Orson Scott Card

Orson Scott Card (born 24 August 1951) is a prolific and best-selling author of numerous genres. His initial launch in the publishing industry was with science fiction (Hot Sleep[?] and Capitol) and later fantasy (Songmaster[?]). He became much more widely known with the publication of the seminal Ender's Game in 1985. However, he has not limited himself to those genres. Stories of horror and suspense such as Lost Boys and Treasure Box[?] demonstrate his versatility.

His writing is dominated by detailed characterization and moral issues. As Card says, "We care about moral issues, nobility, decency, happiness, goodness -- the issues that matter in the real world, but which can only be addressed, in their purity, in fiction."

Some of his novels, for example Stone Tables[?], a novel about the life of Biblical Moses, have explicit religious themes. In his other writings, the influence of his Mormon beliefs is less obvious.

Card was born in Richland, Washington and raised in Utah. He lives now in Greensboro, North Carolina with his wife Kristine. They have five children: Geoffrey, Emily, Charlie Ben, Zina Margaret, and Erin Louisa. Geoffrey Card is now a published author in his own right.

Table of contents showTocToggle("show","hide") 1 Quotations 2 Bibliography (incomplete) 2.1 Pre-Ender's Game 2.2 The Ender Series 2.3 Tales of Alvin Maker 2.4 The Homecoming Saga 2.5 The "Women of Genesis" Trilogy 2.6 The Shadow series 2.7 Post-Ender's Game, others 2.8 Books on writing 3 External Links

Quotations

"I wonder sometimes if the motivation for writers ought to be contempt, not admiration." (from the introduction to the story collection Future on Fire, where he discusses writers he considers to be hacks.)

"If it isn't a wonderful story first, who cares how "important" it is?" (Ibid.)

Bibliography (incomplete)

Pre-Ender's Game

• Listen, Mom and Dad[?] (non-fiction) (1978)
• Capitol (1978)
• Hot Sleep[?] (1978)
• A Planet Called Treason[?] (1978)
• Songmaster[?] (1979)
• Unaccompanied Sonata and Other Stories[?] (1980)
• Ainge[?] (non-fiction) (1982)
• Saintspeak[?] (non-fiction) (1982)
• Hart's Hope[?] (1983)
• The Worthing Chronicle[?] (reworking of Hot Sleep) (1983)
• Saints[?] (1983)

The Ender Series

• Ender's Game (1985)
• Speaker for the Dead (1986)
• Xenocide (1991)
• Children of the Mind (1996)

Tales of Alvin Maker

• Seventh Son[?] (1987)
• Red Prophet[?] (1988)
• Prentice Alvin[?] (1989)
• Alvin Journeyman[?] (1995)
• Heartfire[?] (1998)

The Homecoming Saga

• The Memory of Earth (1992)
• The Call of Earth[?] (1992)
• The Ships of Earth[?] (1994)
• Earthfall[?] (1995)
• Earthborn[?] (1995)

The "Women of Genesis" Trilogy

• Sarah[?] (2000)
• Rebekah[?] (2001)

The Shadow series

• Ender's Shadow (companion novel to Ender's Game) (1999)
• Shadow of the Hegemon (2001)
• Shadow Puppets (2002)

Post-Ender's Game, others

• Cardography[?] (1987)
• Wyrms[?] (1987)
• Treason[?] (revised edition of A Planet Called Treason) (1988)
• The Folk Of The Fringe[?] (1989)
• The Abyss (1989) (with James Cameron)
• Maps in a Mirror: The Short Fiction of Orson Scott Card[?] (1990)
• Eye For Eye / Tunesmith (Tor double novel) (1990) (Eye For Eye is by Card; Tunesmith is by Lloyd Biggle, Jr.[?])
• The Worthing Saga[?] (1990)
• Lost Boys (1992)
• A Storyteller in Zion[?] (non-fiction) (1993)
• Lovelock[?] (1994) (with Kathryn H. Kidd)
• Pastwatch: The Redemption Of Christopher Columbus[?] (1996)
• Treasure Box[?] (1996)
• Stone Tables[?] (1997)
• Homebody[?] (1998)
• Enchantment[?] (1999)
• Magic Mirror[?] (1999)

Books on writing

• Character and Viewpoint
• How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy

External Links

• The official Orson Scott Card web site (http://www.hatrack.com)
• Biography at the Orson Scott Card web site (http://www.hatrack.com/osc/about.shtml)
• Detailed bibliography at the Orson Scott Card web site (http://www.hatrack.com/osc/bibliography/index.shtml)