How many stories does it take to make an anthology? Would it be an anthology with only two? Maybe the de facto minimum would be, say, six, and any less would be considering a rogue and/or rebellious anthology. Were that the case, the anthology in question here, Orson Scott Card's First Meetings, would be a rebellious teenager of an anthology as it features a total of four novellas, all of which focus on important parts of the life of Card's most well known character, boy-genius Ender, (even if Ender hadn't been born yet in two of them).

Considering there are only four stories here, unlike other anthology reviews, I think I can go ahead and discuss each story individually (aren't you lucky?!). First up is "The Polish Boy", which features Ender's father John Paul as a kid. The story focuses on the International Fleet's attempt to send John Paul to Battle School and the battle of wills and manipulation that occurs. The story shows how long term some people within the IF were looking in order to get the results obtained with Ender. But what I particularly appreciated about this story was how it helps to answer one of the things that really bugged me in Ender's Game, that being if Ender and his siblings were so brilliant, why were his parents so seemingly clueless? This was answered someone during the Ender's Shadow parallel series, but it nice to see how kickass and brilliant his father, in fact, was.

Next up is "Teacher's Pest", which is the story of how Ender's parents, the aforementioned John Paul, and Theresa met, she a graduate student, he her student. I especially liked this story, not only for the continuation of the above-discussed point of showing just how smart Ender's parents were, but also because...well...I'm a bit of a hopeless romantic (with an emphasis on the "hopeless" part, but that's a discussion for another time). I thoroughly enjoy reading well-written interplay (romantic or otherwise) between brilliant characters, and this story fits that quite well.

Third in the book is the original novella of "Ender's Game", for those people who may have never read the original. Starting from when Ender takes over Dragon Army and going through the end of the war, it is interesting to read the original and compare the differences between this and the expanded novel. There aren't many, but one big difference is Ender's attitude. He seems much more cocky and arrogant in the novella than he does in the later book, and had that attitude been retained for the novel, it might have made for a different book altogether. That could just be my opinion, though, having been so familiar with the novel before ever reading the original novella.

The final story, "Investment Counselor", is my favorite of the four. Taking place several hundred years after the end of the War of Xenocide, with Ender and his sister Valentine hopping from planet to planet, it showcases the introduction between Ender and Jane, the AI who plays an integral role in the original follow-up series to Ender's Game (Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, and Children of the Mind). Jane was always one of my (if not the) favorite part of that series, so I particularly liked reading the approach that she took in introducing herself to Ender (or Andrew, as he now goes by), though she does not reveal the full story behind her existence yet.

All four stories are well written and worth reading. Taken as a whole, though, the anthology feels a bit lacking. Only four stories, one of which that has been reprinted countless times (well, probably not countless... I just don't want to take the time trying to do that counting)? Seems a little skimpy, to be honest - only 200 pages. Particularly when the anthology came out in hardback and one was expected to buy it for $15+ (not as bad as the War of Gifts book that contains all of one Ender story, but that's also a discussion for another time), though now that a paperback edition is available, it's not too bad a price to pay to add to one's Ender collection. But another disappointment is the lack of any sort of commentary from Card himself on any of these stories. I'm sure his insight and thoughts can be found for the original novella of "Ender's Game" if you were to search for it online, but having introductions and notes for each of these stories - why he wrote them, what prompted them, how he feels about the end product, etc. - would have been nice, particularly since he includes such commentary in other anthologies, such as his Keeper of Dreams (handily reviewed for your pleasure here).

Bottom line, the stories themselves are excellent. Worth reading for any Ender fan (which isn't always the case with Ender stories, really). One probably wouldn't gain much from them if one wasn't an Ender fan. And the anthology as a whole is a little cheap due to length and lack of commentary, but the quality of the stories makes up for that. So go read them, and then dream about your own first meetings that will hopefully soon occur.

  -- K. Burtt