Best Orson Scott Card Books Ranked

Born in Washington State in 1951, Orson Scott Card is an American writer who has published over 50 novels and 45 short stories. He writes mostly science fiction but also writes thrillers, historical fiction, fantasy, horror, and biblical fiction, in part because of his Mormon upbringing. 

His most notable works include Ender’s Game and The Tales of Alvin Maker. He has been the subject of controversy and even boycotts because of his views against homosexuality. He has won dozens of awards for his writing but has been hesitant to grant film rights to any of his books. Orson Scott Card also serves as a judge for Writers of the Future, a contest designed for amateur writers. 

Some of Orson Scott Card’s best books include the following:

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46. Invasive Procedures

Amazon	Goodreads	LibraryThing	Overall
3.80	3.3	3.07	3.39

Overview

George is both a brilliant scientist and insane, wanting to use his discoveries to make all humans more “perfect.” Frank is a virologist who sets out to stop George from doing crazy things. Which one will win?

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45. Magic Street

Amazon	Goodreads	LibraryThing	Overall
4.00	3.25	3.22	3.49

Overview

Mack Street knows he’s different than most, especially when he enters another world through a portal where time and reality are both skewed. But through it all, he may just figure out who he is and why he’s here.

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44. Treasure Box

Amazon	Goodreads	LibraryThing	Overall
4.00	3.33	3.20	3.51

Overview

Quentin had a devastating childhood but is now a millionaire. When he meets Madeleine, who is just as uncomfortable with reality as he is, he thinks his life is complete. But there’s a lot about Madeline that he doesn’t know.

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43. The Folk of the Fringe

Amazon	Goodreads	LibraryThing	Overall
4.00	3.33	3.21	3.51

Overview

Biological and cultural wars ended America, but now people in the Utah/Colorado/Idaho area are working to make things whole again to create a brand-new America.

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42. Homebody

Amazon	Goodreads	LibraryThing	Overall
4.10	3.40	3.27	3.59

Overview

When a loner buys an old Southern mansion and begins restoring it, he not only has to deal with the demons from his past but also the demons he has started to unleash since buying the home.

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41. Empire

Amazon	Goodreads	LibraryThing	Overall
4.20	3.44	3.17	3.60

Overview

The American Dream has shattered into violence, and wars of words have been turned into shooting wars. Is it possible for anyone to bring the two sides together, and if so, how?

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40. Wyrms

Amazon	Goodreads	LibraryThing	Overall
4.10	3.39	3.33	3.61

Overview

Is the duty to one’s race more important than the duty to one’s self? Patience finds out when she travels to the heart-soul of the planet to find out what her destiny is – and the destiny of the planet.

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39. Lovelock

Amazon	Goodreads	LibraryThing	Overall
4.10	3.47	3.36	3.64

Overview

Lovelock is a monkey engineered to be perfect in every way, while his creator uses his attributes to improve mankind. But Lovelock is so smart that he knows he isn’t truly free, and one day he decides to do something about it.

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38. Earthborn

Amazon	Goodreads	LibraryThing	Overall
4.30	3.41	3.26	3.66

Overview

This book is part of the author’s Homecoming Saga series and revolves around Shedemai, who now wears the Cloak of the Starmaster, and the Oversoul, who is still trying to find the one thing it has wanted for so long – the Keeper of the Earth.

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37. Hidden Empire

Amazon	Goodreads	LibraryThing	Overall
4.00	3.64	3.35	3.66

Overview

America is devastated, and a political scientist named Averell Torrent is now president. He wants to expand America’s power into the rest of the world, and his opportunity to do just that comes sooner than he thought.

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36. Hart’s Hope

Amazon	Goodreads	LibraryThing	Overall
4.20	3.47	3.41	3.69

Overview

This is the story of Palicrovol, who marries Asineth but who is a cruel ruler. But eventually, she sends Palicrovol into exile to breed a son that could one day take the world back from a cruel leader.

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35. The Memory of Earth

Amazon	Goodreads	LibraryThing	Overall
4.10	3.58	3.44	3.71

Overview

On the planet of Harmony, the Oversoul is in control and keeps it free of war and weapons of mass destruction. But when there is a problem with the data banks, the Oversoul has to act fast before everything gets out of control.

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34. Earthfall

Amazon	Goodreads	LibraryThing	Overall
4.30	3.51	3.38	3.73

Overview

The Oversoul of Harmony has chosen the Wetchik family to help it get back to Earth. But while they’re on the spaceship on the way there, the two children in the family become pawns in the struggle because each side wants something different from this adventure.

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33. The Ships of Earth

Amazon	Goodreads	LibraryThing	Overall
4.30	3.55	3.35	3.73

Overview

The Oversoul has chosen people who have settled in a hidden valley where exiles from Earth left their starships – and the machines that can make them fly again!

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32. Lost Boys

Amazon	Goodreads	LibraryThing	Overall
4.00	3.59	3.62	3.74

Overview

When the Fletchers move to a tiny town in North Carolina, their son Stevie finds it hard to fit in at school. He turns instead to some imaginary friends – friends with the same names as kids who have recently gone missing in the town.

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31. The Crystal City

Amazon	Goodreads	LibraryThing	Overall
4.20	3.61	3.45	3.75

Overview

This is a story about an entire colony where magic and folklore have an important role to play. This is the sixth book in Card’s Alvin Maker series.

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30. Shadows in Flight

Amazon	Goodreads	LibraryThing	Overall
4.00	3.80	3.53	3.78

Overview

The fifth book in the Shadows series tells the story of a man who flees earth with three of his children while scientists try to figure out the ailments that plague them. They are eventually forgotten until a certain event changes everything.

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29. The Call of Earth

Amazon	Goodreads	LibraryThing	Overall
4.30	3.59	3.46	3.78

Overview

Harmony’s Oversoul is growing weaker and Moozh, a warrior, is wreaking havoc on the planet and trying to overtake Basilica. What’s worse, Wetchik and his sons aren’t strong enough to stop this from happening.

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28. The Gate Thief

Amazon	Goodreads	LibraryThing	Overall
4.10	3.77	3.58	3.82

Overview

A sequel to The Lost Gate, it is the story of a teenager named Danny, a gate-mage, and the families who want to kill him because they can’t control him. Meanwhile, Danny comes face to face with two other mages and starts to understand a little more about the world around him.

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27. A War of Gifts

Amazon	Goodreads	LibraryThing	Overall
4.40	3.67	3.50	3.86

Overview

This is Card’s short novel about Ender Wiggin’s first year at the Battle School with its ban on giving religious gifts. When a student does just that, all hell breaks loose and no one knows what will happen next.

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26. Children of the Mind

Amazon	Goodreads	LibraryThing	Overall
4.40	3.77	3.54	3.90

Overview

Jane is a computer intelligence that uses her powers to transport people to habitable planets for colonization. But now, the network is being shut down and she has to find a way to transfer her “soul” to a human before it is too late.

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25. Alvin Journeyman

Amazon	Goodreads	LibraryThing	Overall
4.40	3.74	3.575	3.90

Overview

Alvin Miller is a gifted maker and uses his gift for the good of mankind. But his enemy, the Unmaker, is out to destroy him and even take his life from him.

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24. Xenocide

Amazon	Goodreads	LibraryThing	Overall
4.30	3.80	3.65	3.92

Overview

The planet Lusitania is in the middle of a war for its very survival, and its destiny lies in the hearts of a child named Gloriously Bright. Ender found that on this planet, everyone and everything is able to live together peacefully, or so he thought.

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23. Heartfire

Amazon	Goodreads	LibraryThing	Overall
4.50	3.71	3.54	3.92

Overview

Peggy has protected Alvin since his birth, but now that they are married, their journeys take them on two different paths. Now, Peggy has only one slim path she can take to take care of Alvin, and keep the rest of the world at peace.

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22. The Lost Gate

Amazon	Goodreads	LibraryThing	Overall
4.30	3.82	3.69	3.94

Overview

Danny North lives with his cousins, aunts and uncles, in a big house in Virginia. His cousins are finding their talents and niches, but he isn’t. What he doesn’t know is that secrets are being kept from him, and with good reason.

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21. Prentice Alvin

Amazon	Goodreads	LibraryThing	Overall
4.50	3.79	3.65	3.98

Overview

Alvin returns to the place of his birth to start his seven-year apprenticeship as a blacksmith. But as a Maker, he also has to learn to use and control his own special talents because if he doesn’t, his destiny will be unfulfilled.

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20. Red Prophet

Amazon	Goodreads	LibraryThing	Overall
4.40	3.79	3.65	3.98

Overview

This is book number two in the Alvin Maker series, and it describes a boy of mysterious powers who is just getting familiar with the mysterious place he lives in and what the people are all about.

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19. Earth Unaware

Amazon	Goodreads	LibraryThing	Overall
4.30	3.99	3.70	4.00

Overview

This is the story about the mining ship El Cavador, which picks up on its telescopes a fast-moving object. They believe it’s one thing, but they have to be sure. If it’s something else, a full-blown war may be at hand.

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18. Songmaster

Amazon	Goodreads	LibraryThing	Overall
4.50	3.74	3.75	4.00

Overview

Ansset has a beautiful voice and was kidnapped while he was young and brought to a retreat called Songhouse, where his world is filled with music. But soon, he is brought to the old Earth and his voice is put to the test, with everything he’s ever known riding on the results.

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17. Ruins

Amazon	Goodreads	LibraryThing	Overall
4.30	3.89	3.84	4.01

Overview

Rigg and his friends cross from the world they’re familiar with to a brand-new one. There, they have to dig into their pasts and solve issues so that they can all have a future.

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16. Seventh Son

Amazon	Goodreads	LibraryThing	Overall
4.40	3.87	3.83	4.03

Overview

Alvin is the seventh son of a seventh son, which gives him extraordinary powers. But there are already people out to destroy those powers and leave him with nothing.

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15. Ender in Exile

Amazon	Goodreads	LibraryThing	Overall
4.50	3.91	3.69	4.03

Overview

On Lusitania, a virus has been released called descolada. It is incurable and worse, it can destroy everyone if it leaves the planet.

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14. Shadow Puppets

Amazon	Goodreads	LibraryThing	Overall
4.60	3.90	3.64	4.05

Overview

Ender Wiggin’s victory over the Formics had good results, but now, nations are rising against one another and wars are happening again. Is there any way to stop it from getting worse?

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13. The Abyss

Amazon	Goodreads	LibraryThing	Overall
4.30	4.08	3.78	4.05

Overview

In the Caribbean, a U.S. submarine is attacked by the Russians, and an all-out war is expected. But the cause of the attack is not what most people think it is.

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12. The Worthing Saga

Amazon	Goodreads	LibraryThing	Overall
4.60	3.86	3.70	4.05

Overview

This is the story of Jason Worthing and what he found when he visited an unusual world where two types of people live extremely different lives. Two different societies existed, and they’ll be described in detail in this saga that consists of three different stories.

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11. Earth Afire

Amazon	Goodreads	LibraryThing	Overall
4.40	4.05	3.72	4.06

Overview

Describing the first Formic war, it occurs 100 years before Ender’s Game when the aliens arrived on Earth with both fire and death. Victor beat the alien ship to Earth, but not by much. The government is not convinced that there is a real threat ahead.

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10. Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus

Amazon	Goodreads	LibraryThing	Overall
4.30	3.97	3.91	4.06

Overview

This is a compelling story that interweaves the story of Christopher Columbus with a future scientist who believes she can alter human history into something good.

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9. Treason

Amazon	Goodreads	LibraryThing	Overall
4.50	3.90	3.80	4.07

Overview

Lanik is heir to the planet Treason, which is a world without metals and therefore, they cannot get the iron they need to build a spaceship. But Lanik has a plan that just might work, which means they just might get that spaceship built after all.

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8. Shadow of the Hegemon

Amazon	Goodreads	LibraryThing	Overall
4.60	3.95	3.72	4.09

Overview

Ender Wiggin and his team of child-warriors have won the War and people are going back to their lives before the war occurred. But new challenges arise as Earth becomes a battlefield once again.

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7. Pathfinder

Amazon	Goodreads	LibraryThing	Overall
4.40	3.99	3.90	4.10

Overview

Rigg has the talent to see other people’s pasts, and only his father knows about this talent. But when his father dies, he learns that he may have been keeping secrets about Rigg’s own past. Does he really need to know what his father knew?

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6. Enchantment

Amazon	Goodreads	LibraryThing	Overall
4.50	3.90	3.92	4.11

Overview

If you love the story of Sleeping Beauty and would like to enjoy a different take on it, this book is for you. Unique and innovative, it is one version of this amazing fairy tale that you will never forget.

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5. Earth Awakens

Amazon	Goodreads	LibraryThing	Overall
4.60	4.09	3.74	4.14

Overview

This is the third book in The First Formic War series and tells about the experiences of the first people who get to travel from Earth to the other planets in the Solar System.

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4. Shadow of the Giant

Amazon	Goodreads	LibraryThing	Overall
4.70	4.00	3.80	4.17

Overview

Bean had a rough childhood and had to join a children’s gang to survive, but he ended up civilizing them than growing old himself. Next, he was discovered by the recruiters for the Battle School.

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3. Speaker for the Dead

Amazon	Goodreads	LibraryThing	Overall
4.50	4.07	3.97	4.18

Overview

Book number two in the Ender’s Saga series, it describes a world 3,000 years after the War. Ender is reviled by many and in this book, he tells the story of the war so that history won’t repeat itself and life can be peaceful again.

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2. Ender’s Shadow

Amazon	Goodreads	LibraryThing	Overall
4.70	4.30	4.11	4.37

Overview

This is book number one in The Shadow series and tells the story of Bean, who is trying to survive among other child gangs and must do so with his brain and not his physical strength. But Bean is a genius, and when he meets Ender Wiggin, both their lives seem to improve.

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1. Ender’s Game

Amazon	Goodreads	LibraryThing	Overall
4.60	4.30	4.31	4.40

Overview

Ender Wiggin thinks he’s playing a computer game, but it is actually a way for “they” to train him so that Earth can be safe from the alien enemy who is out to destroy all human life.

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Complete Rankings of Best Books Written By Orson Scott Card

We have done all the work of compiling rankings for Orson Scott Card’s best books, so you don’t have to!

Rank	Book Title	Amazon	Goodreads	LibraryThing	Overall
1	Invasive Procedures	3.80	3.3	3.07	3.39
2	Magic Street	4.00	3.25	3.22	3.49
3	Treasure Box	4.00	3.33	3.2	3.51
4	The Folk of the Fringe	4.00	3.33	3.21	3.51
5	Homebody	4.10	3.4	3.27	3.59
6	Empire	4.20	3.44	3.17	3.60
7	Wyrms	4.10	3.39	3.33	3.61
8	Lovelock	4.10	3.47	3.36	3.64
9	Earthborn	4.30	3.41	3.26	3.66
10	Hidden Empire	4.00	3.64	3.35	3.66
11	Hart’s Hope	4.20	3.47	3.41	3.69
12	The Memory of Earth	4.10	3.58	3.44	3.71
13	Earthfall	4.30	3.51	3.38	3.73
14	The Ships of Earth	4.30	3.55	3.35	3.73
15	Lost Boys	4.00	3.59	3.62	3.74
16	The Crystal City	4.20	3.61	3.45	3.75
17	Shadows in Flight	4.00	3.8	3.53	3.78
18	The Call of Earth	4.30	3.59	3.46	3.78
19	The Gate Thief	4.10	3.77	3.58	3.82
20	A War of Gifts	4.40	3.67	3.5	3.86
21	Children of the Mind	4.40	3.77	3.54	3.90
22	Alvin Journeyman	4.40	3.74	3.57	3.90
23	Xenocide	4.30	3.80	3.65	3.92
24	Heartfire	4.50	3.71	3.54	3.92
25	The Lost Gate	4.30	3.82	3.69	3.94
26	Prentice Alvin	4.50	3.79	3.65	3.98
27	Red Prophet	4.40	3.80	3.77	3.99
28	Earth Unaware	4.30	3.99	3.7	4.00
29	Songmaster	4.50	3.74	3.75	4.00
30	Ruins	4.30	3.89	3.84	4.01
31	Seventh Son	4.40	3.87	3.83	4.03
32	Ender in Exile	4.50	3.91	3.69	4.03
33	Shadow Puppets	4.60	3.90	3.64	4.05
34	The Abyss	4.30	4.08	3.78	4.05
35	The Worthing Saga	4.60	3.86	3.7	4.05
36	Earth Afire	4.40	4.05	3.72	4.06
37	Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus	4.30	3.97	3.91	4.06
38	Treason	4.50	3.9	3.8	4.07
39	Shadow of the Hegemon	4.60	3.95	3.72	4.09
40	Pathfinder	4.40	3.99	3.9	4.10
41	Enchantment	4.50	3.90	3.92	4.11
42	Earth Awakens	4.60	4.09	3.74	4.14
43	Shadow of the Giant	4.70	4.00	3.80	4.17
44	Speaker for the Dead	4.50	4.07	3.97	4.18
45	Ender’s Shadow	4.70	4.30	4.11	4.37
46	Ender’s Game	4.60	4.30	4.31	4.40