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Unaccompanied Sonata and Other Stories
Bova, B. Introduction.--Ender's game.--Kingsmeat.--Deep breathing
exercises.--Closing the timelid.--I put my blue genes on.--Eumenides
in the fourth floor lavatory.--Mortal gods.--Quietus.--The monkeys
thought 'twas all in fun.--The porcelain salamander.--Unaccompanied
sonata.--Afterword: On origins.
exercises.--Closing the timelid.--I put my blue genes on.--Eumenides
in the fourth floor lavatory.--Mortal gods.--Quietus.--The monkeys
thought 'twas all in fun.--The porcelain salamander.--Unaccompanied
sonata.--Afterword: On origins.
209 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1980
6 people are currently reading
408 people want to read
About the author
Orson Scott Card
892 books20.7k followersOrson 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 38 reviews
October 28, 2013
Unaccompanied Sonata was the first work by Orson Scott Card I ever read and I was weeping by the end of it. That short story haunted me for years, finally sending me to the library to see if I could find it again. I discovered the most amazing reference -the Short Story Index (this was before there was such a thing as the internet) which led me to this collection of short stories. I haven't read them since probably 1984, but I can still recall some of the imagery the stories inspired with perfect clarity. Haunting but excellently crafted works.
October 4, 2014
It's not often that I read an author who touches me on an emotional level . Everyone of Orson Scott Card's early stories have that effect on me , and this was the first collection , published by the scifi bookclub . I was fortunate enough to meet Mr. Card , and he signed the book and wrote some very nice words to me . Even though it is a bookclub edition and has no monetary value , it is my most prized possession .
March 12, 2017
Read this book if for no other reason than the Unaccompanied Sonata.
I first read it in Omni Mgazine years ago, and it is still one of my favorites !
I first read it in Omni Mgazine years ago, and it is still one of my favorites !
February 5, 2024
The beginning of Enders Game. (4 stars)
Orson Scott Card has gained a legacy as a brilliant science fiction writer, and this collection of eleven short stories from early in his career shows the promise that would later bloom in his successful novels. The final remark of his editor Ben Bova in the introduction is strangely prophetic: “...good as these stories in this volume are, I expect you to do better in the future. And I know you will.” Card’s later successful novels such as “Ender’s Game” and “Speaker for the Dead” have more than shown this assessment to be true. This collection runs hot and cold, and isn’t always as great as Card can be. But already in this collection you will find examples of Card’s brilliance, and that’s more than enough to make it worth grabbing and reading.
The most outstanding stories in my mind are “Mortal Gods”, “Unaccompanied Sonata” and of course “Enders Game”. Card later fleshed out “Ender’s Game”into the fully-fledged novel of the same name which garnered awards and for which he is most famously known. But the premise and excitement of the novel are already contained in this brilliant short story about Ender Wiggins, a young boy trained to be a military commander in a battle that will save the human race. His training consists of exciting war games in a null-gravity battleroom, and the enthralling action of these war games and their final plot twist is more than matched by Card’s superb human characterization of a child genius.
“Mortal Gods” introduces aliens who are the “natural end product of evolution” and have achieved immortality, and come to worship humans because they’re mortal. Card uses this device to offer some profoundly religious and philosophical observations about how our world revolves around mortality and death: “we have found a race that builds for the sheer joy of building, that creates beauty, that writes books, that invents the lives of never-known people to delight others who know they are being lied to, a race that devises immortal gods to worship and celebrates its own mortality with immense pomp and glory. Death is the foundation of all that is great about humanity...” (p165-6).
“Unaccompanied Sonata” is the sad story of the repression of creativity in a control-obsessed society, and the heart-wrenching pain of a Maker who can produce brilliant music but is forbidden to do so.
The other stories are good but not brilliant. The themes of “Unaccompanied Sonata” are somewhat evident in “The Monkeys Thought ‘Twas All in Fun”, which describes a living artificial environment in space that becomes a new paradise for residents of earth. The most interesting part of this tale is the internal stories about Masses, Makers and Masters that “Hector” tells himselves. “Deep Breathing Exercises” features suspense revolving around a man who discovers that people breathing simultaneously is a sign of their impending death.
Other stories show that Card has the capability of producing twisted tales with cruel themes. “Closing the TimeLid” showcases an interesting premise as people use time travel to undergo multiple deaths for pleasure, and illustrates the depth of depravity as hedonism goes wild. “Kingsmeat” is a morbid story about a society with a cannibalistic king and queen, and highlights the character of their chosen instrument of destruction, the Shepherd. “Quietus” is a rather perplexing story with a bizarre twist at the end and concerns a family that discovers a coffin (dead body included) in their home. “Epimedes in the Fourth Floor Lavatory” is a nightmarish horror story about a selfish manipulator who gets his just deserts as a child with flipper arms torments him.
These and other stories have adult themes about sexuality and abuse that make them unsuitable for children. But Card’s ability to produce profoundly philosophical and religious stories of horror and suspense on an adult level, are matched by his ability to produce a surprisingly child-like sci-fi story in the mould of a traditional fairy tale, as the “The Porcelain Salamander” proves. The protagonist is a girl cursed from birth until she loses the magical salamander she loves most dearly.
Probably the least likeable story in the collection is “I Put My Blue Genes On”, which is humorous and light but also confusing. Recounting a visit of space travellers to earth in 2810 who discover what evolution has done to the human race after recombinant DNA, it is one of the few stories that approaches traditional science fiction.
But on the whole Card’s stories are not typical science fiction because they focus on human characterization. As Ben Bova astutely observes in the introduction, the majority of readers take the label of science fiction to mean “incomprehensible gibberish” and much hardcore sci-fi is “about stainless-steel heroes who conquer the world in phallus-shaped spaceships” without depth of characterization. But Card is different: “a powerful writer whose work can be understood and enjoyed by any reader. Your stories deal with people, living, breathing, bleeding people who love and fear and hate and laugh. Readers can weep for your characters, rejoice with them, thrill over them. This means that you have already gone far beyond the usual fare of science fiction. You are a writer for all the people, not merely the narrow spectrum of readers who want nothing more than hard-core science fiction.” (p17-18)
Ben Bova couldn’t have said it better. I’m not a fan of sci-fi, but have much appreciation for Orson Scott Card. Card uses the trappings of science fiction to offer a fresh perspective on our own world and the humans who live in it, and so escape the imprisonment of our own worldview. In Bova’s words: “More than any writer in sight today, Scott, you exemplify what is best in science fiction: bold imagination blended with realistic human characterizations. Humanism plus technology. Brains and heart.” (p19) These stories may not be Card’s best, but they certainly rank among science fiction’s best.
Orson Scott Card has gained a legacy as a brilliant science fiction writer, and this collection of eleven short stories from early in his career shows the promise that would later bloom in his successful novels. The final remark of his editor Ben Bova in the introduction is strangely prophetic: “...good as these stories in this volume are, I expect you to do better in the future. And I know you will.” Card’s later successful novels such as “Ender’s Game” and “Speaker for the Dead” have more than shown this assessment to be true. This collection runs hot and cold, and isn’t always as great as Card can be. But already in this collection you will find examples of Card’s brilliance, and that’s more than enough to make it worth grabbing and reading.
The most outstanding stories in my mind are “Mortal Gods”, “Unaccompanied Sonata” and of course “Enders Game”. Card later fleshed out “Ender’s Game”into the fully-fledged novel of the same name which garnered awards and for which he is most famously known. But the premise and excitement of the novel are already contained in this brilliant short story about Ender Wiggins, a young boy trained to be a military commander in a battle that will save the human race. His training consists of exciting war games in a null-gravity battleroom, and the enthralling action of these war games and their final plot twist is more than matched by Card’s superb human characterization of a child genius.
“Mortal Gods” introduces aliens who are the “natural end product of evolution” and have achieved immortality, and come to worship humans because they’re mortal. Card uses this device to offer some profoundly religious and philosophical observations about how our world revolves around mortality and death: “we have found a race that builds for the sheer joy of building, that creates beauty, that writes books, that invents the lives of never-known people to delight others who know they are being lied to, a race that devises immortal gods to worship and celebrates its own mortality with immense pomp and glory. Death is the foundation of all that is great about humanity...” (p165-6).
“Unaccompanied Sonata” is the sad story of the repression of creativity in a control-obsessed society, and the heart-wrenching pain of a Maker who can produce brilliant music but is forbidden to do so.
The other stories are good but not brilliant. The themes of “Unaccompanied Sonata” are somewhat evident in “The Monkeys Thought ‘Twas All in Fun”, which describes a living artificial environment in space that becomes a new paradise for residents of earth. The most interesting part of this tale is the internal stories about Masses, Makers and Masters that “Hector” tells himselves. “Deep Breathing Exercises” features suspense revolving around a man who discovers that people breathing simultaneously is a sign of their impending death.
Other stories show that Card has the capability of producing twisted tales with cruel themes. “Closing the TimeLid” showcases an interesting premise as people use time travel to undergo multiple deaths for pleasure, and illustrates the depth of depravity as hedonism goes wild. “Kingsmeat” is a morbid story about a society with a cannibalistic king and queen, and highlights the character of their chosen instrument of destruction, the Shepherd. “Quietus” is a rather perplexing story with a bizarre twist at the end and concerns a family that discovers a coffin (dead body included) in their home. “Epimedes in the Fourth Floor Lavatory” is a nightmarish horror story about a selfish manipulator who gets his just deserts as a child with flipper arms torments him.
These and other stories have adult themes about sexuality and abuse that make them unsuitable for children. But Card’s ability to produce profoundly philosophical and religious stories of horror and suspense on an adult level, are matched by his ability to produce a surprisingly child-like sci-fi story in the mould of a traditional fairy tale, as the “The Porcelain Salamander” proves. The protagonist is a girl cursed from birth until she loses the magical salamander she loves most dearly.
Probably the least likeable story in the collection is “I Put My Blue Genes On”, which is humorous and light but also confusing. Recounting a visit of space travellers to earth in 2810 who discover what evolution has done to the human race after recombinant DNA, it is one of the few stories that approaches traditional science fiction.
But on the whole Card’s stories are not typical science fiction because they focus on human characterization. As Ben Bova astutely observes in the introduction, the majority of readers take the label of science fiction to mean “incomprehensible gibberish” and much hardcore sci-fi is “about stainless-steel heroes who conquer the world in phallus-shaped spaceships” without depth of characterization. But Card is different: “a powerful writer whose work can be understood and enjoyed by any reader. Your stories deal with people, living, breathing, bleeding people who love and fear and hate and laugh. Readers can weep for your characters, rejoice with them, thrill over them. This means that you have already gone far beyond the usual fare of science fiction. You are a writer for all the people, not merely the narrow spectrum of readers who want nothing more than hard-core science fiction.” (p17-18)
Ben Bova couldn’t have said it better. I’m not a fan of sci-fi, but have much appreciation for Orson Scott Card. Card uses the trappings of science fiction to offer a fresh perspective on our own world and the humans who live in it, and so escape the imprisonment of our own worldview. In Bova’s words: “More than any writer in sight today, Scott, you exemplify what is best in science fiction: bold imagination blended with realistic human characterizations. Humanism plus technology. Brains and heart.” (p19) These stories may not be Card’s best, but they certainly rank among science fiction’s best.
January 9, 2008
This is the book that convinced me of O.S. Card's amazing abilities. Not only can he pen gripping and convincing stories of the depths of our nature (Ender's Game), but he also has an imagination to rival Asimov.
My favorite story in this short story collection is Unaccompanied Sonata, a story that reminds me a bit of "The Giver" in tone and power, although it's subject is disparate.
I stronly recommend this book for almost anyone; there are a few terrifying stories, a few lighthearted sci-fi jaunts, and even a child's fairytale. It's kind of a hard book to find, but well worth it!
The version of Ender's Game in the book is very short (50 pages) and is the original writing before he expanded it into a novel.
My favorite story in this short story collection is Unaccompanied Sonata, a story that reminds me a bit of "The Giver" in tone and power, although it's subject is disparate.
I stronly recommend this book for almost anyone; there are a few terrifying stories, a few lighthearted sci-fi jaunts, and even a child's fairytale. It's kind of a hard book to find, but well worth it!
The version of Ender's Game in the book is very short (50 pages) and is the original writing before he expanded it into a novel.
May 7, 2010
For those who only know Card through Ender's Game, try his short stories - they're his strength, in this reader's opinion. This one story fills one with longing and synesthesia. Writers fear a broken reader far less in short stories - no need for happy endings or clear delineations between tragedy, comedy, thriller, or homespun...
July 2, 2008
Early Orson Scott Card. If you can find it, it shows what promise Card had at the beginning of his career. Heart wrenching stories, others that fascinate...one of the best SS collections I've ever read, no weak stories
March 30, 2010
Buy this book simply for the short story "Unaccompanied Sonata." It's well-written and concisely captures the human paradox of desire and destruction.
November 10, 2025
Card's earlier works will always be my favorites. As a young writer, he erred more towards the macabre while still incorporating youthful, optimistic ideals in a tight balance which (in my opinion) he lost his hold on sometime in the 90s. This collection specifically is a long-time favorite of mine because of the creativity & emotion in each story. While some aspects of his writing were still rather amateurish or choppy, I find these works significantly more enjoyable than anything else he has released- save, perhaps, the rest of the Ender's Game quartet, which will always hold a precious place in my heart. His ability to weave a story from scientific concepts that were either barely known at the time or still decades away from discovery/invention will always amaze me, as well as his knack for incorporating dialects of his own invention, fully understandable yet distinct and charming. The underlying themes of these stories, defining justice, pride, and humanity, do not preach the calm benevolence found in Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, or Children of the Mind, but at the same time are not overly harsh. This results in a perfectly strung balance that rings true to human nature but is notably from a young writer whose abrasive temperament and fierce sense of right vs. wrong has not yet been weathered down into something more complex and greyscale.
August 8, 2018
Card's writing is superb in many places, but his themes are just not to my taste. More often than not, a stoic (usually genius) protagonist suffers unbearable cruelty at the hands of government bureaucrats. Amputation and mutilation are a prominent plot device. Since his writing is often aimed at younger audiences, his books were my first taste of real literary cruelty - the crushing loss of being ripped from a parent; the alienation of dealing with uncaring, all-powerful entities; and anger at unnecessary cruelty. These are all important lessons to learn, but I always felt an ounce of Stockholm Syndrome toward Card, because he was the one who exposed me to these feelings.
You'll notice these same themes in his longer works, but there is deep beauty as well. In his short stories, the cruelty has nowhere to hide. An exception was the Porcelain Salamander - it's a bit clunky, but a sweet fable nonetheless.
You'll notice these same themes in his longer works, but there is deep beauty as well. In his short stories, the cruelty has nowhere to hide. An exception was the Porcelain Salamander - it's a bit clunky, but a sweet fable nonetheless.
September 2, 2023
Gems, diamonds, rubies, and gold that all deserves to be unearthed and read. This compendium deserves so much more attention than it has received.
Never have I seen an author braid music, sci-fi, utopia, and concision all together into a story that leaves permanent marks on the cogs of the brain.
The Porcelain Salamander is powerful, and as a reader of Ender’s Game, I wonder if there is some intertextual connection between The Porcelain Salamander and Salamander army in Ender’s Game.
I will read these stories to my daughter later in life. I will read The Porcelain Salamander to her at bedtime.
What haunts me most: I am hoping that I still have fingers to wordsmith and eyes to proofread the texts I am currently writing to date…
Never have I seen an author braid music, sci-fi, utopia, and concision all together into a story that leaves permanent marks on the cogs of the brain.
The Porcelain Salamander is powerful, and as a reader of Ender’s Game, I wonder if there is some intertextual connection between The Porcelain Salamander and Salamander army in Ender’s Game.
I will read these stories to my daughter later in life. I will read The Porcelain Salamander to her at bedtime.
What haunts me most: I am hoping that I still have fingers to wordsmith and eyes to proofread the texts I am currently writing to date…
December 10, 2024
Card is a true master of sci-fi. He has built what Harlan Ellison called for in his seminal “Dangerous Visions” anthology in 1967, a truly living, breathing new wave of speculative fiction/sci-fi. Published a decade later, Card’s short stories exemplify all that science fiction can be, along with a few wildly strange tales that were too far out there for me.
Ben Bova’s 1980 Introduction sums up Card’s work both here and in his Ender Series quite well. Card has created an oeuvre of “bold imagination blended with realistic human characterizations. Humanism plus technology” (5). I can think of no better description or praise for Card’s work than this.
Ben Bova’s 1980 Introduction sums up Card’s work both here and in his Ender Series quite well. Card has created an oeuvre of “bold imagination blended with realistic human characterizations. Humanism plus technology” (5). I can think of no better description or praise for Card’s work than this.
March 9, 2020
I really enjoyed this collection of short stories, early in Orson Scott Card's career. I especially liked the version of Ender's Game. It was fun to read it, knowing how great the finished product ended up. But there are a number of other great short stories that I'd love to see made into full blown novels. Card is a humanist above all. His characters are so real to me. I don't know many authors that can do that to the level he can.
December 19, 2022
Ender’s Game - OK but predictable just like the movie
Eumenides in the Fourth Floor Lavatory - horror story
Kingsmeat - fantasy
Quietus - fantasy but interesting
The Monkeys Thought 'Twas All in Fun - best story of the collection
The Porcelain Salamander - good but fantasy
Unaccompanied Sonata - story read elsewhere that led me to read this book
Eumenides in the Fourth Floor Lavatory - horror story
Kingsmeat - fantasy
Quietus - fantasy but interesting
The Monkeys Thought 'Twas All in Fun - best story of the collection
The Porcelain Salamander - good but fantasy
Unaccompanied Sonata - story read elsewhere that led me to read this book
December 26, 2024
A series of short (sci-)fictional stories featuring death. Even though most of the stories finish in the darkness, reading experience of the book is strangely fruitful and encouraging; I feel I gained a power to live my life stronger no matter what comes in the end. In fact, the last entitled story "Unaccompanied Sonata" ends with a beautiful blessing, and it illustrates the beauty of our life.
March 5, 2024
liked the one with the discovery in the toilet. Admit i was annoyed to find an early draft of ender's game filling up most of the book- (if I wanted that, then I'd read that!) but still, these things all start somewhere. Loved the hectors too.
December 11, 2017
"through all their life the leaves hold within them the power to die, and that must color their
life. "
life. "
June 14, 2023
Some truly haunting and brilliant little stories, these are gonna stick in my brain.
January 11, 2025
wall to wall slaps
January 25, 2025
Only read a few of these. Some were very good.
MPA ratings:
R for violence
PG for adult content and language
MPA ratings:
R for violence
PG for adult content and language
November 10, 2008
Card's short stories get virtually no attention relative to his novels, but he totally shines here -- not without exception, but what's good here is damned good.
People might shrink from the moral ambiguity of the Shepherd in Kingsmeat, but totally embrace the character of Christian in Unaccompanied Sonata.
And when they come to The Porcelain Salamander, I can't imagine anyone not lamenting the fact that it is not as well known and shared with children as the "classics", and hope for a day when it will be. As with Songmaster, I have read this aloud to a loved one; while more amenable to such because of its length (probably only about 15 or 20 pages), it shares the attribute of being difficult to get through the last page without choking up (but this time, for happy reasons).
People might shrink from the moral ambiguity of the Shepherd in Kingsmeat, but totally embrace the character of Christian in Unaccompanied Sonata.
And when they come to The Porcelain Salamander, I can't imagine anyone not lamenting the fact that it is not as well known and shared with children as the "classics", and hope for a day when it will be. As with Songmaster, I have read this aloud to a loved one; while more amenable to such because of its length (probably only about 15 or 20 pages), it shares the attribute of being difficult to get through the last page without choking up (but this time, for happy reasons).
June 2, 2013
Vous voici promis à devenir un grand musicien, un créateur qui puisera son originalité dans son innocence même… jusqu’au jour où un admirateur pervers vous fera écouter une fugue de Bach… Enfants, vous pensiez jouer à la guerre, mais qui vous dit que vos sabres étaient en carton, vos cibles truquées, vos victimes imaginaires ? L’utopie anarchiste devenue réalité : c’est ce que promet le « Ballon », cette planète composée, à la manière d’une grenade, d’une infinité de cellules où chacun peut trouver son épanouissement. Mais si le « Ballon » est un être vivant, qui saura lui faire atteindre le bonheur ? Onze nouvelles (dont deux à rattacher aux Maîtres chanteurs et au cycle d’Ender) qui semblent réinventer la science-fiction.
June 24, 2022
Eigentlich gefallen mir etliche der Stories gar nicht so gut. Als Gesamtheit ist die Collection aber doch recht ansprechend, abwechslungsreich und ich habe sie flott konsumiert.
Der Autor hat ausgefallene und teils krasse Ideen. Sie wurden aber nach meinem Empfinden teils suboptimal umgesetzt, so dass die Wirkung etwas verpufft.
Was mir auch sehr auffiel: Herr Card scheint reichlich morbide zu sein. Etliche Stories handeln von Tod, Massenmord, Verstümmelungen.
Enthalten ist auch eine Novellen-Version von "Enders Spiel", der ersten verkauften Story des Autoren und wohl immer noch die berühmteste.
Der Autor hat ausgefallene und teils krasse Ideen. Sie wurden aber nach meinem Empfinden teils suboptimal umgesetzt, so dass die Wirkung etwas verpufft.
Was mir auch sehr auffiel: Herr Card scheint reichlich morbide zu sein. Etliche Stories handeln von Tod, Massenmord, Verstümmelungen.
Enthalten ist auch eine Novellen-Version von "Enders Spiel", der ersten verkauften Story des Autoren und wohl immer noch die berühmteste.
March 3, 2013
Card's first short story collection, this book features a retrospectively-hilarious and extremely patronizing introduction by Ben Bova giving this "bright new writer" fatherly advice. (I love reading 'historical documents' like that...
Also includes the original short story that 'Ender's Game,' was based on, several other quite excellent short stories, and an afterword where Card briefly discusses his inspiration for each piece.
Quite good, overall - not at all 'juvenilia.'
Also includes the original short story that 'Ender's Game,' was based on, several other quite excellent short stories, and an afterword where Card briefly discusses his inspiration for each piece.
Quite good, overall - not at all 'juvenilia.'
April 14, 2023
I recently recommended the book to a few of my friends in a book group, asking them to read "Unaccompanied Sonata" mainly and let me know.
One friend put it so plainly and eloquently -
In the end, we are left staring into the wall or sky or nothing for some moments, in complete silence, then picking up the pieces of our life and moving ahead.
The very emotion I experienced when I read the story.
I am not sorry at all to say that "Unaccompanied Sonata" is my favourite short story.
One friend put it so plainly and eloquently -
In the end, we are left staring into the wall or sky or nothing for some moments, in complete silence, then picking up the pieces of our life and moving ahead.
The very emotion I experienced when I read the story.
I am not sorry at all to say that "Unaccompanied Sonata" is my favourite short story.
April 24, 2013
Hit and miss collection of short stories. Hit was definitely Ender's Game (the original short story) which has evolved into a novella, then to a novel, then to a trilogy, and now a massive universe with about 20 separate works and a full feature film coming out in November. All of the short stories were at least interesting and original.
August 12, 2013
Some of the stories were good, some were just entertaining, others were just okay. I mostly read it to experience Ender's Game as it was first published, as a short story. Having read it, I would recommend just reading the novel. If you read the novel, you'll experience everything the short story has to offer and much much more.
October 7, 2014
Along with Hart's Hope and Songmaster, these three are an education in pain from Orson Scott Card.
November 19, 2010
Ummm....greusome. I kept thinking NIGHTMARE FODDER as I read, and so I wasn't surprised to read in the Afterword that 2 of the stories came from people's nightmares. Even so, I kept reading...so they must have been entertaining somehow. I think the title story was the best.
February 17, 2016
These stories were creepy, fascinating, hopeful, eerie, and touching; each one unique. This was a wonderful story collection. Some of the stories I've read before in other collections by Orson Scott Card.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 38 reviews