Ender's Game

Publication Order: First timers, follow this list, or Awesome Order below.

1. Ender's Game (1985) – Nebula Award 1985, Hugo Award 1986, Locus Award nominee, 1986
2. Speaker for the Dead (1986) – Nebula Award 1986, Hugo & Locus Awards 1987, Campbell Award nominee, 1987
   Xenocide (1991) – Hugo and Locus Awards nominee 1992
3. Children of the Mind (1996)
   Ender's Shadow (1999) – Shortlisted for a Locus Award 2000
4. Shadow of the Hegemon (2001) – Shortlisted for a Locus Award 2002
5. Shadow Puppets (2002)
6. First Meetings (2002) – short story collection
7. Shadow of the Giant (2005)
8. A War of Gifts: An Ender Story (2007)
9. Ender in Exile (2008)
10. Shadows in Flight (2012)
11. Earth Unaware (2012)
12. Earth Afire (2013)
13. Shadows Alive (forthcoming, originally planned as part of "Shadows in Flight")
14. Earth Awakens (forthcoming)

Chronological Order: Re-readers, for a fun fresh take, follow this order:

1. Earth Unaware
2. Earth Afire
3. Earth Awakens
4. First Meetings
5. Ender's Game
6. Ender's Shadow (same time as Ender's Game)
7. A War of Gifts (same time as Ender's Game)
8. Shadow of the Hegemon
9. Shadow Puppets
10. Shadow of the Giant
11. Ender in Exile (same time as Shadow of the Hegemon and Shadow of the Giant)
12. Shadows in Flight
13. Speaker for the Dead
14. Xenocide
15. Children of the Mind
16. Shadows Alive

Awesome Order: Skip two of the books that were not quite as amazing as the fifth book and that happen way later in time so they don't affect the continuity of the story when skipped. Skip straight to the fifth book which is really awesome and is very tightly related to the first book so is timely.

1. Ender's Game
2. Speaker for the Dead
3. Ender's Shadow (same time as Ender's Game)

Be sure and ask yourself which you liked better, 1 or 2! Orson wrote 1 as a quick throwaway just to establish characters for 2, his imagined masterpiece. Yet most fans actually like 1 better! How funny! 1 is left brained and tactical. 2 is right brained and more growth / emotional. Which one do you like better?

Ok, so notice that you are skipping Xenocide and Children of the Mind. These two are ok, but were not as widely admired, while Ender's Shadow was amazing. If you read those two and start to find your interest drifting, please go straight to Ender's Shadow. Also, notice that in book chronological order, Xenocide and Children of the Mind happen far later in time, so you none of what is in those books affects jumping straight to Ender's Shadow which happened at the exact same time as Ender's Game.

I haven't read the rest, so I can't give awesome order advice beyond this. My best guess is that this will be the best order after those three:

1. Shadow of the Hegemon
2. Shadow Puppets
3. First Meetings
4. Shadow of the Giant
5. A War of Gifts (same time as Ender's Game)
6. Ender in Exile (same time as Shadow of the Hegemon and Shadow of the Giant)
7. Shadows in Flight
8. Earth Unaware
9. Earth Afire
10. Xenocide
11. Children of the Mind
12. Shadows Alive
13. Earth Awakens

OR, read 11. Xenocide and 12. Children of the Mind first, then follow the above list. Especially if you are more interested in Ender's story vs the Shadow story.

As always, I am excited to hear your opinions on these lists and these stories in general! :)

You can buy all or some of these books by clicking on my guide on Amazon at this link

Ender's Game Guide on Amazon

scroll down and add all or some of the books to your cart.

Start Here: In what order should I read a series that has prequels?

Overview
Many authors write prequels when writing a multi-book or multi-movie saga. When prequels are involved, people often ask me what order they should read or watch the story. Well, there are three choices:

1. Publication Order
2. Book Chronological Order
3. Awesome Order

1. Publication Order
This is the easiest. You can look up the dates (although some books are reprinted so even that can be challenging) and when new books are added, you can just keep on going. And you learn the world just in the same way the author did.

2. Book Chronological Order
This one is harder. You have to find someone who knows the relative dates of the stories and if new prequels get added, you could find yourself out of order after all that hard work. It is cool to see the history unfold, but there will be spoilers, things you shouldn't have known when reading the original books. I recommend this order if you are re-reading a series. No worries about spoilers and gives the read a fresh perspective.

3 Awesome Order
This is the rare case where a later book or movie is far better than earlier books. You have to really trust the person writing the order, but if you do, you read the later books first to get hooked, then go back and read the earlier books almost like a prequel. Dr Who is a great example of this. I recommend you start with Dr Nine, 2005. If you get to the end, then go back to the 1st Dr, 1963 and see the back story, and only if you become a diehard fan. And I think most Who fans would agree this is a good approach. Awesome Order.

Below are the Series for which I have created an order.

Click on the series you are interested in to see a detailed guide for that series. If I haven't added the link yet, leave a comment and I will increase the priority of that list. :)

Movie/TV/Book Series
Avengers
Dark Knight Trilogy - Warner Bros / Christopher Nolan
Book of Swords - Saberhagen
Dr. Who - BBC
Dragaera - Brust
Dragon Riders of Pern - McCaffery
Dragonball - Funimation
Ender's Game - Card
Foundation - Asimov
Stargate - MGM/Showtime/Sony/ScyFy/Wright/Glassner