cover image Ender’s Game Alive

Ender’s Game Alive

Orson Scott Card, read by a full cast. Brilliance Audio, seven CDs, 7.5 hrs., $14.99 ISBN 978-1-4805-2321-0

Adapted by Card himself, this audio play re-imagines the author’s classic sci-fi novel—about a gifted child sent to a military school to prepare for alien invasion—and features a full cast. Unfortunately, the performances of the cast members fail to impress, hampered in part by the script and its stilted dialogue, but also because the narrators don’t portray Card’s precocious little killers as the children they are. While some of the performances are solid, others miss the mark entirely. Many listeners—and fans of the popular novel—will feel that this adaptation can’t compare to the original. (Oct.)