Laddertop

by Orson Scott Card, Emily Janice Card, Stefan Rudnicki (Narrator)

An original science fiction tale by the bestselling author of Ender's Game and his daughter.

Twenty-five years ago, the alien Givers came to Earth and bestowed upon the human race the greatest technology ever seen—four giant towers known as Ladders that rise thirty-six thousand miles and culminate in space stations that power the entire planet. Then, for reasons unknown, the Givers disappeared. Due to the unique alien construction of the Laddertop space stations, only a skilled crew of children can perform the maintenance necessary to keep the stations up and running.

Back on Earth, competition is fierce to enter Laddertop Academy. It is an honor few students will achieve. Best friends Robbi and Azure, two eleven-year-old girls who are candidates for the academy, will become entangled in a dangerous mystery that may help them solve the riddle of the Givers—if it doesn't destroy the Earth first.

**Adapted and dramatized for audio by Emily Janice Card**

"The main characters in this volume are largely female, strong and intelligent, a wonderful departure from male-dominated extraterrestrial offerings... An intriguing beginning--readers will clamor for the follow-up." - Kirkus Reviews

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Audiobook, Young Adult, Short Stories, Childrens

Audio CD

First published January 1, 2011

About the author

Orson Scott Card is an American writer known best for his science fiction works. He is (as of 2023) the only person to have won a Hugo Award and a Nebula Award in consecutive years, winning both awards for his novel Ender's Game (1985) and its sequel Speaker for the Dead (1986). A feature film adaptation of Ender's Game, which Card co-produced, was released in 2013. Card also wrote the Locus Fantasy Award-winning series The Tales of Alvin Maker (1987–2003).
Card's fiction often features characters with exceptional gifts who make difficult choices with high stakes. Card has also written political, religious, and social commentary in his columns and other writing; his opposition to homosexuality has provoked public criticism.
Card, who is a great-great-grandson of Brigham Young, was born in Richland, Washington, and grew up in Utah and California. While he was a student at Brigham Young University (BYU), his plays were performed on stage. He served in Brazil as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) and headed a community theater for two summers. Card had 27 short stories published between 1978 and 1979, and he won the John W. Campbell Award for best new writer in 1978. He earned a master's degree in English from the University of Utah in 1981 and wrote novels in science fiction, fantasy, non-fiction, and historical fiction genres starting in 1979. Card continued to write prolifically, and he has published over 50 novels and 45 short stories.
Card teaches English at Southern Virginia University; he has written two books on creative writing and serves as a judge in the Writers of the Future contest. He has taught many successful writers at his "literary boot camps". He remains a practicing member of the LDS Church and Mormon fiction writers Stephenie Meyer, Brandon Sanderson, and Dave Wolverton have cited his works as a major influence.

Reviews

[Lady Knight · Rating 4 out of 5]

Before I go any further, I'm going to admit that I listened to the audiobook edition (which was fantastic with a full cast of narrators and sound effects (the weird techno transition music was highly distracting however)) so I have no ability to comment on the effectiveness of the manga format for this story. However as Emily Janice Card had a hand in adapting it to audio, the whole package is very cohesive rather than the 'choppy' effect that usually happens whenever a highly visual/illustrated story is transitioned to audio. There were only a couple of sections where I could tell that she had struggled to translate the images into text.

While not exactly new ground for Orson Scott Card, Laddertop was a great sci-fi read for tweens. The story follows two young girls as they get accepted into the elite Laddertop academy to train to work on one of the four Ladders that stretch from the Earth into space. Mystery surrounds these Ladders as they were gifted to the Earth from an alien species called the Givers who did little more than set them up, leave instructions, and then disappear. Azure and Robbi are lucky enough to get chosen for the training class, and predictably struggle with the tasks and tests set before them. The ending, I felt, was fairly abrupt and I am definitely looking forward to seeing how this all plays out!

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a short book, and I'm seeing now just before reviewing that it may originally have been a manga-type deal? Also, that it seems never to have concluded? I'm confused. This definitely seemed like the start of a series.

Two young girls apply to go to Laddertop Academy or something like that, which would take them up these 36,000-mile-high futuristic alien ladders set up at some point by some otherworldly race. One girl gets in. She's probably a little special somehow, but we don't get into that much. She joins a couple regular-academy classmates who also got in, and they make their journey to the ladder, go up, and meet a couple people. Our main girl finds herself with strange characters on her arm and a big mystery.

And that's about it. I enjoyed it, I guess, but it'd be kind of nice to finish it?

[Trevor · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a different kind of audiobook in that instead of being read, it was acted out. I enjoyed the format, except for when it was difficult to differentiate between voices. The story was just getting really interesting when it abruptly stopped. I assume there will be a new installment at some point? Then again, I'm still waiting for the Alvin Wandering series to conclude...

[Alex Shrugged · Rating 2 out of 5]

This story lost a star because of the rather abrupt ending. I had to listen to it twice to make sure I hadn't missed the point. But apparently even listening twice I still missed the point.

This is an audio production with various children (presumably) playing the parts of 11 year old space kids, and with the dependable Stefan Rudnicki as the overall narrator. It took a little getting used to, but I managed it.

The story: The Givers are an alien race that showed up and GAVE the Earth a number of space ladders with the facilities at the top (Laddertop). Then they disappeared. The laddertops require maintenance by very small people, thus several kids are trained for space and ultimately chosen for the task. But strange things happen to the kids. One starts seeing visions.

The idea of an alien race simply giving humans their technology might seem ridiculous, but John Ringo used a similar idea in his book "Live Free or Die". That is an adult book (or at least older teens) but aliens bring a hypernet gate to the solar system and they collect fees for its use. What comes out of the gate are alien space merchants.... and some really unpleasant aliens. It is actually a funny book. I laughed.

With Laddertop I did not laugh. It was aimed at a juvenile audience, and apparently such an audience must regularly cope with abusive step parents who beat them. That was not a major part of the story, but it was mentioned. I don't think it added much to the story. It was simply thrown out there.

I don't recall any modesty issues. No vulgar language.

I doubt I will read this book again.

[Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't realize this was an intended-for-children book. It's sort of a riff on the Ender's Game model but missing everything interesting about that story (morality, combat, character development, ...). This one also has various "modern" updates on childhood which I wouldn't consider particularly positive, and has a very abrupt ending. There were individual elements (even in a short story) which could potentially be good, but overall it just wasn't and didn't go anywhere. The audiobook (with an actual cast/production, more of an audio performance) was good, and better than the underlying story.

[David Urquhart · Rating 3 out of 5]

Written for a younger audience, with lots of exposition and simplified dialogue, though the two main characters were fun enough that I would keep following… except that what I took to be a novella (2 hour listen time) turned out to be something of an introduction or opening instalment, rather than a contained work. It would be nice if the plot summary included such an important note, “by the way, this isn’t a book but an episode…”

[Shon Rand · Rating 3 out of 5]

I listened to the audiobook, so that should be taken into account, but generally I thought Laddertop a highly juvenile riffing in OSC's own Ender series. It's not uninteresting, just underdeveloped and the ending is sudden.

[Niklas Zenius Jespersen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sjov, hyggelig og alligevel alvorlig social-realistisk (trods sci-fi), men vi mangler fortsættelsen. Dog ikke ligefrem en klassiker, den fjerde stjerne får den for den exceptionelle høje kvalitet af lydbogsindspilningen med baggrundslydeffekter og alt muligt.

[Michael Alford · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was hoping this would be a bit more of a challenging read, but it feels geared towards 10-12 year olds. As an adult I enjoyed this story, but wished it was more “grown up”. That being said, the world building and story are good, and I’ll continue the series.

[Katherine Trinity · Rating 3 out of 5]

It had promise and then ended with no ending. Where is the other half of this book?

[Mr. Skipper's GT Cafe]

four copies

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

This feels like the beginning of a book that never got finished. And the ending didn't really tie in well.

[Amy Smith · Rating 2 out of 5]

Music was weird. Not sure if I’ll read the other two

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

Saw that Laddetop got its conclusion (finally) but it’s only in a new format. So blast through volumes 1&2 so I can finally get to the conclusion

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Kaitlin Jundt · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was interesting! It ended abruptly so I'm looking forward to volume 2!

[Stacy · Rating 1 out of 5]

So often I read an audio book and think, "This would be wonderful if it had multiple voices and a few sound effects!" When I noticed this "enhanced" audio book on my library's site, I happily downloaded it even though I'm rather disinclined to read Orson Scott Card due to some previously read and disliked books.

In the beginning, it worked. The voices helped make it interesting and I was driving along, enjoying the story. Then, it just stopped being fun and started being dull. This is how it sounds:
Young Girl 1: Annoying comment in churlish tone
Young Girl 2: Overly happy reply in chirpy tone
Young Girl 1: Unrelated response in choppy sentence fragment
Young Girl 2: Random sentence
Young Boy: Inane comment in classic 'dumb jock' voice

This could have been a story related by a kindergartner that was asked to describe a video game they an older sibling play online. I turned it off, returned/deleted it and renewed my vow to never read anything written by Orson Scott Card again.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Alien "Givers" had come to earth and installed 4 giant towers that reach thousands of miles into space complete with the technology to meet the power needs of earth.
The "Givers" left, but very small humans are needed to run the towers. Each year children compete to enter Laddertop Academy and learn the skills to perform those actions. Robbie and Azure, 2 small 11 year old girls with a chance to go to Lattertop Academy, are best friends; one wants to attend and the other does not.

I enjoyed this very short audiobook (just 2 disks) even though it was read like a play with different voices and sound effects.

I found it somewhat annoying that it ended with a cliffhanger; other than that it was very interesting.

[Chris · Rating 2 out of 5]

I like most of OSC's books, but found this one lacking. I know it is the first in a series, but the ending was horrible. I was just about through the book and thinking that I had no idea where it was going and then it ended. No warning, no resolution, not even a suspenseful climax to make you anxious for the next installment. Needless to say, I was very disappointed and it makes me hesitant to pick up the next installment for fear of a similar experience. It was like having someone come in a shut your book in the middle of a sentence and take the book away.

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

Listening was actually quite fun. well done for the kids. The story was a bit detached. I was disappointed to find at the end that this is a series of some kind. It is short so it has that going for it. A kid could read it in a day.

[Stacy]

Despite a full cast, frequent sound effects, and trippy synthetic pop music between scenes, this did not translate well at all to audio. The story was fine, but the narration was stilted and everything just seemed off. I'll definitely be recommending the manga over the audiobook.

[Phil Chenevert · Rating 2 out of 5]

I listend to the enhanced audio edition did not like the multiple voices and dramatic reading aspect as a start. It just seemed clunky and distracting. The story was interesting of course, but the abrupt ending came as a shock. Probably I won't be listening to the next in the series.

[Mark Baller · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great children's story I liked it too fun read and very quick also I did the audio version which I think is the way to go on this one cause of the great side effects and music in the audio.

[Kirstin]

Graphic novels aren’t really my thing. Perhaps I will come back to this when my boys are a little bit older.

[Richard · Rating 3 out of 5]

YA series, good cast (audio performance), OK story.

[Prof Plumb · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fast read. Young Adult. Interesting concepts. Traditional teen angst.

[Brakston · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was only 2 Hours and leaves you hanging.

[Jed Moore · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really good, but way too short.