Mazer In Prison

by Orson Scott Card

"Mazer in Prison" is the story of Mazer Rackham, the hero who saved the planet Earth in the second Formics invasion. As soon as the battle was over, Earth put together a fleet to send to the Formics home worlds to end the conflict once and for all. Since they needed a leader for this war, the Earth government decided to send Mazer out into space in a craft that was capable of near-lightspeed travel so that due to the relativistic effect he would return still young enough to lead the fleet into battle. Since he knew that he was not the best person to lead the fleet, Mazer reprogrammed the computer on board his ship so that the Earth government would no longer be able to control it. He then forced them to find a new fleet commander and arranged to have a young Hyrum Graff set up the Battle School to train possible candidates.

Genres: Science Fiction, Short Stories, Fiction

20 pages, ebook

First published January 9, 2005

About the author

Orson Scott Card is an American writer known best for his science fiction works. He is (as of 2023) the only person to have won a Hugo Award and a Nebula Award in consecutive years, winning both awards for his novel Ender's Game (1985) and its sequel Speaker for the Dead (1986). A feature film adaptation of Ender's Game, which Card co-produced, was released in 2013. Card also wrote the Locus Fantasy Award-winning series The Tales of Alvin Maker (1987–2003).
Card's fiction often features characters with exceptional gifts who make difficult choices with high stakes. Card has also written political, religious, and social commentary in his columns and other writing; his opposition to homosexuality has provoked public criticism.
Card, who is a great-great-grandson of Brigham Young, was born in Richland, Washington, and grew up in Utah and California. While he was a student at Brigham Young University (BYU), his plays were performed on stage. He served in Brazil as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) and headed a community theater for two summers. Card had 27 short stories published between 1978 and 1979, and he won the John W. Campbell Award for best new writer in 1978. He earned a master's degree in English from the University of Utah in 1981 and wrote novels in science fiction, fantasy, non-fiction, and historical fiction genres starting in 1979. Card continued to write prolifically, and he has published over 50 novels and 45 short stories.
Card teaches English at Southern Virginia University; he has written two books on creative writing and serves as a judge in the Writers of the Future contest. He has taught many successful writers at his "literary boot camps". He remains a practicing member of the LDS Church and Mormon fiction writers Stephenie Meyer, Brandon Sanderson, and Dave Wolverton have cited his works as a major influence.

Reviews

[Virginia · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a really interesting read. It was great getting to know Mazer and Graff better and it made sense of the little interludes between these 2 characters at the start of every chapter in Enders Game. I loved how Mazer turned bureaucracy on its head to prevent it and short sighted career driven individuals from f’ing everything up for humanity.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting to see what the IF forced Mazer into doing and how Graff came into the position he did, but wasn’t anything I wanted to know after reading the story.

[Stephen · Rating 5 out of 5]

So far I have enjoyed every book and short story in this series. This was a great way to get some insight to one of the important characters from the stories.

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good short story, which I read in a collection. It's a piece of the entire Ender universe, and now we know what Mazer did while he waited for the fleet to arrive at the Formic home world. Good story.

[J_BlueFlower · Rating 3 out of 5]

Strange this one was not included in First Meetings. I did not find the military part so convincing. Also the ansible communication: With two object moving at different steady speeds, there is no way to say that one moves "faster" than the other. You need a frame of reference for that.

[Annie Lilley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good short story that delves deeper into Mazer's past and what he was talking about when he told Ender that until Ender had experenced loss like him, he could say nothing.

[Joanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Adam Meek · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting short story prequel to Ender's Game

[Elisabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice short story about Mazer in prison, as name suggests, giving a bit more backstory to the famous Ender saga character.

[PAR · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 Stars! Superb short story. Made me think of that scene in Interstellar when McConaughey sees his daughter for the first time in years... Very sad. Loved it though!
1st Read: 10/17/20-10/18/20
2nd read: 4/5/22

[Kenneth Green · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very much in the vein of Ender's Game. Surpasses the Bean stories that brought the series down.