Like near everyone who’s read it, I loved Ender’s Game. (1985)

Orson Scott Card’s follow-up — Speaker for the Dead (1986) — was good, but different. As a result, I gave up on the Ender’s Game (series), eleven novels, twelve short stories, and 47 comic issues.

But Warren recommend I try Book #5 — Ender’s Shadow — a retelling of the original story, from the perspective of another character — Bean.

… In fact, the two books tell an almost identical story of brilliant children being trained in the orbiting Battle School to lead humanity’s fleets in the final war against alien invaders known as the Buggers. The most brilliant of these young recruits is Ender Wiggin, an unparalleled commander and tactician who can surely defeat the Buggers if only he can overcome his own inner turmoil.

Second among the children is Bean, who becomes Ender’s lieutenant despite the fact that he is the smallest and youngest of the Battle School students.

Bean is the central character of Shadow, and we pick up his story when he is just a 2-year-old starving on the streets of a future Rotterdam that has become a hell on earth.

Bean is unnaturally intelligent for his age, which is the only thing that allows him to escape–though not unscathed–the streets and eventually end up in Battle School. Despite his brilliance, however, Bean is doomed to live his life as an also-ran to the more famous and in many ways more brilliant Ender. Nonetheless, Bean learns things that Ender cannot or will not understand, and it falls to this once pathetic street urchin to carry the weight of a terrible burden that Ender must not be allowed to know. …

Amazon

It is excellent, almost as good as the original.

Recommended. But not for kids. This is an adult book.

Ender’s Game — the film — is finally scheduled for release Nov. 2013.

… an ensemble cast that includes Harrison Ford, Ben Kingsley, Aramis Knight, Hailee Steinfeld, Jimmy Pinchak, Viola Davis, and Abigail Breslin. In November 2010, Card stated that the film’s storyline would be a fusion of Ender’s Game and its parallel novel, Ender’s Shadow, focusing on the important elements of both.

The actor is agee-15, too old to play the part of Ender, actually. I hope Hollywood manages NOT to ruin the story.

I fear they’ll add a LOVE STORY to the plot.

The Millennium series consists of three bestselling novels, originally written in Swedish, by the late Stieg Larsson (1954–2004). The two primary characters in the saga are Lisbeth Salander, a woman in her twenties with a photographic memory and poor social skills, and Mikael Blomkvist, an investigative journalist and editor of a magazine called Millennium. …

The movies are better.

Swedish film production company Yellow Bird released 3 films on November 24, 2010. With Michael Nyqvist as Mikael Blomkvist and Noomi Rapace as Lisbeth Salander.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, released on February 25, 2009.
The Girl Who Played with Fire, released on September 18, 2009.
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest, released on November 27, 2009.

Warren, Sandy and I watched them in series. Recommended.

We also watched the American version of Dragon Tattoo with Daniel Craig as Blomkvist and Rooney Mara as Salander.

Also excellent.

Click PLAY or watch the Swedish trailer on YouTube.

Click PLAY or watch the American trailer on YouTube.

If forced to choose between, I’d say the American movie was slightly more memorable. Rooney Mara even more shocking than Noomi Rapace.

Lisbeth Salander is the main reason to watch.

We’re looking forward to the next two American films.