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Similarities Between the Ender Series and Halo
n/a n/a (freyyr890@gmail.com) writes:
I've noticed many similarities between Orson Scott Card's Ender Quartet (Comprised of Ender's Game, Speaker For The Dead, Xenocide, and Children of the Mind) and Halo.
1. The Ender Quartet deals with three different alien races -- the Buggers, the Penequinnos (a.k.a. "The Piggies"), and [of course] humans. Of the three, the Buggers are extinct for most of the series (a good 3000 years), until one hive queen is planted by the main character (Ender Wiggin) at the end of Speaker For The Dead (could this be what happens with the forerunner?). The Buggers are a hive-race, with a small handful of leaders whose mind control the rest of the group (think of the Borg from Star Trek: The Next Generation). In addition, the Buggers are enemies of humanity (due to a misunderstanding) for the first book, [almost] completely obliterated at the end of it.
2. There are many similarities between Ender's "Jane" and Cortana. Jane is a life-form created when an attempt to take over Ender's mind by the hive queens fails and the telepathic bridge evolved into a sentient life-form -- a lot like rampancy. Similarily, Cortana is a literal brainchild of Dr. Halsey, created from a cloned brain. In the last book, Children of the Mind, Jane gains a body, which was created when Ender entered Auia-space (think of godspace).
3. Both John-117 and Ender were taken at a young age (five for Ender, six for John) for military training, and both excelled and became team leaders. When they entered service, they shared similar paths -- John was with the initial meeting of the covenant and a key player in many pivotal battles, and Ender commanded a fleet of ships that was sent to eliminate the Buggers by destroying their homeworld (he almost succeeded -- there was only one survivor).
4. The two series have some sort of mode of preservation for interstellar flight -- Halo uses slipspace and Cryo-pods to cover extensive distances, whereas the Ender Quartet is purely relativistic travel, which allowed Ender to live to 3000 years.
I'm ashamed it's taken so long to get this info up here. Thanks :)
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-Finn
