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Keeper of Dreams (Pastwatch)
This huge new collection of the short stories of one of Science Fiction’s most beloved and popular writers is sure to please his millions of fans. The volume contains 24 stories, Card’s new introductions for each story, and commentary on his life and work.
Like the earlier Maps in A Mirror, this collection is a definitive retrospective of the short fiction career of th...more
Hardcover, 656 pages
Published
April 15th 2008
by Tor Books
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I am admittedly a huge Orson Scott Card fan. He is nothing, if not prolific, and this is his second collection of short stories. The notes he adds to each story help to provide a sense of place for each tale, and yield a look into his writing methods.
But by the nature of them, it's hard to really get too much into them, because by the time you find yourself invested in the tale, it's practically over. This has the benefit of making it easy to find a place to stop, but it doesn't p...more
But by the nature of them, it's hard to really get too much into them, because by the time you find yourself invested in the tale, it's practically over. This has the benefit of making it easy to find a place to stop, but it doesn't p...more
Orson Scott Cards' "Keeper of Dreams" is a collection of his short stories previously published elsewhere. You might enjoy some of them (the quality of these stories is uneven) as an introduction to his style of writing; they are not all science fiction. One of the nice things about this collection is that he makes comments after each story in an afterword (which I usually read first).
I liked the science fiction short stories in the first section of this book the best. "...more
I liked the science fiction short stories in the first section of this book the best. "...more
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I shan't make the mistake of checking out a huge book of short stories from the library again -- how am I to dip back in and reread my favorites without a dogeared copy? Here, for my own reference, are some of those particularly worth re-reading:
Homeless in Hell
Inventing Lovers on the Phone
Feed the Baby of Love
Dust
One thing that surprised me was that I rather enjoyed his "Mormon stories" in this volume -- I remember finding them all rather blah in his...more
Homeless in Hell
Inventing Lovers on the Phone
Feed the Baby of Love
Dust
One thing that surprised me was that I rather enjoyed his "Mormon stories" in this volume -- I remember finding them all rather blah in his...more
brilliant. though i really shouldn't have gotten my hands on this the week of exams. 656 pages in a few days would've been fine any other time, but right now it probably wasn't the best executive decision...(goes back to study for ap stats' midterm)
favorites, for future reference:
Atlantis
Dust
Inventing Lovers on the Phone
Christmas at Helaman's House
Neighbors (four paragraphs in and i got it :D -- satire on nativity)
Worthy to Be One of Us
favorites, for future reference:
Atlantis
Dust
Inventing Lovers on the Phone
Christmas at Helaman's House
Neighbors (four paragraphs in and i got it :D -- satire on nativity)
Worthy to Be One of Us
I always have mixed feelings about Card's short fiction, and that continued with this book. Several of the stories were great; I especially liked the Hatrack River ones. There were some others, such as "Angles," that I would like to see developed into novels. Some of them felt a little unfinished. All in all, though, it was an enjoyable read, and the great thing about it being a book of short fiction was that I didn't stay up all night reading it, the way I usually do when I get one of...more
This was a really interesting collection of short stories from Card. Some were better than others, but to me, the most interesting of all were the "Mormon" stories at the end of the book. Maybe I liked these as much as I did because I know they have almost no chance of ever being published in the Ensign, depicting some of the flaws in LDS (especially Utah-LDS) culture, and people trying to deal with them.
I had read many of these stories already either in anthologies or online, but not all of them. I liked the Hatrack stories the best. I saved The Elephants of Poznan to read last as I had a strong reaction to it when I read it online; isn't it weird how stories can be different after time has passed and they are read a second time. It was still good, but a lot shorter than I remembered from before.
* "Keeper of Dreams" by Orson Scott Card is 22 short stories. After finding the first few gruesome with no point, I skipped to another, nope, then to the title story. That, and the preceding "Waterbaby", were part of the book "Magic Street" that I already read, and did not want to read again. I like the "what if" part, sometimes some of the development, but hardly ever the sort-of conclusion.
There were some great stories in this anthology. And despite being by the same author, there was enough variety that it did not feel repetitive. I liked the science fiction stories much more than the fanstasy stories, but I am not sure why. The small section of Mormon stories at the end were also quite interesting--there is a whole subculture there that I know almost nothing about. I also really liked the short bit after each story, giving some background on the idea/context/etc.
Loved the initial short concepts but many definitely read as failed book ideas as Card readily admits. This is not to say they aren't good stories, but for the majority I can understand why they weren't translated into full length novels. My interest notably trailed off once I entered the literary section. The commentary, while very insightful, in some cases I'd wish I'd not read. Still, a pretty interesting read and at the very least makes a revisit to Enders Game a necessity.
As excited as I was to read another collection of Card short stories, my excitement fell short of surpassing my disappoint. This is not as engrossing as maps in a mirror, nor any Card full length. Unfortunately many of these stories felt somewhat underdeveloped; several of them went on to become minor subplots in other novels, and having previously read them in that context was variously interesting and frustrating. Interesting to note the changes in adapting them into another story and frustr...more
I liked most of the shorts in here, though a few had never been published for obvious reasons. Still, some of them really spoke to me. And as a Latter-day Saint (Mormon), I was able to appreciate the nuances of the last 4 stories, particularly the very last one.
First - I really don't care for short story format.
Second - A writer usually puts his best story first in the collection. It was well written - Card is a good writer - but I found it grotesque. Really didn't want to go further.
Second - A writer usually puts his best story first in the collection. It was well written - Card is a good writer - but I found it grotesque. Really didn't want to go further.
This is a collection of short stories by OSC. I love his writing. There were a few stories I didn't care for, but I loved the ones that involved Alvin Maker and the LDS short stories. I really liked his take on Noah too.
I wasn't expecting to like OSC short stories, but I did. I just wish they were longer. I love his explanations that accompany each one, and his last section on Mormon culture is all to true!
I'm happy to travel with Alvin again; there's some good stuff in here, plenty of it is new to me. I enjoyed reading the author's notes included with most of the stories.
Early OSC work. Great to see how this author began his development to now. Looking forward to listening to other books in this short story series.
This collection is good, especially "The Elephants of Poznan." I skipped most of the Mormon stories toward the end, though.
The pastwatch short about the fall of atlantis and the concept put forth for the birth of the Noah legend is quite amazing.
Val
is currently reading it
For self-reference, the ones I like most so far:
Geriatric Ward
Dust
Homeless in Hell
Inventing Lovers on the Phone
Geriatric Ward
Dust
Homeless in Hell
Inventing Lovers on the Phone
This was good, but I didn't like it nearly as well as his other short story collection, Maps in a Mirror.
Eh. I'm not a huge short story fan in the first place and none of these stories left me wanting more. I'll stick to Card's novels.
Asher
added it
Quite enjoyable Anthalogy, after the many bad card books i read recently i was pleasently suprised.
A very interesting collection of short stories. Some I loved, some made me upset, so made laugh out loud, some introduced me to new novel worlds. What more do you want in a well written collection?
I was very emotionally touched by this and all the little stories within it.:)
Interesting mix of Sci Fi, Fantasy and Fiction stories.
This is a great book of short stories by OSC. It's not all science fiction and there are no stories in the Enderverse. What I found most interesting were the "Mormon" stories he includes in the collection. I don't know much about that culture, and those four stories were an interesting glimpse. There are also two stories about Alvin Maker, plus a number of fantasy and science fiction stories.
This is a very heavy book, so it was hard to read simply because the hardbound boo...more
This is a very heavy book, so it was hard to read simply because the hardbound boo...more
A large and interesting anthology of Card's work from his better known Ender and Alvin writing to unpublished or little known short stories to a few of his mormon stories. Some of them are great, some not so, a few even awful. He comments after each one and even points out which ones were flops or just didn't work, no matter how much he wanted them to. It was inspiring to see a writer I respect share his process as well as the good, the bad, and the awful. One story even felt very personal to me...more
short stories...a few good ones...
So far, the stories are seeming like Card has gotten a little full of himself, and thinks he's a genius, kind of like Shyamalan in that last movie. I have loved Card's storytelling in the past, but it's not as crisp in these. The invention is there, though. And, as usual, there's a heavy cosmic/religious overtone, if it's not the outright center of story.
I have to say, though, that I loved the Noah story. It's a perfect example of (pretend) folk history, and how things get blown out o...more
I have to say, though, that I loved the Noah story. It's a perfect example of (pretend) folk history, and how things get blown out o...more
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Orson Scott Card is the author of the novels Ender's Game, Ender's Shadow, and Speaker for the Dead, which are widely read by adults and younger readers, and are increasingly used in schools.
Besides these and other science fiction novels, Card writes contemporary fantasy (Magic Street, Enchantment, Lost Boys), biblical novels (Stone Tables, Rachel and Leah), the American frontier fantasy ser...more
More about Orson Scott Card...
Besides these and other science fiction novels, Card writes contemporary fantasy (Magic Street, Enchantment, Lost Boys), biblical novels (Stone Tables, Rachel and Leah), the American frontier fantasy ser...more
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