As the title says, I want to start both of these series but I am wondering which to start first. Which would you recommend bookGAF?
edit:
edit:
-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
Ender's Game or Foundation?
- Thread starter Plywood
- Start date
- Status
SquiddyCracker
Banned
Foundation, because it is easier to get into.
Tatsumaki Senpuukyaku!
Member
Just going by the first book enders game but ill take the whole foundation trilogy over enders anything
Is the rest really that bad?
Prophet Steve
Member
Uh, what?
Ender's game is -
Oh never mind, talking about the entire series here. It kinda depends on how far you want to read. I only have read the first two books of the Ender series and I've read the Foundation trilogy, because those were the ones I saw recommended and I enjoyed all of the books of (Ender's Game the least). I would say it doesn't matter, but it depends on all the books you want to read from the series.
Are the Foundation books outside of the original trilogy recommended?
Salvor.Hardin
Banned
C. The Forever War
But yes, the Foundation trilogy is fucking awesome.
But yes, the Foundation trilogy is fucking awesome.
I like Speaker for the Dead okay. Some people disagree, and that's not unreasonable.
I really wouldn't recommend any of the rest of the books at all. Or anything else Orson Scott Card has written, said, done, or indeed believed.
No. The Ender sequels just become a different genre of science fiction and that turns a ton of people off.
Exactly . . .
Yeah, that's pretty much what I wanted to say.
whatsinaname
Member
Prelude to Foundation
Forward the Foundation
Foundation
Foundation and Empire
Second Foundation
Foundation's Edge
Foundation and Earth
Ender's Shadow
Ender's Game
In that order.
Then stop.
Forward the Foundation
Foundation
Foundation and Empire
Second Foundation
Foundation's Edge
Foundation and Earth
Ender's Shadow
Ender's Game
In that order.
Then stop.
SquiddyCracker
Banned
Dito this man.
You also need to read The Forever War, and Forever peace, and that other one.
Eew. Read books in publishing order, not chronological.
Salvor.Hardin
Banned
My (user)namesake is what makes the Foundation trilogy one of the smartest written scifi books out there.
Tesseract
Banned
ender's game was written by a homophobic bigot, the foundation series was written by one of the smartest generalists to ever walk the earth.
do ender's game first. reading ender's game after the foundation series is like watching armageddon after 2001: a space odyssey.
but i'm gonna have to second salvor's forever war rec. it's kingshit gravy.
do ender's game first. reading ender's game after the foundation series is like watching armageddon after 2001: a space odyssey.
but i'm gonna have to second salvor's forever war rec. it's kingshit gravy.
Exactly this. I really enjoyed the first book, and I was initially quite surprised at the shift for the second one. Still, once I got used to the fact that the next book was going to be very different from the first one, I ended up really liking it. If you've read The Dark Tower books by Stephen King, it's kind of like how the first book ends up acting more like setup for the main character for the rest of the series, and while the events there aren't entirely inconsequential, they act more to flesh out the character's future motivation.
Wasn't he briefly in the first book and then the book jumped in time 50 years? I must admit I liked him as a character but as soon as the book glossed over him I stopped reading.
Joke post?
SquiddyCracker
Banned
Srsly.
The quality of the foundation series remains the same throughout, so if he likes Asimov's style he'll be able to finish of the entire series.
Ender's Game changes pretty radically mid-series, so he might take longer to finish the series.
Thus it's a better use of his time to go through the Foundation series as he'll probably finish the entire series in one go or get turned off by the first book.
Seriously. I'd never suggest anyone read Prelude / Forward before regular old Foundation.
And I guess I need to eventually go out and buy Foundation and Earth since I've never read it, even though I try to read through the rest of the series at least once a year.
ElectricBlue187
Member
Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead are both fantastic. Foundation is a bit too antiquated for me
Ender's game is really just a book. Outside of speaker for the dead and Xenocide the rest are the same as the first book
Foundation isn't terribly well written but it has an incredible premise and is really well thought out.
I'd say it's what you're in the mood for.
In the mood for an action flick? Ender's game.
In the mood for a film? Foundation.
Foundation isn't terribly well written but it has an incredible premise and is really well thought out.
I'd say it's what you're in the mood for.
In the mood for an action flick? Ender's game.
In the mood for a film? Foundation.
Really disagree with this. The first 1-2 Foundation books were basically about the question of whether there is a natural order to societal development. Even though the premise of psychohistory was completely unbelievable, they were interesting if viewed as sort of a socio-economic version of morality plays.
However Asimov apparently realized how dumb psychohistory
- a point that Seldon himself eventually brings up in one of the prequels -
The early books attempt to be hard sci-fi; the later books lean more towards 'space fantasy'.
This is the way I feel as well.
When it comes to the first book in each series, it's a bit of an apples to oranges comparison, since Foundation wasn't written as a single novel.
Basically. I've always thought I've been missing something because I didn't enjoy Foundation at all.
But yeah, Ender's Game is the lighter read, so really it comes down to what you're in the mood for.
Well, I went through with Ender's Game, I could've finished it sooner but I took my time with it. I felt like it ran through some plot points at the end there, but whatever. Now I'm wondering if I should check out Speaker of the Dead or if I should move onto Foundation or one of the other two recommendations(The Forever War & The Mote in God's Eye.)
Ender's Game is amazing (don't know wtf is wrong with some of the people in this thread), but the rest of the series... well, do you like philosophical maundering?
The Technomancer
card-carrying scientician
Man, I love Ender's Game so much but hands down I'd say Foundation
EDIT: Thread is a bump apparently
EDIT: Thread is a bump apparently
Yeah, it does run through some plot points at the end because it has to set up Speaker. He didn't want Speaker to open with the events at the end of EG and then jump forward...well...you'll see
Depends, is it bad anime philosophical maundering or not?
Well now you've piqued my interest a bit.
The Technomancer
card-carrying scientician
Orson Scott Card is, at his best, one of the best character driven authors in science fiction, and this is especially true in Speaker for the Dead. Everyone says that the final book, Children of the Mind, is philosophical, but I never really understood that description. I think people use it because that's the book that departs the most from being science fiction and really just plays around with metaphysics and stuff.
not psycho
Member
As a series, Foundation. Just keep in mind the books are not complete on their own.
Ender's Game is great and you can stop there if you want (though I also liked the next one).
Ender's Game is great and you can stop there if you want (though I also liked the next one).
I wholly enjoyed the Ender series up to Ender's Shadow; each book is good, though it does meander a bit in Children of the Mind. I haven't read anything past Ender's Shadow, and I'm not sure that I will, but I can say that Ender's Game, Speaker of the Dead, and Xenocide I loved. Ender's Game is a really easy book to get into, but the latter books are a different style; still, they aren't hard reads, and I recommend reading them first.
The Foundation series is absolutely amazing. I only say read this second because it blows the Ender series out of the water - no surprise there, really. Read them in order of publication (or, you know, the original trilogy). Also read the Robots series.
The Foundation series is absolutely amazing. I only say read this second because it blows the Ender series out of the water - no surprise there, really. Read them in order of publication (or, you know, the original trilogy). Also read the Robots series.
Foundation: The original trilogy only, then skip ALL the prequels/sequels and go straight for Psychohistorical Crisis by Donald Kingsbury.
Ender's Game takes a philosphical bent after the original, so if you're fine with that it's a good series. There's a reason why OSC is the only author who got both the Hugo and Nebula back-to-back.
If you want stories that are built around a single concept, I would recommend Ringworld and Protector by Larry Niven.
Short Stories: Ted Chaing - the fellow blows my mind.
Ender's Game takes a philosphical bent after the original, so if you're fine with that it's a good series. There's a reason why OSC is the only author who got both the Hugo and Nebula back-to-back.
If you want stories that are built around a single concept, I would recommend Ringworld and Protector by Larry Niven.
Short Stories: Ted Chaing - the fellow blows my mind.
I felt so lost without him. Dude was #FUTURESWAGTo be a little more fair, Speaker is a perfectly fine book. It's just not at all what I was expecting after Ender's Game. The latter two go a little more off the rails.
I enjoyed the parallel Shadow series a lot, though it falls off a bit midway through.
Oh my God, yes. When he's on, he's like a latter-day Borges.
Tower of Babylon, Understand, Story of Your Life, and especially Exhalation. Amazing stuff.
I hated Speaker of the Dead, but loved Ender's Game. Ender went from merciless complex child in the first book to some sort of shrewd pure-as-snow figure in the second. Honestly, I may have liked Speaker of the Dead if it weren't at all related to Ender's Game and had totally different characters or something. What they did to Ender's character was absurd in my humble opinion.
Im reading through the Foundation series now (currently at Foundations Edge, the fourth book after his long time away from the series) and I quite like the books.
Although, if you read all the books in a row like I just have, the plot progression structure of having two people in a room talking for 50 pages can seem a bit repetitive after a few times.
Still fun to read, though
Although, if you read all the books in a row like I just have, the plot progression structure of having two people in a room talking for 50 pages can seem a bit repetitive after a few times.
Still fun to read, though
- Status