to choose my own books. What takes me away is an author who creates a world that is "other" yet the characters are complex, not the simple formula of much Sci Fi drek "and we landed on this world where ducks were the rulers and they acted exactly like people, but, don't forget, they had white feathers and yellow beaks". There is also the SciFi that is just wrapped up in the IDEA "and video games became implanted in us and people are slugs hooked up to machines where they have adventures or drugs become the way to control people and people are slugs who used drugs where they have adventures" that they think is so COOL.

I do not want to take a vacation in another world, I want to BE an observer of the culture and the religion and what makes these beings tick. Octavia Butler did that for me. On the other hand, I am not a huge fan of novels that are so complex that I need to draw charts to remember who is what.

The Card books so far, I am so intrigued by this other world, these others, the sign of a good book in my hands is one I cannot put down YET, I choose to put down because I don't want to reach the end. GOTTA get that library fine paid off

Read through to the end of the series, it will become clear in time that the story is very much a morality play. Card has some very important things to say.

Ender's Game is also the best book on leadership I've ever read. Far, far better than the corporate gibberish that passes for profundity these days.

Question. Spoilers as well, sorta.

I've begun "Ender in Exile". Suddenly, there is use of the term "formics" again, have not heard that term since the first book. It would have seemed that term for that race would have been used along with or even in place of "buggers" in the last two books. Is there any reason that it pops up again now? Or that it was NOT used in the last 2 books?

I beg your pardon, because you are correct--the word "formics" does not appear in Speaker for the Dead or Children of the Mind.

My experience with Card has been that his first book in a series is engaging, the next is a bit listless, and I can't finish his third.

The Homecoming Saga was such. I quit about a chapter into The Ships of Earth. And haven't picked up a Card book since.

I made it into Xenocide but don't remember if I finished it. I note that there are now about 15 books in the Ender's Game series. Are any worth reading?

Don't say I didn't warn you.

I beg your pardon, because you are correct--the word "formics" does not appear in Speaker for the Dead or Children of the Mind.