I was just re-reading "Children of the Mind", and Peter constantly refers to having last seen Ender at age 5. Wasn't Ender 6 at the beginning of "Ender's Game"?
Posted by Sid Meier (Member # 6965) on :
i'm certain he was 5.
Posted by CRash (Member # 7754) on :
On pages 10 and 17 in my copy of EG it's mentioned that Ender is six. Ender himself says so.
Posted by Mark (Member # 6393) on :
I'm afraid lonelywalker appears to be right. I have an electronic verson of Ender's game, so I can just copy and paste this:
Valentine saw it too. "Now he's like us," she said, trying to soothe him before he had time to strike.
But Peter would not be soothed. "Like us? He keeps the little sucker till he's six years old. When did you lose yours? You were three. I lost mine before I was five. He almost made it, little bastard, little bugger."
Here they're refering to that chip he had in his neck.
Didn't Peter also mention last seeing Ender at age 5 in Shadow of the Giant? Oh well. We all make mistakes.
Posted by DaBigKahuna (Member # 6648) on :
Maybe it is all part of the "mind game" and we're in it!
At least this particular error isn't really confusing. I wish they would fix the part in EG where they talk about "Bonzo's misuse of Ender" or something like that. It has to do with when Ender's commander ordered him to launch through the door, straight at the enemy. But Bonzo didn't order that - Rose de Nose did.
Posted by theamazeeaz (Member # 6970) on :
I hate to say this, but anytime there is a number in any of OSC's stories, and that number gets mentioned in a diffent book, there WILL be an error.
example: how many kids Valentine has, Ender's age at the end of Sftd vs Investment counsler, how much of a pain it was to establish a time line of ages for SOTG
When you write a story, the ideas that bounce around your head as leave it, and the details with it. Pick up an essay or something you wrote just a year ago. It feels like someone else made it, you can't rememer saying that. But readers don't have a way of losing the author's ideas that enter in their heads- they stay inside, so that's how fans catch inconsisencies.
When writers remention details, they actually have to reference their own work. OSC hates math, and it's not something that matters, if you think about it.
Ender can be either five or six. The point is that he is old enough to think critically, but young enough to be at the age where some adults have their earliest memories, and far too young to be taken from his family.
Posted by King of Men (Member # 6684) on :
Well, duh, people. This is not OSC getting things wrong, it's Peter getting things wrong. He is eleven at the time Ender is six; he may reasonably be forgiven for forgetting the exact number in later years.
It's not a bug, it's a feature.
Posted by DaBigKahuna (Member # 6648) on :
> Well, duh, people. This is not OSC getting things wrong, it's Peter getting things wrong. He is eleven at the time Ender is six; he may reasonably be forgiven for forgetting the exact number in later years.
> It's not a bug, it's a feature. <
Hey, I LIKE THAT!
Posted by Frangy. (Member # 6794) on :
The ages are very strange. Petra says that in Ender's Shadow Achilles is bigger than she, of approximately 13 years, but when they defeat the buggers she has like less 14...
Posted by 0range7Penguin (Member # 7337) on :
ENJOY THE STORIES YOU NIT PICKERS!!!
Not actually mad just making a point. Posted by urbanX (Member # 1450) on :
At the end of the day, all this does is drive poor OSC insane. How many threads do we have here about some little error?
Posted by odouls268 (Member # 2145) on :
quote: I hate to say this, but anytime there is a number in any of OSC's stories, and that number gets mentioned in a diffent book, there WILL be an error.
In the series 'Friends' Ross Gellar is asserts no less than no less than 3 different birthdates. And I have every episode either on DVD or VHS. Mistakes happen.
Posted by Orson Scott Card (Member # 209) on :
Guess what? I hate calendars. I never write them down (well, I did with Homecoming, and it helped); I just sort of try to float past time without really dealing with it. The less precise I am, the less people can hang me for errors.
So here's the definitive answer:
People lie about their age. People call themselves one age because that's how they think of themselves, even if they're not that age yet, or not that age anymore. I've been telling people I'm 55 or 54 for a year or two now, but I'm only 53. I really can't remember.
Kids especially fudge their ages.
So EVERY reference to age in the books is a LIE! A complete LIE! Believe none of it!
That way I'm never wrong.
Posted by CRash (Member # 7754) on :
quote: The less precise I am, the less people can hang me for errors.
And more fans can get headaches about your screwy time-keeping, and examine even more anally your books for every single age reference. Posted by X12 (Member # 5867) on :
Wait a sec, Senior OSC...
quote:So EVERY reference to age in the books is a LIE! A complete LIE! Believe none of it!
If I were to take you seriously on this, the first thing I would think is...
...That the time between EG and SftD is not actually 3K years, meaning it could, possibly, be any variable number of year, which of course is disproved by the actual literature, but still, we Hat rackers have feelings too, and to those who highly enjoy your presence, we tend to actually take you seriously.
But seriously, it is not really relevent, like tiny typos (I actually founds one the other day in my copy of EG... cant remember which page - it was like "te" instead of the obvious choice of "the") found in print, go for content and quality of writing. Besides, Senior OSC is never wrong, except when he says he was wrong. I guess.
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