PLN #3

I finished Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card about a week ago. And since then, I have started to read the Ranger's Apprentice series by John Flanagan. The Ruins of Gorlan, the first book, is about a boy named Will who is chosen, by a mysterious organization of guardians called the Rangers, to become the apprentice of the local Ranger, Halt. Will, goes through training to become a Ranger while his Wardmates all take different paths. But the most significant change to Will is Horace, an old rival, who becomes an apprentice at the Battleschool to become a knight.

     In the Ruins of Gorlan by John Flanagan, Will and Horace have not been on the best terms for many years, but when they are forced to cooperate, then they tart to become more friendly towards each other. Will and Horace's relationship is shaky at best for a long time, "Over the past few years, he and Will had clashed repeatedly." This quote shows that Will and Horace have been in a turbulent relationship since they were in the same Ward. Also, they got into fights, both physical and mental,  "But Horace generally had the best of their physical clashes, it was unusual for him to win any of their verbal encounters." This shows that even though Horace was naturally at an advantage when it came to a fistfight,  but when it came to a contest involving their wits, then that was when Will gained the upper hand. As the story progresses, Will saves Horace's life form an attack by a wild boar, and this starts a change in their relationship, "I owe you my life, Will... I'll never forget that debt. If you ever need a friend, if you ever need help, you can call on me." And then later in the story, three bullies from Battleschool hunt down Will to try and beat him up. Horace returns the favor by saving Will from possibly being killed. This shows that after the encounter with the boar, something inside Horace changed so that he didn't see Will anymore as an annoyance, but as a person that could prove to be a very good friend. So even thought their relationship was rocky to start with, as the years progressed, and they each encountered situations in which they helped each other, their rivalry changed to a strong trust in each other that evolved into a strong friendship.

PLN #2

     In Ender's Shadow by Orson Scott Card, Achilles wants to kill Bean because of how Bean treated Achilles in the streets of Rotterdam, and how Bean shows no respect to Achilles when Achilles was his "protector and friend". When Bean and Achilles first met, Achilles was a cripple bully who was allowed into the family of street kids Bean was in. But Bean had wanted the leader of the family, Poke, to kill Achilles because Bean could tell that if Poke didn't kill Achilles, then he would kill her. And that proved to be the case later on in the book. Achilles seemed like a good person to all of the people that came across him. Admiral Graff asked this question to the lady who taught Bean and Achilles and knows about Achilles' violent disposition."How can I believe this, Sister Carlotta? The boy is generous, gracious, people are drawn to him, he's a born leader. People like that don't kill."

      Outwardly, Achilles seemed like a very kind and gracious person. To the volunteers at the soup kitchens in Rotterdam, he seemed to be a hero for taking Bean's crew under his wing. And Achilles thought that he deserved respect for his actions. But a few years later, Bean becomes the commander of an army at the Battle School and the teachers place Achilles in his army to see how Bean will react. Achilles sees this as the universe bending to his will as being placed in Bean's army is a prime opportunity to extract revenge. But Achilles still acts like the perfect little angel to others, including other soldiers in Bean's army. All the time, however, he is looking for an opportunity to kill Bean. And during this time, Bean shows a complete lack of respect for Achilles because Achilles is no longer a leader of a helpless group of orphans, but he is now a low ranking soldier under Bean. He sees Bean's treating him as his subordinate a cruel gesture on Bean's part, except that he doesn't realize that the tables have turned and now he is in a position similar to Bean's in Rotterdam. He finds a perfect opportunity to take revenge but he soon discovers that he has walked right into Bean's trap. He confesses to all of the murders he has committed and is sent back to Earth. So, Achilles appeared to be a good person on the outside, but his real motives were to hunt down Bean and take revenge for how Bean treated him in Rotterdam.

PLN #1

I am reading the book Ender's Shadow by Ordson Scott Card. It is a book that basically is Ender's Game but told from the perspective of one of the soldiers in Ender's army, Bean. I think that it is cool to see the story of Ender, started out differently, told from what seemed to be a secondary character. Bean starts his adventures on the streets of Rotterdam and from there, he goes on to the Battle School and finds himself constanly compared to a boy named Ender Wiggin. I liked the text connections to Ender's game. There are instances in which Bean is present at a point that was included in Ender's game and the same text is repeated in the story. And if Bean is not present, then some events or passages or characters are repeated in a different way. I like the flow of the writing and the tone of how Orson Scott Card writes. It makes the book more enjoyable and sets an informal setting except for a few events in which the government is involved, but even then, it isn't a very serious tone. The settting of Battle school kind of reminds me of a highschool environment. With classes and gyms and teachers and a cafeteria. very much of highschool. I have enjoyed the book very much this far and I hope that it gets even better.