Lost Boys was all right, but clearly the product of a far more conservative mind than the one that wrote Ender's Game, Wyrms, Treason, and all those great short stories. Personally, I draw the line at Xenocide, which he wrote for money, rather than out of any hunger to tell great stories. (This is documented somewhere in an introduction to one of the many unnecessary cash-grab Ender books.) Homecoming was really lazy stuff -- not only from a storytelling standpoint, but from a political one. The Shadow Series and the "Author's definitive" editions of his previous books are direct attacks by the older politically- and monetarily- motivated Orson Scott Card on his younger self. It's really been a shame to see this writer who was once incredibly audacious and passionate and daring turn into this stodgy cash-printing hypocrite.
But if I can separate the man from his writing career for a moment, I believe he's a good person and I hope he has good health and gets well. I don't hate the man, but I'm not thrilled about the writer.
I'll leave out his political writing completely -- his worldwatch essays and so forth -- since that opens up an entirely different can of worms.
