Customer Reviews
Good if you're a fan of the series 
2008-01-15
This is a slightly expanded version of the First Meetings edition that was published a few years earlier, featuring four (rather than three) tales of Orson Scott Card's "Enderverse." All four stories are pretty good, particularly if you haven't read the three stories which had been published previously.
The stories are presented in chronological order of events, rather than the order that they were written, and as such, some of the earlier stories explain away things that play a part in some of the other, full-length books, but not so much in this one. This collection begins with "The Polish Boy," the story of a young genius who is trying to find a way to outsmart the Interstellar Fleet that wants to send him to Battle School. This is followed by "Teacher's Pest" (the new story in this collection), featuring the child as a young man who encounters a graduate student who challenges his intellect in a way that nobody has before. Even if it wasn't spelled out. In the past, the expansion of Ender's universe has mostly gone forwards, showing what happened to his comrade Bean after the war with the Formics or the distant future, showing Ender's life as an adult hundreds of years beyond the war. These two stories go in the other direction, fleshing out the two people who would become Ender's parents in very satisfying fashion. Frankly, I'd never given John Paul and Theresa Wiggin much thought before, and these stories succeeded in making them both as engaging a pair of characters as their children would one day be.
Next is the original 1977 version of "Ender's Game," the short story Card would later expand into the classic novel. People who have read the novel will find that virtually everything in this short story did make it into the full version of the story, but there are a wealth of subplots and characters missing. The story works quite well on its own, fortunately. It does, however, pose a slight problem for the final story in the collection, "Investment Counselor." This story flashes forward to a time when Ender -- subjectively 20 years old, but hundreds of years past the War -- visits a new world where a bizarre computer program begins to give him advice about the fortune that has accrued during his years of interstellar travel, and tries to protect him from an unscrupulous tax collector. This, again, is a really good story, but it's missing something in this book. This is the tale of how Ender first encountered his computer companion, Jane, who evolved from a computer game he played as a child. The game subplot is vital to the Ender's Game (The Ender Saga) novel, but was absent from the original short story, so people who read this book without having read the novel are missing a vital piece of the puzzle.
Overall, this is a strong collection of short stories, but I recommend it more for people who have read the other Ender books (or at least Ender's Game), so they'll have the proper context in which to view these tales.
Impressive 
2008-01-11
This book's four stories have been my introduction to Orson Scott Card, and I'm pleased that I finally gave his work a try. I'm told that each tale is meant to provide backstory to the universe depicted in a series of Card novels featuring Andrew "Ender" Wiggin, a brilliant young man who as a child nearly wiped out an alien species. Although he did this as a result of adult manipulation, and at the time it made him a hero because the "Buggers" were humanity's most feared enemies, Ender as an adult regrets his actions. Thanks to books he has written, his fellow humans no longer see him as a hero. Instead, they see him as the perpetrator of genocide. All in all, Ender Wiggin's a facinating mixture of hero and anti-hero; and beginning to read about him by reading his father's stories first ("The Polish Boy" and "Teacher's Pest") made the 1977 novella that started it all, "Ender's Game," all the more interesting when I came to it. The book's fourth story, "Investment Counselor," I found a bit puzzling. A bit of research about the series has let me know that this tale's purpose is to explain how Jane, a computer program that becomes one of the Enderverse's major characters, came into Ender's life.
I hope the Ender novels are even half as good as these four bits of backstory, because now I expect I will have to start reading them.
Good, but needs tightening up 2007-12-14
As a general principle, I agree with and applaud Card's embellishment of the Enderverse. The characters he creates in Ender's Game are worthy of examination. In First Meetings Card takes the concept to the next level by creating mini-prequels of Ender's Game with "The Polish Boy" for Ender's father, "Teacher's Pest" for Ender's mother and "Investment Counselor" for Ender's first encounter with Jane. The other novella is a reprint from Card's submission to Analog lo these many years ago, that started it all.
Please take my criticisms in the spirit of an enthusiastic fan of OSC in general and the Enderverse in particular.
First, I thought that the book was too short. Card certainly has the capability (and, if you believe his autobiographical materials, the compulsion) of writing more intricate, complicated and just plain longer material. The first two novellas could have easily been a full-length novel.
Second, when you backfill an extant fictional universe like Card does here, you've got to make sure everything fits. I got the feeling in Ender's Shadow that Card was shoehorning Bean's actions in to fit in with Ender's Game, but I couldn't pin down any specific contradiction between the two books. That's not the case with the short story "Investment Counselor" in First Meetings and Speaker For the Dead. I remember the first time I read Speaker that it seemed odd and unrealistic that Valentine would not know about Jane, since Valentine and Ender had for years been inseparable. Why could Ender, and *how* would Ender, keep his relationship with Jane a secret from Valentine? In chapter 18 of Speaker, the following conversation via ansible takes places between Ender and Valentine:
Valentine: "There's apparently some kind of resistance movement that's helping us -- someone named Jane has jimmied the computers to cover our tracks."
Andrew: "I know Jane."
Valentine: "So you do have an organization there!"
Yet, Card has Valentine grumbling in "Investment Counselor": "I can't promise I won't get jealous though. Am I about to lose my brother to a piece of software?" Ender replies: "Jane is nothing but a software program."
Good Background Material 2007-11-25
Having read all of the Ender series, this book did indeed fill in the gaps of the imagination, and it was quite interesting to read the original Ender book in its short story version; the Ender fan can see how it developed into a full-blown novel from its earliest seeds.
Some of the themes are hammered in a bit less subtly, but I suppose that is for the benefit of those who have not read all the other books.
First Meetings in Ender's Universe 2007-11-22
A great short read for those who have already read the Ender cycle. It gives a great background for the rest of the series. Read it.
Not Just For Kids!! 2008-06-23
I didn't discover OSC and Ender's Game until I was in my 20's, so I don't have a childs/teens perspective on the stories. I've always loved science fiction, and was facinated at the concept. I loved First Meetings because it filled in some blanks left by the original books. I definitely recommend this to anyone who enjoys the Ender saga.
Fine for tweens/teens 
2008-05-03
I bought this for my husband and read it, too, wanting to find out more about Ender's family background. While I really enjoyed the first story about his parents, the rest of the stories seemed disappointing and almost shallow. It just wasn't the story line calliber that I'd expected.
Good read 2008-03-30
This is a thin little book but an enjoyable read. Backtracking to the beginning was fun.
John Paul 2008-02-16
1. The Hegemon policy is two children. However, many countries have families with more than 5 children; but only two can attend church and the children must remain in hiding like the Jewish children during Nazi occupation.
2. The Hegemon was established to fight the buggers. Ender destroys the hive queen (Islam governing body) only to learn that the buggers are not a true enemy. Ender uses his pension to help the bugger hive relocate and establish a new colony. Ender changes his name to Andrew and writes a book called "Hive Queen" with the author name, Speaker from the dead.
3. John Paul and Theresa Brown reason that the two child policy central policy will cause the Hegemon to be short lived. Theresa PHd thesis explorers the triggers that cause advanced civilizations to degress into tribalism.
4. Graft believes John Paul may become the commander to save humanity from the buggers. However, Graft long term plan is too recruit John Paul's descendants to Battle School. That child would be Ender. In return John Paul family moves too America; John Paul is a student at the University when he meets Theresa; Theresa tells John Paul that "Universities are market places for rich privileged individuals to find brains and occassionally two people with brains meet and when that happens, watch out"; John Paul reflects on the possiblity that he may be part of a Eugenics project, but decides to follow his heart and marry Theresa believing he was in love with her.
5. Mazer Rakin defeats the buggers in the first war. Graft says Rakin bearly out maneuvered the buggers and they need to find young commanders that have not peaked in capability to find the buggers in the second round.
6. Mazer and Graft put the very best children soldiers on Ender and Beans team. Ender tells Bean this fact and assigns Bean to be a part of a special team that will train after dinner. The team will plan for unexpected tests by Mazer and Graft. Ender skill as a commander seems to be the ability to see the potential human behaviors and causes like his father. Ender can read people and Bean can plot strategy. Therefore, the buggers must have a human like behavior pattern: feelings, needs, fears, and drives.
7. Interestingly, Peter will eventually promote and establish the hegemon into an office of power and prestige. Theresa ideal of civilization acted out by her son, Peter; all the tribes united with the exception of the US and no more wars. Once the nations choose the Hegemon, they military present enforces their membership and participation.
Expands on Unanswered Questions 2008-01-19
Card's other books on writing science fiction talk about how authors never get the chance to tell all the background they hold in their heads for their characters. Here is a glimpse into what Card had in mind for Ender, his parents and Jane--things that would have been out of place in the books but is awesome for the fans of the series.
The short stories give a great depth to Ender's parents; first in a story about a young Polish boy (Ender's dad) and how, in an Ender-esque style, he manipulates the government at a tender age to better himself and his family despite the family's struggle with religious intolerance. We meet Graff, a young government official, and bein to see the patterns of government interference and brilliant children outwitting them that run throughout the Wiggin family. Second, the tender story of Ender's parents' meeting show further government manipulation but a couple that genuinely is interested and excited by and loves each other. Finally the story of Jane's introduction to Ender is a smart and humorous start to Jane's sassy personality.
