I didn’t think it was that good. As I said before, Mr. Card’s Hegemon series have this critical problem of making these kids to be so smart that his writings don’t have any real chance of coming close to it. I mean, his writings just fails those Ender’s Jeesh geniuses.

Anyway, I just wanted to finish the series so that I would have a closure to the series.

I think the Card’s contrived way of telling a story — the way that makes it seems that the whole story is told by an omniscient, ethical being — becomes more apparent in Shadow Puppets. I was tempted to defend him that this is because he was trying to tell a story within the bigger history that had been told already, but his previous Ender’s series had the same feel as I look back.

It’s not a bad story, but I can’t help but make a comparison of Deep Fritz as it describes the whole sequence of a yet-to-be-played chess game (not that, it can actually “solve” the game, but quite close toward the end).

Although the writing is smooth and the whole story is easy to read, there is not much suspense nor much of character development (we already know what all these characters are like), and most of the characters are so smart that nothing really surprise them. Card tried to incorporate some international politics here, but it’s a bit dis-illusionary to think that those countries involved can be “controlled” like that, like pawns.

I am a fan of the series (but if I think about it, I only really liked Ender’s Game), and have read all of them, but I am beginning to think whether I should continue if there comes another sequel (I probably would though).

I believe the communication between individuals is the most important thing for any society to function and survive (this “society” includes from a group of two (e.g., lovers) to a nation and more).

The main problem is that we naturally tend to think that others would think and act exactly the same way as we do. This comes from the fact that we live in a similar environment. This “environment” includes the earth we live on, the shape and the function of our body and sensory systems, the time we live in, and the social and the cultural backgrounds. What this means is that a lot of the times, we do think and act similar.

However, since we are not the kind of beings that share our consciousness (unless we are under-utilizing our ability to use our telepathic powers), we would never know what others are really thinking. Without truthful communication, all we have is guesses, estimates and assumptions (which are often incorrect). The human race can only communicate with each other through explicit methods (talking, writing, reading, etc.). Even with the limits of the human language, that is probably the best way.

We have to realize this fact and always remember that until we find a common ground (actually, even after that, since we as individuals go through different experience), we have to constantly “sync up” with each other by communication.

I am not saying that we should all be the same. That’s boring, impossible and unnatural. What I am saying is that recognize the differences and understand the others as who they are.

Most of these thoughts came from reading science fictions where some of them deal with extra-terrestrials (e.g., “Ender’s Game” and Star Trek). The fact of the matter is that even we encounter an alien race, it might not be possible, at least in the beginning, to even find a common ground, let alone to communicate.

However, on a smaller, down-to-earth scale, it has to do with communicating with your loved ones. Let them understand you and understand them.

Although this should be no surprise to me at all, I am periodically reminded that there are always others that have already thought of something that I come up with.

Over the Labor Day weekend, I finished a new science fiction, Ender’s Shadow by Orson Scott Card. This is a part of the popular Ender’s Game series by the same author (if you haven’t read Ender’s Game, you really should). It’s not exactly a sequel because the events from the same period is told from a different character’s perspective. They called it “a parallel novel.”

Anyway, in this novel, Card describes the same principle what I’ve come to realize the only “right” way to achieve anything. My version of it goes something like this: Learn as much as you can about the situation, evaluation options, make a best decision on your own, and never look back. In the book, Card was describing how Bean worked and it goes something like this: learn, choose, and act (I think I am missing something, but I can’t seem to go back and find it again).

The reason I came to that conclusion was that I can’t know everything before I make a decision most of the time. So, if I’ve done my research, evaluated every options, weighed every options, made what I would think would be the best course of action with the given information, that decision can never be “wrong.” And I wanted to also stress that the execution to carry out that decision is also very important. Also, I thought that the final decision being one’s own was crucial because you really can’t defer the responsibilities to others when it comes to your own life.

Anyway, I haven’t seen a serious flaw in this principle yet. I just thought that it was interesting to see someone else (a writer whose work I enjoyed a lot) thinking the same.