Halo's Cortana based on Ender's Jane??

I'm reading Speaker for the Dead (sequel to Ender's Game), and Ender has a computerized female companion called Jane, much like the Master Chief's own female friend Cortana.

It makes me wonder if someone at Bungie read Speaker and decided to borrow the idea of Jane from it to make Cortana for Halo.

 

I have no idea, but I'd hit it.

[image=http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/76/Cortana_h3.png]

 

I always thought Jane was stupid. Also:

1. Talking trees
2. The whole idea of retelling Ender's Game from a different character's perspective, which basically meant going on Microsoft Word to swap out "Ender" with "he" when describing Ender's actions, and "he" with "Bean" when describing Bean's.
3. OMG TEH ISLAMS NUKED MECCA
4. The rest of Ender's Shadow "saga" in all its particulars and generalities
5. Bringing back Val & Peter in new bodies as Ender's fragmented personality, or whatever it was supposed to be (I can't even recall anymore)


Etc

 

I'm not going to read the Shadow series because I hear it's pretty strange, much like I've avoided the KJA/Brian Herbert additions to the Dune series.

 

Card's crazy neo-con predictions of Earth's future political climate are pretty funny, but nowhere near as insane as the Speaker trilogy (especially Xenocide and Children of the Mind).

 

I love both the Shadow and the Speaker series.



Want a fun read? Read the Memory of Earth series. It's the Book of Mormon in Science Fiction form. I'm 100% not ****ing around.

 

Ender has a girlfriend named Jane?

 

I liked Speaker for the Dead, but the following two books were just stupid, although Xenocide had some interesting concepts.

Ender's Shadow is cool, but the rest of the Shadow series is dreadful.

 

Yeah, Speaker was great but its follow-ups were Card masturbating his ego.

 

The Shadow series was very good, in my opinion. The whole world was very detailed, and I thought the dynamics were conceivable, or at least intriguing. I didn't much care for the three stories after Ender's Game (though I'll acknowledge Card's quality writing), but the original is easily my favorite book of all-time. I love the Battle Room.

 

There's a whole Speaker series?!?! Aw, man. So much reading.

 

Just the concept of children commanding the world's armies is ridiculous enough. Combine it with all of the IR nonsense and Achilles' faux-philosophical ramblings and it's just plain garbage.

 

Xenocide and Children of the Mind follow the same train of thought.

It's no more ridiculous than the premise the original story was based on: children commanding the military because of their unspoiled genius. I'm not exactly sure what IR is supposed to stand for, though, so I may be missing something.

 

Well, I thought that the whole nuclear-missiles-are-shot-down-by-the-International-Fleet excuse for OMG CHINA FIGHTS INDIA FIGHTS RUSSIA FIGHTS THE CALIPHATE was ridiculously contrived and kinda fell apart under any sort of scrutiny (mostly when you figure that nukes can be delivered by other means).

 

They were children among children in the field of battle, though, and ended up commanding adults via telecommunications. In the Shadow novels they are children among adults, and the imagery is just ridiculous.

 

Most of them were in their twenties, the others in their late teens, and all of them were war heroes. I mean, c'mon. Being a jeeshmate must have added fifteen years to their age, absolute minimum. Still, if it's an image that doesn't work for you, it's an image that doesn't work. I honestly saw them as beyond age.

Guy: I thought no nukes were used because they feared IF retribution rather than actual stopping action. Spaceships could annihilate entire countries, so no one would dare.

 

The premise being that they're the saviors of humanity by defeating a race that had nearly conquered Earth and kept the collective mind of the planet preoccupied for many decades.

Countries would only use nukes out of desperation, anyway (such as being invaded by a neighbor bent on crushing you beneath its foot). I don't see how that would be much of a deterrent when facing destruction regardless.

 

Dr. Device, a superweapon that he only controlled by virtue of commanding the fleet(s) that had it.