The Authorized Ender Companion (53 page)

Ender’s Shadow
(Comic Book)

Year published: 2008–2009

SIGNIFICANT CHARACTERS: Bean Delphiki, Petra Arkanian, Achilles Flandres, Peter Wiggin

SPECIAL NOTES
: Marvel Comics published a series of comic books based on the original
Ender’s Shadow
novel. The adaptation was written by Mike Carey with art by Sebastian Fiumara.

SYNOPSIS
: See novel entry.

“Gold Bug” (Short Story)

Year published: 2007

SIGNIFICANT CHARACTERS
: Sel Menach, Ender Wiggin

SPECIAL NOTES
: Short story was written first, but published in
Orson Scott Card’s InterGalactic Medicine Show
online magazine after the comic book adaptation of the story was published in Marvel Comics’s graphic novel,
Red Prophet: The Story of Alvin Maker
, Volume One. Portions of the story are also included in the full-length novel,
Ender in Exile
.

SYNOPSIS
: On a distant planet, Sel Menach, a soldier in the wars against the Formics, has become the planet’s governor and its chief scientist. Learning that Ender Wiggin was set to be his replacement as governor, Sel sets out to have a scientific exploration. With the help of his young assistant, Po, Sel discovers a race of alien bug creatures working in the caverns of the planet harvesting metal by eating and absorbing the alloys until their exoskeletons are saturated. These Gold Bugs become the focus of Sel’s life work as Ender arrives to take over governing the planet.

Gold Bug
(Comic Book)

Year published: 2007

SIGNIFICANT CHARACTERS
: Sel Menach, Ender Wiggin

SPECIAL NOTES
: A comic book adaptation of the short story of the same name, this version of
Gold Bug
was scripted by Jake Black with art by Jin Han. It first appeared in the back of Marvel Comics’s graphic novel,
Red Prophet: The Story of Alvin Maker
, Volume One. This first appearance was published before the story upon which it was based was featured in
Orson Scott Card’s InterGalactic Medicine Show
online magazine.

SYNOPSIS
: See short story entry.

“Ender’s Homecoming” (Short Story)

Year published: 2008

SIGNIFICANT CHARACTERS
: Hyrum Graff, John Paul Wiggin, Theresa Wiggin, Peter Wiggin, Valentine Wiggin.

SPECIAL NOTES
: First appeared in
Orson Scott Card’s InterGalactic Medicine Show
online magazine. Also appears as part of full-length novel,
Ender in Exile
.

SYNOPSIS
: The nations of the world all hope to exploit Ender Wiggin in the aftermath of his victory over the Formics. When Ender’s parents receive a letter from Hyrum Graff subtly warning them of this, they decide to manipulate their other children, Valentine and Peter, into writing political essays that will result in Ender’s exile to a human colony on a distant planet.

“A Young Man with Prospects” (Short Story)

Year published: 2007

SIGNIFICANT CHARACTERS
: Ender Wiggin, Alessandra Toscano, Dorabella Toscano

SPECIAL NOTES
: Published in
Orson Scott Card’s InterGalactic Medicine Show
online magazine. Included in full-length novel,
Ender in Exile
.

SYNOPSIS
: A young girl named Alessandra learns that her mother has signed them up to leave Earth and head for a new planet and human colony. Not wanting to go, Alessandra tries reaching out, without success, to her estranged grandmother. Realizing how much her mother is sacrificing for them to have a better life, Alessandra decides it’s okay to leave Earth. When she learns that the hero of humanity, Ender Wiggin—a boy her own age—is going to be on the same ship, she gets excited, thinking that she might just marry this boy.

Ender in Exile
(Novel)

Year published: 2008

SIGNIFICANT CHARACTERS
: Ender Wiggin, Valentine Wiggin, Admiral Quincy Morgan, Sel Menach, Alessandra Toscano, Virlomi, Achilles Flandres II, Hyrum Graff

SPECIAL NOTES
: Includes short stories “Ender’s Homecoming,” “Young Man With Prospects,” and part of “Gold Bug.”

SYNOPSIS
: Following his victories over the Formics, Ender Wiggin is sent into space to govern a human colony on a distant planet. He is joined by his sister, Valentine, and pursued by a young girl named Alessandra Toscano. Ender has frequent run-ins with the transport ship’s commanding officer, Admiral Quincy Morgan. When the ship arrives at its destination, Ender is made governor. He discovers a Formic Hive Queen living on the planet, and takes it to preserve her life. It is a great penance for his act of xenocide. Ender and Valentine both write important books while on this planet. Hyrum Graff asks Ender to travel to another planet, Ganges, to discover the fate of the last of Bean and Petra’s lost children. Ender meets this child, who believes himself to be the son of Achilles Flandres. Ender teaches the boy of his true parentage, setting Achilles II, now calling himself Arkanian Delphiki, on a better path. Ender and Valentine return to the stars and more planets.

Shadow of the Hegemon
(Novel)

Year published: 2001

SIGNIFICANT CHARACTERS
: Peter Wiggin, Achilles Flandres, Bean Delphiki, Petra Arkanian, Sister Carlotta, Hyrum Graff

SYNOPSIS
: Ender Wiggin’s colleagues are the heroes of Earth. They worked together to defeat the Formics, the aliens who twice attacked our planet and threatened humanity’s very existence. Ender himself has left Earth to govern a human colony on a former Formic world, leaving Bean, Petra, and the rest of his friends alone on Earth. Achilles Flandres, a murderer and longtime
enemy of Bean’s, kidnaps the remaining members of Ender’s army, or jeesh as it was known, except Bean. To rescue his friends, Bean turns to Ender’s brother, Peter, a teenaged political pundit and a manipulator with designs of world domination. All are rescued except Petra, the secret love of Bean’s life. Bean mounts a dangerous operation to save her and successfully does so, but is unable to save Sister Carlotta from Achilles’s murderous hand. Petra wants to marry Bean, but he has discovered that he is growing at an incredible rate and will not live into full adulthood. He doesn’t want to make Petra a young widow. Achilles is captured, and Peter furthers his path to ruling the world.

Shadow Puppets
(Novel)

Year published: 2002

SIGNIFICANT CHARACTERS
: Peter Wiggin, Bean Delphiki, Achilles Flandres, Petra Arkanian, Hyrum Graff, Alai, Han Tzu, Virlomi

SYNOPSIS
: In the years since their victory over the Formics, the members of Ender Wiggin’s army have been taken in by their respective governments and exploited for their military genius. Bean Delphiki continues to grow at an astounding rate, knowing that he will soon be dead from the genetic manipulation that gave him his superior strength and intellect. His best friend, Petra Arkanian, wants desperately to marry him, but he refuses. Meanwhile, Peter Wiggin, Ender’s older brother, is getting further on the path to ruling the world. Achilles Flandres has escaped and is manipulating world politics to start wars in Asia and Europe. With Bean’s help, Peter’s small army and government is able to help put an end to the wars, but not without consequence. India has been taken over by the Islamic world, and is beginning small revolts. Bean ultimately marries Petra, and they set out to have children in vitro, hoping to ensure that they do not have the genetic manipulation that will kill Bean. Bean also confronts and kills Achilles, who spearheads the robbery of Bean and Petra’s embryos. With Achilles dead, and the world in disarray, Bean and Petra set out to find their babies, while Peter picks up the pieces of a fractured world, hoping to unify it under his government, the Hegemony.

Shadow of the Giant
(Novel)

Year published: 2005

SIGNIFICANT CHARACTERS
: Peter Wiggin, Bean Delphiki, Petra Arkanian, Alai, Han Tzu, Virlomi

SYNOPSIS
: Bean Delphiki has only a short time to live. He will die from the genetic manipulation that has given him superior strength and intellect,
as well as accelerated his growth to giant-sized. But before he does that, he and his wife Petra must find their stolen embryos. They search throughout the world looking for them, finding all but one who had been hidden by Achilles Flandres, Bean’s lifelong arch enemy. Meanwhile Peter Wiggin, the Hegemon of Earth, works to unify governments and militaries into one world government. The spiritual leader of India (a former Battle Schooler named Virlomi) and the head of the Muslim world (another Battle School grad named Alai) have united in marriage, but have set their own designs for world control in motion. With Bean’s part-time help, Peter is able to cause a split between Alai and Virlomi and unify the world, bringing about an end to the wars on the planet. Peter becomes the Hegemon of the whole world except for America, which doesn’t join his government. Bean, knowing that he will soon die, divorces Petra and takes a few of their children (all of whom have the same genetic manipulation he carries) into space. They plan to travel at light speed, slowing time for them and allowing scientists on Earth to figure out how to reverse the manipulation. Petra is heartbroken, but eventually marries Peter. Peter’s brother, Ender, writes the story of Peter’s life, and it is a book that revolutionizes the world. Decades pass, and Peter dies. Petra mourns him, but is glad that she has lived the life she did.

“Investment Counselor” (Short Story)

Year published: 1999

SIGNIFICANT CHARACTERS
: Jane, Ender Wiggin, Valentine Wiggin

SPECIAL NOTES
: Story first published in
Far Horizons
, an anthology of science fiction stories and novellas; republished in
First Meetings in the Enderverse
.

SYNOPSIS
: Arriving at the planet Sorelledolce, Ender Wiggin, now an adult, wonders about his financial status. He tries to find his money through the bank on the planet but is denied. He discovers, however, that a sentient computer program named Jane has been managing his finances. With Jane’s help, Ender is able to stump an annoying tax collector and gain access to his money. This begins a relationship between Ender and Jane that will grow deeply intimate over the next several centuries of relativisitic space travel.

Speaker for the Dead
(Novel)

Year published: 1986

SIGNIFICANT CHARACTERS
: Ender Wiggin, Novinha, Miro, Jane, Human, Pipo, Libo

SPECIAL NOTES
: Won presitigous Hugo and Nebula awards, making Orson Scott Card the only author to ever win both awards in back-to-back years, having won the previous year for
Ender’s Game
.

SYNOPSIS
: Three thousand years after his defeat of the Formics, Ender Wiggin receives a call for a Speaker to the distant planet Lusitania. He travels there to Speak the death of a loved one of a little girl named Novinha. Though it feels like a matter of weeks to Ender, nearly thirty years pass for Novinha. She marries and has children by another man (her secret lover Libo), who also is killed. Her husband also died in this period. Novinha’s children had become the top scientists on the planet and worked very closely with the native life-forms, the pequeninos, who had killed a few humans (including Libo) over the years. Ender’s arrival sent the planet’s entire culture into chaos. He Spoke the deaths he’d come to Speak and began to believe this planet might make a suitable home for the last Formic Hive Queen, whom he’d carried with him for three millennia. Though she initially hated him, Novinha fell in love with Ender and the two were married. Ender worked with her children and the pequeninos, hopeful that new relationships between species could be achieved. It was Ender’s prayer that the pequeninos would stop killing humans and the Hive Queen could finally find sanctuary.

Xenocide
(Novel)

Year published: 1991

SIGNIFICANT CHARACTERS
: Ender Wiggin, Novinha, Miro, Jane, Han Qing jao, Si Wang-mu

SPECIAL NOTES
: Created term “xenocide,” which is defined as an act of genocide toward an alien species.

SYNOPSIS
: Ender Wiggin has lived on the planet Lusitania with his wife and her children for several years. The children are grown and are the top scientists on the planet, experts in the deadly virus the Descolada that threatens the world’s very existence. They have continued to work with the planet’s native life-forms, the pequeninos, to solve the mystery of the virus. Ender has also deposited the Formic Hive Queen, whom he carried for three millennia looking for a suitable home, with the hope that she and her race would again flourish. But when death and chaos ensue between the pequeninos and humans, the governing body of the galaxy, the Starways Congress, dispatches a fleet of ships to destroy Lusitania and to contain the virus. Ender’s wise sister, Valentine, with her husband and children, travels to Lusitania to
help stop the invasion. Meanwhile, half a galaxy away, a girl on the Chinese planet Path, Qing-jao, believing she is a vessel for the gods, helps the fleet in their mission. Thanks to exposure from Ender’s sentient computer program, Jane, Qing-jao is stopped, and the source of her “gods” exposed. Qing-jao remains dogmatically faithful to her religious beliefs, ultimately dying and becoming a god herself.

Powered by thought, Jane and her colleagues experiment using Outspace to find a world where the people and pequeninos and Formics of Lusitania could go as the fleet approached. In Outspace, Ender creates new versions of his siblings, Peter and Valentine. They are young, and soulfully connected to Ender. They have adult wisdom, but teenaged bodies.