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Review: Shadow Puppets - Orson Scott Card

March 13, 2004

I finished the most recent (and final?) book in the Ender's Game series during my bus ride back to school and I almost forgot to write about it.
Based solely on Earth in the years following the Formic war, Julian and Petra try and keep Achilles from power just about anywhere they can. I'm trying not to give away to much of the plot although I may have already ruined an ending to one of the other books and the first chapter to this one. In short, I found the book excellent as I have with the rest of the Ender series. I'm kindof hoping that this is the end of the series unless Orson can do something new with it - it's starting to feel like it's repeating itself over and over. I'm way excited over the Ender movie that's in the works although a little peeved that I don't get to write the script or direct it :) I did start writing a little something that might have turned in to a screenplay or something had I the motivation. You can check it out in the extended entry if you like.

This was something I started a month or two ago and just added a little to have it make sense to the reader.

My idea was that instead of trying to copy one or two of the books in to movie form (and deal with the purists), I was going to create my own story of Andrew and Valentine on one of their first planets after being sent from Earth. Most likely a situation that establishes Andrew as 'Speaker for the Dead.' It's called Speaker.

Fade in on a grey and dark purple planet surrounded by the vastness of space. Stars are visible around it as we pull back. Except for the colors, the planet almost reminds us of Earth - the swirling grey clouds over various colors of continent in a shape we're not familiar with. Soon we arrive far enough away to see a grouping of 2 dozen small red ships which move in almost perfect tandem, weaving and looping until they arrive in an intricate formation and approach the now far-off planet. As they get closer, we follow and see the glint of something reflecting starlight on the horizon around the planet. First one, then more, then more and finally millions of little glimmering black ships move in to the starlight around the planet. It's now obvious that this little red convoy is vastly outnumbered. A moment passes with no movement and then suddenly the small formation of red ships breaks and twirls in what seems like every direction. Simultaneously, the larger fleet begins firing futuristic laser weapons from their ships. They break off as well and approach the smaller groups. Red groups of three engage the black fleet and nimbly bob through their laser blasts, destroying ship after ship. Soon, one red ship is destroyed. Then another. The red ships are still dominating the fight regardless. We view the very end of a small battle between a red and black group, the reds coming out on top but with obvious scars. Instead of engaging another group, we get a view of what we thought was the remainder of the black fleet, returning to their places around the outside of the planet with perfect simultaneity. As they do, ships again appear from the darkness behind the planet. If we thought there were a lot the first time, we are utterly awestruck with this next wave of fighters amassing around the planet which outnumber the first black fleet by at least 2 to 1. The red fleet joins back together and examines the scene for a moment. Again, we get a glimpse of some damaged red fighters. Suddenly the black fleet attacks and red is forced to split into its fragmented pieces again, dodging lasers and destroying fighters. This time, however, it seems that they have a purpose. The red fighters make their way closer and closer to the surface of the planet until the concentration of black fighters is too great and their tactic of fight-and-advance is no longer going to work. The red ships move back to one formation again, a cylinder which extends forward through the gathered black fighters. Red ships break from the formation only to return in a different spot in the same formation. The fighters rotate while still fending off the black ships surrounding them. Then, as they get very near the planet, one red ship in the formation breaks off and moves to the back of the cylinder. The ship blasts it's thrusters and zooms down the middle of the formation like a bullet from a gun. The formation extends with each circle of fighters getting farther and farther away from each other and closer and closer to the planet as the single red ship passes through them. Soon, the red ship is close enough to the planet and we see a small package deployed from the ship. All red ships immediately scatter and attempt to get as far from the planet as possible the small dot that was one the package grows in to a larger reaction that seems like matter is boiling and engulfs the entire planet and the surrounding black ships. We get a glimpse of the red ships being annihilated with other black ships. As the ships and planet explode, the reaction we're watching fades in to a bright blue scan-lined 3-dimensional hologram of the same battle. We watch the pixels explode and fade until nothing is left but the markings on the 3D screen that are placed for observational purposes. We do not see the person sitting in front of the screen but we do get a glimpse of the controls in front of the screen. Fade to… A young man wakes up from a restless slumber. He takes a deep breath and almost gets up but rolls over on to his back and stares upward. The early morning light from the window shines on the wall of the small, poorly furnished apartment-style room. After a moment, he takes another deep breath and gets out of bed. He takes a casual glance at the still-sleeping girl on the opposite side of the room. She moves but seems to stay asleep. The man moves through a small, rounded doorway to a kitchen and living area with some futuristic appliances – but not many. He takes something to eat from a countertop and a transparent panel comes to life near him. A girl appears in a virtual environment on the screen and starts to speak to him. She’s sarcastic and quick witted but there is a sense of humanity and emotion in her, as if she cares for this man.

“Andrew, the consul meeting is in an hour, I suggest you get moving if you want to…” She pauses for a moment and Andrew looks in her direction. She’s annoyed. “Shit” She says as the screen flicks off. Andrew taps the jewel in his ear twice as to remind her of it’s presence but she’s already gone. The other girl from Andrew’s room wanders in to the kitchen and heads right for the food that Andrew has just finished putting away. She ignores him until she’s halfway done getting her food and notices him staring blankly towards the rounded windows on the other side of the room from the table, not touching his food.

“Another nightmare?” She asks as she becomes almost immediately more interested with him than she was with her food.

“I don’t think I can remember having a dream that wasn’t a nightmare, Val.” He says mockingly as she sits across from him at the table. He’s still bothered by it though. She places her hands on his in a caring and sisterly way.

“You can’t go on living like this. There are people that need your help, Andrew.”

“Don’t you mean Ender? That’s all I’m known as. A murderer. The xenocide. Andrew didn’t go down in the history books. Ender did.”

Comments

Whoa - very engrossing for a beginning - continue it!

most fascinating

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