• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary navigation

Official website of writer Aaron Johnston

  • HOME
  • PORTFOLIO
  • BLOG
  • ABOUT
  • CONTACT

Writing

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.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)

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.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)

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.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)

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

My dad the poet

December 7, 2011 By Aaron Johnston

My dad wrote a poem yesterday and sent to me. I asked if I could post it, and he graciously agreed. If you don’t know my dad, you’re missing out. He’s an amazing guy. Extremely intelligent and very loving. A great grandfather to my kids. It was his love of books that motivated me to read a lot as a kid. Westerns, mysteries, thrillers, war histories. My dad reads it all. He’s also a walking encyclopedia when it comes to the Civil War or the Second World War. If there was a version of Jeopardy in which all of the categories were about the Civil War, my dad would have dominated, and I would have been raised as a child of privilege from all the winnings.

Dad also was in the military at the tail end of the Vietnam War. He thankfully was never thrown into action in Vietnam, but he saw plenty of action as a military police officer and criminal investigator after the war in Germany. If you ever want to hear a crazy story about soldiers doing stupid things and getting arrested for it, talk to my dad.

But enough gushing. You came for the poem. I happen to like it a lot, partly because Dad wrote it, but also because it moves me and prickles at the heart, which all good poetry should, I suppose. Enjoy.

 

Old Soldier’s Lament

The battlefields are still and green,
No longer torn asunder;
Where blood once flowed in rivulets,
And cannons boomed like thunder.

The earth fills our foxholes now,
The shrapnel rusts away;
Earth’s marks of war are fading,
But our scars are here to stay.

Our heads are gray or balding,
And our legs no longer run.
Our bodies stooped and aging,
And our turn has nearly come.

That time comes so swiftly now;
The veil grows thinner still,
The sounds of war will fade away,
When we rest upon the hill.

Our memories leave us laughing,
Weeping, waiting in kind,
For the time we step beyond the veil,
To see comrades left behind.

Each day we lose a brother,
To fill the ranks afar,
Beyond this earth and clouded sky;
Past a bright distant star.

They have waited very long for us,
To join their ranks once more,
To march together side by side,
But not this time to war.

By
David R. Johnston


Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)

Filed Under: FEATURED, Writing

Speaker for the Dead Hardcover

December 5, 2011 By Aaron Johnston

Marvel has compiled my five-issue adaptation of Orson Scott Card’s novel Speaker for the Dead into a beautifully bound hardcover. This project was a thrill to work on since Speaker is one of my all-time favorite novels. If you haven’t read it, I strongly advise you to do so. It won the Hugo and Nebula Awards the year it was published, and for good reason. Here’s a link to Orson Scott Card’s site where you can read more about the novel.

Credits for the adaptation:

Writer: Aaron Johnston

Penciller: Pop Mahn

Penciller (cover): Giuseppe Camuncoli

Editor: Jordan White

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)

Filed Under: Books, Comics, FEATURED, Speaker for the Dead, Writing Tagged With: Marvel, Orson Scott Card, Speaker for the Dead, adaptation, comic book

Signing and Release Party for Formic Wars: Burning Earth #1, with Orson Scott Card, Feb. 16 in Chapel Hill, NC

February 1, 2011 By Aaron Johnston

I’ll be doing a signing at Chapel Hill Comics on February 16th from 5 PM to 7 PM with Orson Scott Card. If you’re in the area, come stop by and say hello. It’s the official release party for Formic Wars: Burning Earth #1. Should be fun. Mr. Card will also be signing some of his other works.

Incidentally, if you haven’t read Pathfinder, go buy it now. It’s awesome.

[button link=”http://www.chapelhillcomics.com/content/?p=1187″ window=”yes”]See more infor here at Chapel Hill Comics [/button]

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)

Filed Under: Comics, Formic Wars, Writing Tagged With: Chapel Hill, Formic Wars, Marvel, Orson Scott Card, Signings, Writing

  • « Go to Previous Page
  • Page 1
  • Page 2
  • Page 3
  • Page 4
  • Go to Next Page »

Copyright © 2025 Aaron Johnston

 

Loading Comments...