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| SpaceX Falcon Heavy launching with 4 MerlinD1 Boosters |
For our final assignment in this Science writing class we
have to write a feature story with a human element to draw readers in, I chose
Elon Musk’s success in the privatization of space craft development and launch.
Unfortunately this week I won’t be talking about that, apologies. I
want to take a break from writing about current assignments because I am
already tired of it and instead talk about what I wrote as a comment in another
classmate’s blog.
Book review round two, that’s right reader, today I will be
talking about my favorite science fiction series, Ender’s game, and the trilogy
that follows. For those that haven’t heard, the 2013 movie was actually adapted
from a book of the same name from 1985, WOW. That book, written by Orson Scott
Card, had genius boy Andrew Ender Wiggins thrust into a space militant training
facility to develop the best minds into tactical war geniuses for the eventual
return of the formics, a hostile bug like alien civilization. But we’re also
not talking about that, because I don’t want to. We are actually going to be
discussing the the trilogy that follows Enders game, specifically Speaker of
the Dead, because I don’t remember Xenocide or Children of the Mind. There’s
another trilogy that follows the aftermath of earth but its full on military
and political, rather than science, so it is also not appropriate to write
about here.
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| Please do not accidentally commit war crimes |
Onto reviewing Speaker of the Dead; this is my last post
for graded content at least so even though I have reached the minimum I will do
my best to provide a reason to read this series. After the events of the first
installment, (spoilers of the first
movie) Ender realizes that his final exam was actually a real battle
against the formics and without that knowledge he used a scaled up version of
an atomic bomb to destroy the formic home world. Struck with grief and to avoid
the resulting struggle to attain his military genius back on Earth he sets out
for self-exile. While only a few years pass, due to advances within the series
universe, relativist laws of physics come into effect and thousands of years in real
time have passed throughout his travels. Books he wrote based upon the events of the first installment
have become a religion and “speakers of the dead” hold a position similar to
priests as eulogists. Being one such speaker of the dead he is called to the
distant planet Lusitania to speak for someone murdered by the native species.
(Minor spoilers
for speaker of the dead) The species that inhabit Lusitania are the
pequeninos, named such by the primarily Portuguese settlers who settled there.
The book and the rest in this branch of the series are much more philosophical
in nature and remind me of my forays into cephalopods but whatever. Its been
like 8 years and I’m still thinking about this book. Ender soon becomes wrapped
up in the mystery of the pequeninos and he strives to prevent another xenocide (alien
genocide) from occurring as tensions from the humans rise. I found the biology
of the pequeninos fascinating and a lot of thought was put into this world
building. What results is a vibrant world that pushes what can be thought as
intelligent life and makes us explore what Meowth, from pokemon the movie, said;
“We do have a lot in common. The same air, the same Earth, the same sky. Maybe
if we started looking at what’s the same instead of whats different… well, who
knows”
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| I'm sorry, this is an attempt at humor |
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