EnderCast Episode #16 – Earth Afire

Crystal

Oh my goodness, is it really the 31st of May? When we hit June we’ll be just 5 months away from Ender’s Game!

This week on EnderCast, Kelly and I were really happy to welcome to our show special guest Aaron W. Johnston, co-author of the Ender’s Game prequel series The First Formic War. The first book, Earth Unaware, was released last year and the second book, Earth Afire, will be released next week Tuesday on June 4, 2013.

Topics we discussed with Aaron:

How collaboration works on books in general and how he and Card write these books together

Their decision to exit Mazer so early in book 1

Aaron’s personal take on movie Mazer’s tā moko tattoos

The various versions of the movie script, the long road to production, and the difficulty of film adaptations

Aaron’s thoughts on the production team for the movie

His reaction to the trailer (he also drops a little bomb on us about the movie!)

On why Speaker for the Dead is likely unfilmable

We must also applaud Mr. Johnson for bravely agreeing to take part in Pop Quiz, Fart Eater! Want to know how he did? Make sure you listen to find out! We’ll add him to our leaderboard next week.

A couple of relevant items to go along with the podcast include a link to an editorial I wrote last year that gives you an idea of why I have issues with The Hunger Games as a film adaptation and the following video of the University of Hawai`i team doing the haka before a game, which we briefly mention while discussing the origins of Mazer Rackham.

In case it’s not apparent from the video, even as someone watching from the stands, that really gets your blood running before a game!