| "Fat Farm" | |
|---|---|
| Short story by Orson Scott Card | |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Science fiction, horror |
| Publication | |
| Published in | Omni |
| Publication type | Periodical |
| Publisher | Omni Publications |
| Media type | Print (Magazine) |
| Publication date | 1980 |
"Fat Farm" is a short story by American writer Orson Scott Card. Originally published in the January 1980 issue of Omni magazine, it also appears in his short story collection Maps in a Mirror .
Martin Barth is a very rich man with a serious overeating problem. When his obesity interferes with his enjoyment of his lifestyle, he goes to a secret clinic, gets himself cloned and then transfers his memories into the clone.
After Barth has legally transferred his identity to his replacement and it is too late to change his mind, he is told that he is now the property of the company that runs the clinic. His name is now "H", because he is the eighth "edition" of himself to go through the process. He has a choice: immediate death or "an assignment". Since he doesn't want to die he agrees to work for the company. He is dragged to a camp in the middle of nowhere and forced to do manual labor so that he will be in shape for the unspecified job they want him to do.
After two years, with only a brutal overseer for company, "H" is given his assignment. He leaves the camp, just in time to see his clone "I" - who is now fat - dragged into the camp to begin the process over again.
As his plane is taking off, "H" thinks about how much he hates himself for repeating this process over and over again. He wishes that the newest clone would suffer even more than he had. After telling this to the businessman, who is his new supervisor, the young man laughs out loud. He explains that the overseer (or "old man" as "H" refers to him) is actually "A", the original.
The short story "Fat Farm" was made into a comic which appears in the October 2005 issue of InterGalactic Medicine Show . The art for this comic was done by Jin Han and the script was written by Aaron Johnston, who also co-authored the novel Invasive Procedures with Card.
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Ender's Game is a 1985 military science fiction novel by American author Orson Scott Card. Set at an unspecified date in Earth's future, the novel presents an imperiled humankind after two conflicts with an insectoid alien species they dub "the buggers". In preparation for an anticipated third invasion, Earth's international military force recruits young children, including the novel's protagonist, Andrew "Ender" Wiggin, to be trained as elite officers. The children learn military strategy and leadership by playing increasingly difficult war games, including some in zero gravity, where Ender's tactical genius is revealed.
Patricia Kathryn Helms Kidd was an American author. Many of her books concern the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She co-wrote some of her works with her husband, Clark L. Kidd, and also co-wrote a novel with Orson Scott Card.
Lost Boys (1992) is a horror novel by American author Orson Scott Card. The premise of the novel revolves around the daily lives of a Mormon family, and the challenges they face after a move to North Carolina. The story primarily follows the family's troubles at work, church, and the oldest child Stevie's difficulty fitting in at school, which lead to him becoming increasingly withdrawn.
The Tales of Alvin Maker is a series of six alternate history fantasy novels written by American novelist Orson Scott Card, published from 1987 to 2003, with one more planned. They explore the experiences of a young man, Alvin Miller, who realizes he has incredible powers for creating and shaping things around him.
Ender's Game is a 2013 American military science-fiction action film based on Orson Scott Card's 1985 novel of the same name. Written and directed by Gavin Hood, the film stars Asa Butterfield as Andrew "Ender" Wiggin, an unusually gifted child who is sent to an advanced military academy in space to prepare for a future alien invasion. The supporting cast includes Harrison Ford, Hailee Steinfeld, and Viola Davis, with Abigail Breslin and Ben Kingsley.
Songmaster (1980) is a science fiction novel by American writer Orson Scott Card. The story of the Songmaster occurs in a future human empire, and follows Ansset, a beautiful young boy whose perfect singing voice has the power of amplifying people's emotions, making him both a potential healer and destroyer. He is trained in the art of singing so beautifully that his songs can express ideas and emotions more truthfully than words. This novel was based on Card's short stories "Mikal's Songbird" and "Songhouse".
Maps in a Mirror (1990) is a collection of short stories by American writer Orson Scott Card. Like Card's novels, most of the stories have a science fiction or fantasy theme. Some of the stories, such as "Ender's Game", "Lost Boys", and "Mikal's Songbird" were later expanded into novels. Each of the smaller volumes that make up the larger collection as a whole are centered on a theme or genre. For instance, Volume 1, The Changed Man, reprints several of Card's horror stories. The collection won the Locus Award in 1991.
Lovelock is a 1994 science fiction novel by American writers Orson Scott Card and Kathryn H. Kidd. The novel's eponymous narrator, a sentient monkey, takes his name from James Lovelock, the scientist-inventor who formulated the Gaia hypothesis, which figures heavily in the book.
Ender in Exile is a science fiction novel by American writer Orson Scott Card, part of the Ender's Game series, published on November 11, 2008. It takes place between the two award-winning novels Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead. It could also be considered a parallel novel to the first three sequels in the Shadow Saga, since the entirety of this trilogy takes place in the span of Ender in Exile. The novel concludes a dangling story line of the Shadow Saga, while it makes several references to events that take place during the Shadow Saga. From yet another perspective, the novel expands the last chapter of the original novel Ender's Game. On the one hand, it fills the gap right before the last chapter, and on the other hand, it fills the gap between the last chapter and the original (first) sequel. Ender in Exile begins one year after Ender has won the bugger war, and begins with the short story "Ender's Homecoming" from Card's webzine Intergalactic Medicine Show. Other short stories that were published elsewhere are included as chapters of the novel.
Orson Scott Card is an American writer known best for his science fiction works. He is the only person to have won a Hugo Award and a Nebula Award in consecutive years, winning both awards for his novel Ender's Game (1985) and its sequel Speaker for the Dead (1986). A feature film adaptation of Ender's Game, which Card co-produced, was released in 2013. Card also wrote the Locus Fantasy Award-winning series The Tales of Alvin Maker (1987–2003).
The Orson Scott Card bibliography contains a list of works published by Orson Scott Card.
"A Plague of Butterflies" is a short story by American writer Orson Scott Card. It was originally published in Amazing, in 1981, and shortly afterwards in an anthology, edited by Card, entitled Dragons of Darkness. His short story "Middle Woman" appeared in the same book under the pseudonym Byron Walley. A Plague of Butterflies was later reprinted in his short story collection Maps in a Mirror.
"Middle Woman" is a short story by American writer Orson Scott Card, originally published in the Dragons of Darkness, edited by Card himself, under the name Byron Walley. It also appears in his short story collections Cardography and Maps in a Mirror.
"Gert Fram" is a short story that by American author Orson Scott Card. It appears in his short story collection Maps in a Mirror, but it originally appeared in the July 1977 fine arts issue of Ensign magazine under the pen name Byron Walley. It is Card's first published work.
Red Prophet: The Tales of Alvin Maker is a twelve-issue comic book limited series by Orson Scott Card, based on Card's The Tales of Alvin Maker novel series. Publication started in March 2006 by Dabel Brothers Productions and was finished in 2008 by Marvel Comics.
"Salvage" is a short story by American writer Orson Scott Card, originally published in the February 1986 issue of Asimov's Science Fiction magazine. It appears in Card's short story collection The Folk of the Fringe and was also reprinted in the anthologies Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse and The End of the World: Stories of the Apocalypse.
"The Fringe" is a science fiction short story by American writer Orson Scott Card, originally published in the October 1985 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. It was later reprinted in his short story collection The Folk of the Fringe and in Future on Ice, a short story collection edited by Card.
Orson Scott Card's InterGalactic Medicine Show (2008) is a science fiction and fantasy anthology edited by Edmund R. Schubert and Orson Scott Card.
Ender's Game is a series of comic book adaptations of a series of science fiction novels of the same name written by Orson Scott Card and published by Marvel Comics that began in October 2008. However, some have new content not included in the novels. The series, like the novels they are based on, are set in a future where mankind is facing annihilation by an aggressive alien society, an insect-like race known colloquially as "Buggers" but more formally as "Formics". The central character, Andrew "Ender" Wiggin, is one of the child soldiers trained at Battle School to be the future leaders of the protection of Earth. The year is never specified, although the ages of the Wiggin children are bound to change throughout space, taking in the relativity of space and time.
