Insert Witty Journal Title Here

There's a petition out there you may have heard of to get the British government to apologize to Alan Turing. If you're a UK citizen, you can sign it here.

I watched a British documentary approximately a year ago about Alan Turing. It made quite an impression on me. If you don't know his story, you really should.

Yonmei has a pretty good summary up at the Feminist SF blog. Tied in with Orson Scott Card, who apparently has a video game out that I hadn't heard much about. Though I can't imagine I hadn't heard something about it and I just forgot. Peter David wrote it.

Now.. Ender's Game was my favorite book for the longest time. It.. might even still be. I went through a phase where I was determined to read everything OSC wrote. Except.. the Ender sequels weren't the same. I didn't like them in the same way. And the Alvin Maker books disturbed me, as I had trouble sorting out their morality. Who were the good guys? And the Homecoming Saga interested me at first, but eventually I stopped reading those as well. Yet I read Saints twice. Well, in short, I like some of OSC's books, but until Ender's Shadow, none that I liked nearly as well as Ender's Game. Almost a.. one-hit wonder, who had to double-dip to try to get another hit. At least as far as pleasing me as a reader goes.

OSC was my favorite writer for awhile all the same. I even got to hear him speak, and talk to him as he signed a couple books for me.

And then we've got Peter David. There was a time when I would've listed him as my second favorite. Or possibly even favorite above OSC for awhile. I do still consider him the best writer of Trek books ever, and consistently. His other, original stuff? Not so much. His comic stuff? Not so interested.

So why do OSC and PD have to go and be such dicks? It makes me disinclined to read anything new by them. There's even Ender stuff out there I haven't read!! And New Frontiers Trek books I haven't read!! And it makes it really hard to admit they were once favorite writers of mine.

When asked now who my favorite writer is, I come up with Tanya Huff. And you know what? I like more of her stuff than I ever liked OSC and PD's stuff. Some click with me more than others, of course. But it's all worth giving a shot. And at least I know if she's ever going to turn out to be a dick, it'll be for a completely different reason. :P

(Note: There's tons of other cool and awesome writers and I could make a big old list, but hey, rules say you have to pick one. You know.. those rules.)

So, anyway, go read Orson Scott Card, meet Alan Turing and if you're a British citizen, go sign the petition.

According to Publishers Weekly, Ender's Game Comics Coming From Marvel.

I was excited about the idea that Ender's Game might be a movie, but this news just leaves me flat. I like manga, I've read some of Sandman, and one of these days I'll get the Buffy season and Wil Wheaton's Trek. I also read a bunch of different Trek comics when I was a kid -- that was a lot of comics to keep up with! 'Spensive too.

So I'm certainly not against comics and graphic novels. But for this, I can't see myself buying them.

I've already read the stories.

( Click here for the deleted scenes )

So, in short, why read Ender's Game: The Comic/Graphic Novel? I've already read the story. What's new? Pictures?

Yet I'd love to see Ender's Game or Ender's Shadow as a movie. Even though I know the story, it's another thing altogether to see it acted out with cool special effects. I'd even love to see it as an animated movie. Because, again, acted out, though not so much with the cool special effects.

Even so, I don't like movies that stick too strongly to the book they're based on. The first Harry Potter movie suffered that problem. So I guess it's not enough for actors, sets, costumes, makeup, special effects. I want a slightly different take on things. I want new scenes, new lines, maybe even a theme I hadn't noticed woven into the thread of the movie.

I want something new.

So, prove to me that these graphic novels will bring something new to the story. Other than just pictures and a cinematic style.

And there is potential there. Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow are parallel novels. Run them simultaneously as parallel comics and you can have all sorts of interesting things going on and injokes. Rather like Buffy and Angel running on TV at the same time. Rather like Torchwood and Dr. Who running on TV not exactly at the same time.

That would make it a new story. A new experience.

That might make it worth spending money on.