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Aaron Johnston

Essays from the Ender universe (April 2013)

December 11, 2012 By Aaron Johnston

EndersWorldLast year I was invited to submit an essay to a wonderful anthology being put together by Smart Pop Books and Orson Scott Card. The book is a collection of essays from various writers on the subject of Ender’s Game, one of my favorite novels of all time and the one novel I’ve read more times than any other. In short, I adore Ender’s Game. It had a profound effect on my in my youth, and in many ways it inspired me to write my own stories.

Ender was perhaps the first character in a novel who didn’t feel like a character to me. He was a real person. Smart and decisive and strategically brilliant. And he was a kid like me! It blew my mind.

But I loved Ender most of all because of his compassion. Critics of the book slam it as violent and cruel, and claim Ender is a monster. I learned to ignore them. They didn’t see Ender how I saw him: a gentle soul, the kind of person who would have been my best friend in school, or at least the person I would have LIKED to have had as a friend.

It’s also the reason why Ender was so effective as a leader: people loved him, soldiers rallied behind him, a whole fleet of pilots gave their life under his command with nary a reservation. He was the greatest strategic mind the world had ever known.

So I was thrilled and honored and and humbled by the assignment. People who pick up a copy of the book will likely feel the same sense of reverence and love for Ender’s Game that I do, and that put me at ease a bit, truth be told. It meant the readers would likely be people like me, fans who soak up anything and everything they can find about Ender and feel grateful for it.

You can preorder the book now at amazon. Release date is April 2,2013.

Here’s the info from the Smart Pop site:

Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game is a classic of science fiction. Though it began its life as a short story, it was later expanded into a Hugo and Nebula award-winning novel, served as a springboard for a much larger universe of stories, and finally, in March 2013, will become a feature film.

Ender’s World conscripts almost two dozen writers of science fiction, fantasy, and young adult books to offer new perspectives on the 1985 novel, along with insights gleaned from other Ender stories that fit within the Ender’s Game chronology, including Ender in Exile and Ender’s Shadow. In addition, military strategists Colonel Tom Ruby and Captain John Schmitt offer insight into the human-Formic war. A contribution from Aaron Johnson, the coauthor of the Formic Wars prequel novels, is also included.

The collection’s insightful analyses and moving personal essays are rounded out with short pieces answering more technically oriented questions about the Ender universe, including: Why is the Battle Room a cube? and Why did the military recruit their soldiers as children?

Edited by Orson Scott Card himself, who also provides an introduction to the anthology as well as to the individual essays, Ender’s World is aimed both at readers who have kept up with the many books that came after and at those who have not, but who loved and want to re-visit the original novel.

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Filed Under: Books, FEATURED, Writing Tagged With: Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card, Writing, authors, essays, slider, smartpopbooks

Earth Unaware is a bestseller

September 11, 2012 By Aaron Johnston

The staff of Books and Co. in Dayton, OH, Orson Scott, and me

I’m pleased and somewhat stunned to report that EARTH UNAWARE, which I cowrote with Orson Scott Card is a New York Times, USA TODAY, and Publisher’s Weekly bestseller. It hit number 14 on the New York Times and stayed on the list for a total of three weeks. Not bad. Our editor at TOR was as thrilled as we were.

Initially, when the book hit the lists, I was told to expect it to drop off in a single week because science fiction simply doesn’t have any staying power. It flares up and burns out fast apparently in terms of hardcover sales. Well, that proved not to be the case, and I’m still kind of reeling from the thrill of it. We were fortunate to get some very solid reviews for the book, and I can’t thank the reviewers enough. And of course a big thank you to everyone who purchased the book and encouraged their friends to do the same. Bless you.

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Filed Under: Books, FEATURED, Earth Unaware, Writing Tagged With: Ender's Game, New York Times bestseller, Orson Scott Card, TOR, USA Today bestseller

Formic Wars: Silent Strike Hardcover

July 3, 2012 By Aaron Johnston

Available July 25

The second arc of the Formic Wars comic book series from Marvel is now available. I’m excited about this compilation. It includes five issues beautifully penciled and inked by Giancarlo Caracuzzo, with the super talented Jim Charalampidis as colorist. Both have been working on Formics Wars since the beginning, and they’re incredible. Marvel always produces a high-quality book production-wise, and this book is no exception. Nice binding, great printing, the works. Available at amazon.

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Filed Under: Books, Comics, FEATURED, Formic Wars, Writing Tagged With: Comics, Ender's Game, Formic Wars, Marvel, Mazer, Orson Scott Card, Writing, slider

All Hail Father’s Day

June 18, 2012 By Aaron Johnston

I have amazing kids and an amazing wife. It sounds cliche, but I honestly consider myself the luckiest man alive. My children aren’t perfect of course; we have our share of tantrums and sibling arguments and tears, but so does every family. That’s life. That’s part of growing up and learning. That’s what being a family is: learning to love each other despite our differences.

Father’s Day is probably my favorite holiday of the year. For several reasons. One, it’s all about ME! On Christmas it’s about the kids mostly. We’re celebrating the birth of Jesus of course, but it’s the kids who get all the attention. They get all the presents. And that’s fine. That’s how it should it be. I love seeing the delight on their faces.

But on Father’s Day, it’s all about me. It’s Daddy’s day. Everybody loves Dad and tries extra hard to give him a wonderful, Daddy-focused day.

That makes it better than my birthday. I didn’t do anything to have a birthday. That was my parents’ doing. If we should celebrate anyone on the day of my birth, it should be my mother, who endured quite a bit of labor pains to pop me out. I didn’t do jack.

But becoming a father . . . that’s something I did do. That nine-year-old and seven-year-old and two-year-old and eleven-month-old that are my kids and the joy of my life, THAT I did. And I’m darn proud of those kids. I’m thrilled to be their dad. It’s the greatest honor I have in this life. I love them more than the world itself. They make me extremely happy. And they gave me an amazing Father’s Day.

I got to sleep in. They sang to me. (Happy Father’s Day is exactly like Happy Birthday, in case you didn’t know.) Luke, my nine-year-old, sang me an original song that included beatboxing and lyrics about how awesome I am. My two-year-old Layne, not to be outdone, also sang me an original song, which didn’t make much sense, truth be told, but which was sweet nonetheless. My son Jake gave my a thousand hugs and hung on me awhile. My almost-one-year-old Meggy Moo My wife made me an amazing dinner. AND I got gifts. What father could for more than that?

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Filed Under: FEATURED, Blog Tagged With: Commentary, Father's Day, children, family, kids

A horse by any other name

May 7, 2012 By Aaron Johnston

This past Saturday was the Kentucky Derby. I’m not that interested in horse racing. As in, at all. It’s always struck me as slightly cruel. Riding horses for recreation is one thing, but whacking the horse with a crop and essentially whipping it repeatedly to make it run faster doesn’t seem especially kind.

But one aspect of horse racing that I’ve always found fascinating is the names these horses have. The winner of this year’s derby was I’ll Have Another. As in I’ll have another shot of whiskey. Or I’ll have another card in blackjack. Or I’ll have another punch to the face, please. It makes me wonder where these names come from. Are horse names derived from silly story of the horse’s infancy? Are they like the stereotypical Native American name? As in, the child cried a lot when it was born so they named it Howls at the Moon. Or Eagle Screamer. Or Please Make the Baby Stop Crying.

So where did I’ll Have Another get his/her name (I’m not sure the horse’s gender, and I’m too lazy to look it up). Did it love sugar cubes and kept begging its owner for another one whenever he/she (owner gender is also an unknown) broke out the sugar cubes. “Wow, this horse keeps coming back for sugars cubes. Eureka! Let’s call it I’ll Have Another.” Or does it really like getting whacked with a riding crop? Hmm.

Were I a racehorse owner, I’d name my horses names that force the crowd to question the winning horse. Such as I Was Robbed, or The Winner Cheated, or I Meant To Lose. I can heard the announcer now. “And coming in second place is I Meant To Lose.”

Other great racehorse names:

Oh No He Didn’t

I Swallowed A Bug

Stop Whipping Me

Also, one of my favorite radio campaigns was doen by an agency in New York known as DeVito Verdi for National Thoroughbred Racing and turns the idea of funny racehorse names into pure comic genius. Enjoy.

And here’s the actual derby race with the announcer.

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Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Commentary, Horseracing, Horses, I'll Have Another, Kentucky Derby

Formic Wars: Silent Strike #5

April 11, 2012 By Aaron Johnston

Today the last issue of the second arc of Formic Wars hits comic shops. I’m proud of this issue. The art by Giancarlo is incredible. This concludes the First Formic War. There is a still another war before Ender Wiggin is born. It’s called — can you guess? — the Second Formic War. Fans of Ender’s Game know that war well, or at least know some of what happens in the war. It’s at the end of the Second Formic War that  Mazer Rackham defies orders and fires upon the queen’s ship, killing her and ending the war. That’s not a spoiler, folks. We’ve known that all along. It’s in Ender’s Game.

In any event, Scott Card and I are excited about telling that story. As all Ender’s Game fans know, the asteroid Eros will play a critical role. That’s where the Formics set up a base from which to orchestrate their invasion of Earth. Should be fun.

Here’s a description of and credits for issue five.

Writer:  AARON WILLIAM JOHNSTON, Orson Scott Card

Artist: GIANCARLO CARACUZZO

Colorist: JIM CHARALAMPIDIS

• The Shocking Conclusion To The First Formic War, A Prequel To Orson Scott’s Card’s Science-Fiction Classic Ender’s Game.

• The Formics Fight To The Bitter End. But Is It The End?

• The Hegemon Of Earth Is Revealed!

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Filed Under: Comics, FEATURED, Ender's Game, Formic Wars Tagged With: Comics, Formic Wars, Marvel, Orson Scott Card

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