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I had valuable responses to this cri de coeur, froford, Marc Van Pelt, Rob Taber, Steven R Beers, Shannon Blood, Jason Bradshaw, Lloyd Waldo, Simeon Anfinrud, Jonathan Barbee, Adam Hobart, Beau Pearce, and Robert Prince Thank you to all of the back into the books to find the answers to my questions

In addition, Clinton Parks found an issue I hadn't even thought of, and sent my staff this letter:

I know you guys probably got this already, but I wanted to put it out there just in case Did you remember that there was a discussion in "Shadow of the Giant" where the first colony's name is revealed as "Shakespeare"? It stuck in my mind cause I wondered why Ender would nailant and send a reminder Take care!

This was, in fact, a real contradiction--elsewhere, I definitively stated that the first colony was na those earlier books I did not have the resource of a coenerous readers, or didn't think to ask for their help as I should have, and so thought up cool new ideas for things that I had already dealt with in earlier books, but forgot about in the years that followed

This, too, I have resolved

I was once a professional proofreader I know frohtest,in teams so we could catch each other's mistakes, still missed errors A world as complex, with as many stories set in it, as this one is bound to contain other contradictions as yet undetected Please post any that you find (except the ones from the former chapter 15 of Ender's Game) at Hatrackcom, and maybe I can find a way to fix them later

Or take it philosophically, and realize that if these were genuine histories or biographies instead of works of fiction, there would be contradictions between them anyway--because even in factual accounts of the real world, errors and contradictions creep in There are few events in history that were recounted identically by all witnesses Pretend, then, that any re contradictions are the result of errors in historical transmission Even if it's a "history" of events hundreds of years in the future

Besides these helpful friends, I showed my chapters as I wrote the a novel piecemeal is an old tradition--Charles Dickens's fans always had to read his novels as they ca a chapter every few days and having to respond quickly because I' htly make of friends

Jake Black was, for the first ti his encyclopedic knowledge of the Ender universe to bear Kathryn H Kidd, -overdue-and-entirely-my-fault sequel to Lovelock, called Rasputin, has been one of my first readers for years Erin and Phillip Absher have also been longtime prereaders ofme throw out several chapters in order to follow up on a plot thread that I had thought was a throay, and he convinced ht, I rong, and the book was better for it This time, fortunately, he didn't make me rewrite whole swaths of e a story that orth the time spent on it

My very first reader, however, remains my wife, Kristine, who also bears the brunt of the burden of the faht seee to o away

Kristine and our youngest child, Zina, the last at home, have to deal with a father who haunts the house like a distracted, irritable ghost during the writing of a book But we do have those nights watching Idol and So You Think You Can Dance, where we actually inhabit the same universe for an hour or two at a time

I have also had the help of Kathleen Bella editor of The InterGalactic Medicine Shoho does not read e proofs, whereupon she reads them for the first tioes to press That ht and ITso that I have that community to call upon

On this book, Beth Meachaer role than I usually ask ofa "midquel" that overlapped with my most popular novel--I did not want to proceed without her assurance that the book was actually soestions and caveats ise and helpful at every stage of the develop of this book

And I thank the production team at Tor for the sacrifices they had to make because I was so late with this manuscript That this book still came out on time is owed to their extra work and sharp concern for quality Even when rushing, they do their ith pride and so I end up with a book I can be proud of Where would I be, if other good souls did not s?

The character of Ender as depicted in the original novel was in some ways drawn fromthat book He is now thirty years old and the father of two children (with the good offices of his wife, the forreat relief, Geoffrey was never called upon to serve his country in war

So in exaht be like, I have drawn upon , of course, but also froood hanistan, Iraq, and other trouble spots where our responsibilities as the only nation with the strength and the will to help beleaguered people against tyranny have been fulfilled You bear a burden for us all, and I salute you

I grieve for those who have fallen, or who, surviving with dire injuries or broken hearts, have been deprived of much or most of the future that you once dreamed of As a citizen of the United States, I bear soone, and certainly reap the benefits Like Ender, Isacrificed in nize the connection between us

And for those of you who are visibly whole after your service, but who bear inward changes that no one sees, and carry memories that no one shares, I can only hope that I have done an adequate job of representing, in Ender Wiggin, so of what you feel and think and remember

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