Orson Scott Card (1951- )

"If it isn't a wonderful story first, who cares how "important" it is?" Orson Scott Card

To find out more about the Hugo Award or the Nebula Award go to the Official Hugo Award Site or The Nebula Award Site.

His Life:

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."

In many of his works, Card focuses on the moral growth of young people whose abilities to act maturely and decisively while in unusual situations will determine the future of those around them. Card is a devout Mormon who is intrigued by the role of the individual in society, and he credits his solid religious background with instilling in him both a strong moral sense and a love for storytelling.

"I don't want to write about people in isolation," he told Publishers Weekly. "What I want to write about is people who are committed members of the community and therefore have a network of relationships that define who they are. I think if you're going to write about people, you have to write about storytelling."

In his works Card is deeply concerned with his own unresolved moral and philosophical questions "In some of the best SF, you move into a universe where all moral bets are off, where you have a group of aliens, or humans in an alien setting, who live by different rules because some key aspect of life that we take for granted as human beings has been changed radically. . . . After a while we can see ourselves through their eyes and see how bizarre we are. Then you come back and you question everything."

He currently lives in Greensboro, North Carolina. He and his wife, Kristine, are the parents of five children: Geoffrey, Emily, Charles, Zina Margaret, and Erin Louisa (named for Chaucer, Bronte and Dickinson, Dickens, Mitchell, and Alcott, respectively).

His Books: The Ender Series

Ender Wiggin is a six year old in the future. Aliens have attacked Earth twice and almost destroyed us both times. This time, though, Earth is going on the offensive. Ender is chosen to go through some very rigorous training, like many other boys, in order to become soldiers. He is taken to a special training zone where he will learn how to be a fleet commander. Little does Ender know, though, that many of his "exercises" were real battles that he was commanding. The people in command manipulated and tricked him once again. But, in the end, Ender helps defeat the alien forces.

Ender Wiggin, now working as a "Speaker for the Dead," travels the galaxy to interpret the lives of the deceased for their families and neighbors; as he travels, he also searches for a home for the eggs of the lone surviving "hive queen" of the race he destroyed as a child.

In this novel, Card picks up the story of Ender as he works feverishly with his adopted Lusitanian family to neutralize a deadly virus.

Ender plays a relatively minor part in the hectic attempt to avoid destruction of the planet Lusitania by the Starways Congress. Peter and Young Valentine, who are copies of Ender's brother and sister, and both products of Ender's mind are the main characters. Jane, a rather irascible Artificial Intelligence who has the uncanny knack of transcending the light-speed barrier, also is here. Together these three must roam the galaxy to find a new home for the three races of Lusitania that may all too soon become refugees.

Orson Scott Card offers a Christmas gift to his millions of fans with this short novel set during Ender's first years at the Battle School where it is forbidden to celebrate religious holidays.

The children come from many nations, many religions; while they are being trained for war, religious conflict between them is not on the curriculum. But Dink Meeker, one of the older students, doesn't see it that way. He thinks that giving gifts isn't exactly a religious observation, and on Sinterklaas Day he tucks a present into another student's shoe.

This small act of rebellion sets off a battle royal between the students and the staff, but some surprising alliances form when Ender comes up against a new student, Zeck Morgan. The War over Santa Claus will force everyone to make a choice.

The Shadow Series

Card returns to the world Ender's Game to tell the story of Bean, a superhuman child. Bean is taken from the streets and sent to the Battle School to learn to fight the insect-like Buggers. Bean wins selection by his understanding of personal motivation--a skill that kept him alive in the mean streets. At Battle School he learns how to command fleets for the war with the alien Buggers. When he comes into contact with Ender, Bean wants to understand what makes Ender tick. Through Bean the reader learns about the formation of Ender's Dragon army and also about the last of Ender's games.

A sequel to Ender's Shadow, continues the story of Bean, now a young man. With the wars over and Ender off to colonize a new world, the children of the Battle School become increasingly important to those nations wishing to gobble up their neighbors. Bean, the second best of the Battle School children and aide to Peter Wiggin, is sought for his powers by Achilles, an unbalanced genius who wishes to conquer Earth.

The War is over. The enemy is destroyed. The human race is saved. But with the external threat gone, the Earth has become a battlefield once more. The children of the Battle School are more than heroes; they are potential weapons that can bring power to the countries that control them. One by one, all of Ender's Dragon Army are kidnapped. Only Bean escapes; and he turns for help to Ender's brother Peter.

Orson Scott Card's acclaimed new series following the events of his classic, award-winning Ender saga continues. Bean has narrowly averted total disaster and managed to thwart the plans of Achilles. But Achilles is far from defeated and his final goal - total domination of the Earth - is still well within his grasp. Now Bean must bring all his power and intellect to bear if he is to withstand the rise of the Hegemon. But even one of Ender's greatest generals must realise when he is fighting a battle that cannot possibly be won.

The Tales of Alvin Maker: A magical version of the American frontier

An unforgettable story about young Alvin Maker: the seventh son of a seventh son. Born into an alternative frontier America where life is hard and folk magic is real, Alvin is gifted with the power. He must learn to use his gift wisely. But dark forces are arrayed against Alvin, and only a young girl with second sight can protect him.

Young Alvin Miller's magical talent for making things whole becomes the focus of a desperate race to prevent a bloodthirsty war between the Indians and the white settlers in North America. Set in an alternate world steeped in natural magic, this sequel to Seventh Son continues to demonstrate the author's love for American folklore. Recommended by Library Journal

A country schoolteacher and the child of a runaway slave find their destinies entwined with that of Alvin Miller, whose talent for "making" has marked him for destruction by the evil force known as the Unmaker. Card's epic tale of a magical, alternate America demonstrates his skill in graceful storytelling. Recommended, along with Seventh Son and Red Prophet , for most fantasy collections by Library Journal.

Alvin is accused of theft by Makepeace Smith, his former Master. The book explores what happens as Alvin tries to clear his name. Much happens in this book, which is a continuation of Card's "Alvin Maker" series. There are some real surprises and some characters I didn't expect to come back, which come back in unexpected ways. Worth Reading? You Bet! From a reader.

Alvin and his small band of followers are on a quest to build the Crystal City, a place where those who have knacks can live in safety from the people who sometimes burn them as witches. While Alvin visits the nearly holy province of New England to find out just how cities work, his wife Margaret, traveling under the name Peggy, journeys to the kingdom of Camelot, which was formerly known as Charleston, South Carolina.

In the author's alternative American frontier world, Indians work the magics of nature, Africans transform themselves with trinkets and whites have knacks-magical talents that allow them to shape metal, find water, win the hearts of followers and more. Alvin, the powerful seventh son of a seventh son, can create things that cannot be destroyed. Determined to stop suffering where he finds it, he dreams of building the Crystal City, which will help mankind live in peace.

The The Homecoming Saga: Retelling of ancient scripture as science fiction.

High above the planet Harmony, the Oversoul watches. Its task, programmed so many millennia ago, is to guard the human settlement on this planet - to protect this fragile remnant of Earth from all threats. To protect them, most of all, from themselves. The Oversoul has done its job well. There is no war on Harmony. There are no weapons of mass destruction. There is no technology that could lead to weapons of war. By control of the data banks, and subtle interference in the very thoughts of the people, the artificial intelligence has fulfilled its mission. But now there is a problem. In orbit, the Oversoul realizes that it has lost access to some of its memory banks, and some of its power systems are failing. And on the planet, men are beginning to think about power, wealth and conquest.

As Harmony's Oversoul grows weaker, a great warrior has arisen to challenge its bans. His name is Moozh, and he has won control of an army using forbidden technology. Now he is aiming his soldiers at the city of Basilica, that strong fortress above the Plain. Basilica remains in turmoil. Wetchik and his sons are not strong enough to stop an army. Can Rasa and her allies defeat him through intrigue, or will Moozh take the city and all who are in it?

The City of Basilica has fallen. Now Wetchik, Nafai, and all their family must brave the desert wastes, and cross the wide continents to where Harmony's hidden spaceport lies silent, abandoned, waiting for the command to make the great interstellar ships ready for flight again. But of these sixteen people, only a few have chosen their exile. The others, Rasa's spiteful daughters and their husbands; Wetchik's oldest son, Elemak, have been forced against their will. Their anger and hatreds will make the difficult journey harder.

At last, the Wetchik tribe is ready to take a ship to the stars. But from the beginning there has been bitter dispute between Nafai and Elemak, Wetchik's youngest son and his oldest. And only Nefai, who wears the Cloak of the Starmaster by the Oversoul's command, understands what this means to the future of all.

The lone survivor from the starship Basilica, Shedemai wears the Cloak of the Starmaster and is summoned by the Oversoul to watch over her descendants in the hopes of finding someone who can repair its damaged programming. .

Other Novels

The "Women of Genesis" Trilogy
Sarah (2000)
Rebekah (2001)

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)
Robota (2003) (with Doug Chiang)
Magic Street (2005)
Empire (2006)
Space Boy (2007)
Invasive Procedures (2007) (with Aaron Johnston)

His contemporary novels Lost Boys, Treasure Box, and Homebody brought a powerful emphasis on character and moral dilemmas to the old-fashioned ghost story. And his contemporary novel, Enchantment (April 1999), is a romantic fantasy that has Sleeping Beauty being awakened by an American graduate student in Ukraine in 1991.

Books on writing: Character and Viewpoint and How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy