Orson Scott Card is a name that is legendary in the literary world of science fiction. He is most famous as the author of Ender’s Game, which is hailed as one of the top great works of science fiction. A book that is a masterclass on the craft of writing from worldbuilding, character development and prose. It is a novel that has sold over ten million copies and continues to outsell most books in the genre with very little promotion from its publishers. The book would spawn a whole series of novels that continue to be published to this day.
Here’s a little known fact for you. He was personally selected by James Cameron to write the novelization to his underrated 1989 film The Abyss, and the book stands out on its own from the film akin to classic novelizations from Fantastic Voyage from Isaac Asimov and the original Star Wars, which was ghostwritten by Alan Dean Foster, but is credited to George Lucas, but unlike the two examples, Card’s novelization to Cameron classic remains out of print to this day, which is criminal.
But here’s a fact that’s more well known for you. He was an early casualty of Cancel Culture a decade ago when it was just getting started. To this day, Card remains an active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and an active conservative in the 2000s and found himself at odds with the seemingly radical leftists that were just starting to gain control over by radical leftist with no tolerance for Christians and conservatives as a whole.
How did Card meet the situation? He faced it with a dignified silence and focused on his work, which he continues to this day. It would be the first major canceling of a creative person for being a conservative Christian that would start a chain reaction leading to the cancelation of other such creatives like Chuck Dixon and Gina Carano who share similar beliefs.
Fast forward to today, Orson Scott card had relatively disappeared from the public eye. He remains inactive on social media, and quietly produces novels that continue to be devoured by a loyal fanbase, while his publishers pretend he doesn’t exist, but continue to make money off his books to this day.
However, at this year’s DragonCon, he made a rare public appearance. He was swarmed by legions of fans, making long lines for a chance to speak with him or to get an autograph. He has been grossly mischaracterized by the mainstream media, but remains one of the nicer men in publishing today. The lines to see him surpassed that of even eventual Dragon Award Winner John Scalzi, who at most had a few dozen in the lines to see him.
The publishing insiders according to the Fandom Pulse reported that many authors present were seething at Card’s reception, despite the coordinated efforts to make him a pariah. While Cancel Culture has worked well for the mainstream for going on a decade, but the public as a whole has had it. They are sick and tired of being forced and spoon-fed leftist politics in their entertainment and are craving great stories from great people. Enter the Iron Age movement of indie creators, which has given the perfect platform for Orson Scott Card to have the last laugh.
You can read more from Tom Hyland at his own Substack here:
https://substack.com/@hylandia
He's active on Quora (or he was); I sometimes find his answers there. And he's a wonderful short story writer ("Ender's Game" started as one). But, the last time I checked, being a Mormon isn't the crime it was once thought to be, and he's not a polygamist...