Orson Scott Card's "Homecoming" series

[AreaCode707]

Anyone read these? I just finished the third book, and I'm really enjoying them. Not "Ender's Game" of course; nothing is, but I like them a lot better than a lot of the other books he's written. He seems to write his best stuff when he's involving children. Sometimes the reoccurring themes are a little too obvious, book to book, but beyond that, I find his stuff a really good kick-back read.

 

[Ameesh]

i read a little bit of it and stopped cause i didnt care to put the time into it.


but i'm not a big osc fan, enders game was good but thats about it.

 

[AreaCode707]

Originally posted by: Ameesh
i read a little bit of it and stopped cause i didnt care to put the time into it.


but i'm not a big osc fan, enders game was good but thats about it.

I don't know, some of his books are fair, some I can't stand, but I like these pretty well, right below "Game" and "Shadow".

 

[Entity]

I read it a little a few years ago, but don't remember much about it. I'm reading Shadow Puppets right now. Picked it up yesterday and read the first 250 pages of it. Time to finish it tonight. Bean rocks.

Rob

 

[AreaCode707]

Originally posted by: Entity
I read it a little a few years ago, but don't remember much about it. I'm reading Shadow Puppets right now. Picked it up yesterday and read the first 250 pages of it. Time to finish it tonight. Bean rocks.

Rob

Shadow Puppets? Another "Shadow" sequel? WHY WASN'T I TOLD!?

 

[DaveSimmons]

I read the first one and maybe the second (I forget) at the time they came out, but was busy and wasn't impressed enough to use my book-reading time on them.

I prefer L. E. Modesitt Jr.'s "intellectual SF" to that of Card's after the first 3 ender books. Try Parafaith War or Adiamante, both are excellent.

 

[Bignate603]

Actually, if you want some insight, Orson Scott Card is Mormon (as am I). The story in the homecoming series is actually loosely based off the Book of Mormon. Alot of the names are obviously references, and the basic storyline is identical (well, besides God being a computer, and other things so it's not religious). Anyways, I think it's a pretty interesting thing, how he took the basic idea from a religous text and creating a novel from it.

I can sense the flames coming, but please keep it to a minimum.

 

[AreaCode707]

Originally posted by: Bignate603
Actually, if you want some insight, Orson Scott Card is Mormon (as am I). The story in the homecoming series is actually loosely based off the Book of Mormon. Alot of the names are obviously references, and the basic storyline is identical (well, besides God being a computer, and other things so it's not religious). Anyways, I think it's a pretty interesting thing, how he took the basic idea from a religous text and creating a novel from it.

I can sense the flames coming, but please keep it to a minimum.

That's interesting Nate. I've been able to see tendencies that direction in some of his books, but never knew that was his religious position.

 

[AreaCode707]

Originally posted by: DaveSimmons
I read the first one and maybe the second (I forget) at the time they came out, but was busy and wasn't impressed enough to use my book-reading time on them.

I prefer L. E. Modesitt Jr.'s "intellectual SF" to that of Card's after the first 3 ender books. Try Parafaith War or Adiamante, both are excellent.

Thanks, I'll check those out some year when I have a little more time.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Originally posted by: HotChic

Originally posted by: DaveSimmons
I read the first one and maybe the second (I forget) at the time they came out, but was busy and wasn't impressed enough to use my book-reading time on them.

I prefer L. E. Modesitt Jr.'s "intellectual SF" to that of Card's after the first 3 ender books. Try Parafaith War or Adiamante, both are excellent.

Thanks, I'll check those out some year when I have a little more time.

I know what you mean, my stack of unread books keeps getting taller, and that's just the ones I've bought. I haven't gotten around to buying the latest David Brin, or any of the Ender's Shadow books, or the sequel to Manifold: Time.

I wasn't trying to slam Card BTW, I liked him enough to have read most of his early / middle work and just didn't like the one series enough to keep reading. Then Alvin Maker was put on trial for murder and I stopped reading that series too. Meanwhile Brin, Modesitt, Stirling, Drake, Weber, etc. were all turning out good SF and I stopped paying attention to Card.

 

[Praetor]

OSC pretty much rules in my book. I was seriously into the Homecoming series the first time I read it. I noticed the religious references immediately, but didn't read too much into that part. My only complaint about the series is the finale, but I won't spoil it for you by saying why I don't like it here.

I liked the Ender series, but with all these prequels/side novels going on, I'm a bit confused.

Anyway.

 

[Ornery]

Would you guys be interested in a forum that Orson started during the 1994 Elections? It's full of left leaning SOBs, too! They can hold their own in a debate, so don't go looking for trouble. Funny thing is, Orson leans to the right, but he hasn't posted there in years due to his son's illness. I'm a member there, but haven't posted in a LONG time myself:

• The Ornery American Forum

You might also like:

• Hatrack River Forum
  The Official Web Site of Orson Scott Card

The same people that hang out at The Ornery American Forum frequent that one as well.

 

[T2T III]

Does anyone remember when OSC used to write a monthly column for Windows (I think that was the title) magazine? That rag has been out of print for about 4 years now, but I used to like to read his column.

 

[Brutuskend]

Originally posted by: Bignate603
Actually, if you want some insight, Orson Scott Card is Mormon (as am I). The story in the homecoming series is actually loosely based off the Book of Mormon. Alot of the names are obviously references, and the basic storyline is identical (well, besides God being a computer, and other things so it's not religious). Anyways, I think it's a pretty interesting thing, how he took the basic idea from a religous text and creating a novel from it.

I can sense the flames coming, but please keep it to a minimum.

No offence, but the Book Of Mormon is pretty much a Novel as well isn't it?

Wasn't there something turned up several years ago that proved that Joseph Smith just dreamt the whole thing up?

Not to slam of anyone religious beliefs here, but I understand they found some writings of his where he more or less said as much.

Pardon me if what I heard was total B.S., but as I remember it was from a "reliable" source.

On a side note, has anyone ever read "The Jesus Incident" By Frank Herbert?

It sounds like it is similar in some ways to the other book you were talking about.

 

[Kadarin]

After reading Ender's Game (excellent) and then Speaker for the Dead (not so excellent), I sort of lost interest in OSC's work, which is interesting because I have read a lot of SF. Lately I've been preferring authors who have a lot of depth, such as Dan Simmons, Peter F. Hamilton, and Jack McDevitt.

 

[Bignate603]

Originally posted by: Brutuskend

Originally posted by: Bignate603
Actually, if you want some insight, Orson Scott Card is Mormon (as am I). The story in the homecoming series is actually loosely based off the Book of Mormon. Alot of the names are obviously references, and the basic storyline is identical (well, besides God being a computer, and other things so it's not religious). Anyways, I think it's a pretty interesting thing, how he took the basic idea from a religous text and creating a novel from it.

I can sense the flames coming, but please keep it to a minimum.

No offence, but the Book Of Mormon is pretty much a Novel as well isn't it?

Wasn't there something turned up several years ago that proved that Joseph Smith just dreamt the whole thing up?

Not to slam of anyone religious beliefs here, but I understand they found some writings of his where he more or less said as much.

Pardon me if what I heard was total B.S., but as I remember it was from a "reliable" source.

On a side note, has anyone ever read "The Jesus Incident" By Frank Herbert?

It sounds like it is similar in some ways to the other book you were talking about.

It's as much a novel as you would think the Bible is.

A few years back a set of papers turned up that seemed to refute Joseph Smith's original story (I think they were called the White Salamander papers or something of that sort). After an extended study the papers turned out to be forged and synthetically aged. The forensics done on the papers were actually very interesting, even warranted a episode of one of the discovery channel's shows (I think it was "The New Detectives"). The only give away was the fact the ink had cracked, which contradicted every other example from the era. They finally isolated the aging process used that caused the cracking, causing the papers to be disregarded as a forgery.

I've heard many people talk on Joseph Smith. The one that I thought was interesting was a psychologist who wasn't Mormon. Basically he said that he didn't know if what Joseph said was true, he just knew without a doubt Joseph believed it.

Wow, this thread has gotten off topic.

 

[Brutuskend]

Thanks for the update!

 

[Balthazar]

No time for love Dr. Jones.
Can't pick up a new book until I finish re-reading the Memory, Sorrow and Thorn Trilogy by Tad Williams.

Besides, OSC is way over-rated, he takes a couple pot-shots and sometimes gets lucky, but far to inconsistent for my tastes.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Originally posted by: Astaroth33
After reading Ender's Game (excellent) and then Speaker for the Dead (not so excellent), I sort of lost interest in OSC's work, which is interesting because I have read a lot of SF. Lately I've been preferring authors who have a lot of depth, such as Dan Simmons, Peter F. Hamilton, and Jack McDevitt.

Then I recommend you check out Stephen Baxter's Manifold: Time and Brin's Uplift books for more "big thinking" SF, and of course EE "Doc" Smith's Lensman series.

What's a good Jack McDevitt book? I haven't read any of his.

 

[Gunbuster]

As I have heard my freinds call OSC "preachy sh#t" I will stick with:

Peter F Hamilton: best space/sex opera around, got to interloan books 3 & 4

David Brin: he needs to quit teaching, I need more books!

David Weber: all space battle all the time

Kathleen Ann Goonan: Yeay for nanotech

Alastair Reynolds: space opera+ nanotech

 

[Maleficus]

Ender series + Shadow series = awesomeness