Michael

Fans of Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead will definitely want to hear First Meetings: Four Stories from the Enderverse. As I have stated with most of my short story reviews, audio books and short stories are made for each other and for fans of Ender, these four short stories construct a beautiful bridge between Ender's past before Ender's Game and between Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead.

The original novelette format of Ender's Game is the third story in this four part collection and it is a great story, even in this pared down format. It just proves that Ender's Game is a terrific story that re-engages listeners everytime they play it. The remaining three stories are the best part of this collection though and my favorite is Teacher's Pest.

Teacher's Pest is the story of the meeting and very brief courtship of John Paul Wiggin and Theresa Brown. The very intriguing couple who become the parents of Peter, Valentine, and Andrew Wiggin.

The Polish Boy introduces us to the "non-compliant" Wieczorek family and the brilliant John Paul, whose genius will alter the course of the future, for both his family and the entire Enderverse. John Paul Wieczorek of course becomes John Paul Wiggin in Teacher's Pest.

This is a great collection of stories that is spectacularly narrated, as usual, by the Fantastic Audio crew. My only criticism of the audio production is the bumper music used at the beginning and ending of each story. I do believe my ears started bleeding at some point and the bumpers overlap the narration too far so that it is very hard to hear for several seconds at the beginning and ending of these stories.

Again, I can't recommend any group of short stories enough but these are terrific, especially for Ender fans. Enjoy!