Children of the Fleet

By: Orson Scott Card

Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki

Length: 11 hrs and 37 mins

Publisher's summary

"The ideal presentation of any book of mine is to have excellent actors perform it in audio-only format." - Orson Scott Card

This program is read by Stefan Rudnicki and a full cast including Emily Rankin, Kirby Heyborne, Orson Scott Card, P.J. Ochlan, Gabrielle de Cuir, Richard Gilliland, Kristoffer Tabori, and Judy Young.

From Orson Scott Card, award-winning and Best-selling author of Ender's Game, his first solo Enderverse audiobook in years.

Children of the Fleet is a new angle on Card's Best-selling series, telling the story of the Fleet in space, parallel to the story on Earth told in the Ender's Shadow series.

Ender Wiggin won the Third Formic war, ending the alien threat to Earth. Afterwards, all the terraformed Formic worlds were open to settlement by humans, and the International Fleet became the arm of the Ministry of Colonization, run by Hirum Graff. MinCol now runs Fleet School on the old Battle School station, and still recruits very smart kids to train as leaders of colony ships, and colonies.

Dabeet Ochoa is a very smart kid. Top of his class in every school. But he doesn't think he has a chance at Fleet School, because he has no connections to the Fleet. That he knows of. At least until the day that Colonel Graff arrives at his school for an interview.

Other Series by Orson Scott Card

Ender

#1 Ender's Game / #2 Ender in Exile / #3 Speaker for the Dead / #4 Xenocide / #5 Children of the Mind

Ender's Shadow

#1 Ender's Shadow / #2 Shadow of the Hegemon / #3 Shadow Puppets / #4 Shadow of the Giant / #5 Shadows in Flight

The First Formic War (with Aaron Johnston)

#1 Earth Unaware / #2 Earth Afire / #3 Earth Awakens

©2017 Orson Scott Card (P)2017 Macmillan Audio

Reboot? Same old story...

Is there anything you would change about this book?

Everything. Once again there is a brilliant child.. who is superior to all others.. just like ender.. just like bean.. I stopped after 3 hours.. it just felt like Orson Scott Card is trying for a cash grab to start another series. Please finish the 3 you already have going. I've been in the Enderverse since the 80's and this is the first book I really didn't enoy.

Has Children of the Fleet turned you off from other books in this genre?

Pretty much until something pertaining to Ender or Bean or the bug wars is complete

Would you listen to another book narrated by Stefan Rudnicki?

Yes- Love Stefan Rudnicki

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

Nope-- why another cash grab Orson Scott Card? I was so disappointed to the rush job on Ender's game.

Any additional comments?

Skip this book

Not Ender's Game (yawn)

First off, this full cast of narrators is ridiculous. It is absurd to have the same character voiced by different narrators, which is what we get here. Most of the time Stefan Rudnicki is the reader, and he does a fine job. Then for no appreciable reason, some chapters are read by a lady. So here you have the main character, Dabeet, voiced by both a man and a woman. It ends up being confusing, distracting, and annoying. You will notice a couple other voices appearing once perhaps, but a total of 8 distinct narrators? No, you will not be able to tell that there were that many different voices, so why have them?

Then there's the story. Battle School is not needed anymore since there's no enemy. Fleet School is designed to create explorers and colonizers. The students there are the offspring of the Battle School kids who no longer fit in on Earth. They are not necessarily smarter or more clever than anyone else. The only box to tick on the application is lineage. Dabeet is a genius of uncertain parentage who gets in because he floods the system with applications and pleas for admission. He has no friends because he is so smart that he is arrogant and obnoxious. The other main characters are his mother, General Graff, 2 women in charge at Fleet School, and the students at Fleet School. In order to prove how smart Dabeet and these kids are, we have to plod through every single micro-thought just to illustrate that we normals could never produce such scintillating trains of thought nor make the conclusions they do. Ideas that take a split second to think are dragged out for long tedious minutes of self-satisfied conversation.

The characters are thin and uninteresting. The only sparkle is a few references to Bean and Achilles, and of course, Ender. Some chapters are dull eye-rolling convos between General Graff and... um... actually, no idea who he is talking to.

There are 2, count 'em, 2 scenes that should have been exciting--a kidnapping and a space explosion. They were not exciting. It's all just boring. Seven hours into this 11-hour book, when Achilles is first mentioned, there's a moment you think things are going to turn exciting, but wait, uh no.

Ender Wiggin had to build a cohesive fighting team to beat the Formics. He had to overcome his size, his test scores, and the existing power order. Dabeet Ochoa is supposed to learn the qualities of a leader, in order to hopefully develop them, but instead he has to learn the kindergarden stuff-- how to work well with others, how to share, how to appreciate other people's contributions, all while learning how to not be a jerk (that's the polite word) about it. But these character developments are not fleshed out; we have no investment in being there. It's not interesting. It's not exciting.

There's a big reveal at the end that you figure out in the beginning, so even that's a yawn.

Presumably, this is the first in a series of The Next Generation where Dabeet has magically learned to be a team player and a leader. Card will have to seriously up his Game to make them relatable, enjoyable, or anywhere near exciting.

Please click yes if you found this review provocative, even if you disagree with it!

A Real Disappointment

Card's latest offering reads like a not particularly well done young adult book. The plot is simplistic and underdeveloped, and the moral (what's a YA book without a moral?), although admirable enough, is hammered home with such unrelenting repetition as to try the patience of even the youngest reader. Frankly, I was bored. At first I continued reading expecting things to improve. Somewhere around the three-quarters mark I gave up on that. By then the only thing that made this a "page-turner" was my impatience to get to the next book on my list. "Children of the Fleet" is billed as the first of a series. Based on this maiden voyage I fear that from now on the fleet will sail without me.

Solid voice acting saves mediocre story.

Fair warning, I'm bitter because Card has been promising us the story of Bean's children and Ender's children meeting for years and this is not that.

One of Orson Scott Card's best strengths in characters is how he builds a story for each person that perfectly explains their actions. He fails to adequately do this with the main protagonist so the whole story falls flat.

Orson Scott Card has lost it.

I've been reading this author for decades. This book was a big disappointment. All useless dialog. Very little plot.

Unlikable Kids Goes on Boring Adventure

I've worked my way through the whole Ender's series and this is a rare miss. I've never had so much disdain and apathy for a protagonist. Hopefully this is just a stumble and we'll be back on track for the next book, otherwise, it's been a fun journey but time to move on.

Pointlessly Repetitive

Same formula
Same place
Different Names

I think they call is " jumping the shark" when they run out of ideas .

Same Story, 47th verse.

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

Since I always listen while doing something else it is difficult to rate the book alone.

If you’ve listened to books by Orson Scott Card before, how does this one compare?

I have listened to pretty much everything OSC has on Audible. His writing is somewhat addictive, but predictable. I'm not sure what kind of childhood OSC enjoyed (or more likely didn't), but his need to continually put per-pubescent boys (and girls) in the staring role of educating adults seems to be obsessive. This one is no different. He evidently feels the need for another Ender Wiggens to take the stage and re-do all the daring do a 10 year old would never actually be able to accomplish. Me thinks OSC is still playing out whatever dynamics he experiences as a kid. I expect this is the first in a series where instead of fighting aliens we'll see a series of harrowing adventures to explore new worlds.

What does Stefan Rudnicki bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

I actually got this book because I enjoy listening to Stephan Rudnicki. I fully expected the story to be another rehash of an "Enderish" type adventure - and was correct. Different twists - same story. Stefan's readings are what bring OSC's novels alive.

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

If Ben Kingsley still had a role!

Swing and a Miss

I love all things related to Ender’s game and it’s many extensions ... except this.

Unfortunately, this is a one dimensional tale about an unlikable kid on a very linear path with nothing original or multi dimensional. The insights are very bland, there are ZERO plot twists and the whole thing feels like an unedited rambling mess. Had it not been OSC, I would have stopped 30% of the way through, but instead I persevered to the end. It was a chore. It was never rewarding. I was glad to be done. Skip.

Pleasant read

Tho not as exciting as the shadow series not prequel form if war series this is very comparable to well Enders game. Written for a middle school and up group, this book keeps adding information to the Ender Universe.
Thank you and please more!!!!