The edition I’m reading starts with an author’s introduction added in 1991. It’s a look at how the book came to be. Card grew up in Orem, Utah, and the idea for Ender’s Game came to him when he was 16 years old. He’s very matter-of-fact about his Mormon upbringing, his fondness for Asimov’s Foundation trilogy, and a desire to take the ideas of Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire to make something new. I liked reading that he had an idea for a story (that would eventually become the novel), but he had no idea how to construct it. He put it aside and waited.

Card’s older brother was in the army at the time. He told him about his horrible and humiliating experiences in basic training. The country was weighed down with the war in Vietnam. But the budding author focuses instead on learning about the Civil War, specifically reading Catton’s Army of the Potomac series and analyzing the general’s strategies. For Card, the years pass, he goes to BYU and studies Archaeology for a while before discovering performing and playwriting. Then in 1975, he dusts off the idea for the story that would become Ender’s Game while he is hanging out on the lawn of the Salt Palace in Salt Lake City. He writes it in longhand. It becomes a short story. It is published and comes in second place for a Hugo Award (the Science Fiction writing prize). Card wins the John W. Campbell Award for best new writer, and that starts his career.

In 1985, he revisits the story and enlarges it to novel length. The book wins Nebula and Hugo awards. He finds an audience, money (I presume), and a reputation.

Card ends the introduction by invoking the relationship of author and reader. “The story is the one that you and I will construct together in your memory.” I respond to that kind of trust in the reader. I’m eager to begin reading.