Laddertop by Emily Janice Card and Orson Scot Card

If you haven’t guessed by their last names, then you should know that Emily Janice Card  is indeed Orson Scott Card’s last name (and follows in the family footsteps of using all three names). This is (I believe) the first time that Card has co-written a book with a family member and it’s not completely clear how much each of the writers did. The book, Laddertop, appears to be a pastiche of Ender’s Game and manga with talented children being taken to an space station and alien technology being used. The book is just volume 1, so there isn’t a lot of story and more questions than answers. Let’s check it out.

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Pluto manga review by Naoki Urasawa

I’m not usually a big fan of Manga. I know several people who are into it and, despite their recommendations, I had never bit the bullet and jumped in. Finally I decided to do so, but with a short series (and by short, I mean 8 volumes where each volume is about 200 pages) by one of the premier manga creators Naoki Urasawa. Pluto is Naoki Urasawa’s homage to Osamu Tezuka’s Astro Boy and a retelling of Tezuka’s Astro Boy story The Greatest Robot on Earth. Not having read the original story, I couldn’t tell you who did it better, by Urasawa’s take is amazing and wonderful. Let’s see what happens in the story.

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