Children from all nations, races and religions learn the strategy and tactics of war. Cultural differences are not noted in such an environment; there is no room for religious observances or Santa Claus. Unfortunately for their leaders, the warriors disagree about such prohibitions and experiment with humanitarian acts.

The story begins with an argument over whether the act of a Dutch Christian celebrating Sinterklaas Day (the Day of St. Nicholas) by putting a poem in a shoe and giving the owner a pancake would be classified as religious observance. One character wants to "contribute a small part to peace on Earth," but he is told he is not even on Earth.

Soon the warriors give each other gifts — tutoring, extra practice time in the Battle Room, a bed made while the occupant showers, showing another how to rise to a hidden level on a video game. And there are stockings.

The story gains depth as it progresses into a well-written think piece about religious observance. Finally, there is discussion about "the Samaritan who stopped for the injured man, and the priest and the Levite who didn't."

"Writing is just something we did in my family," Card said. "I wrote the sophomore class assembly in high school, I wrote stories and poems as a kid — but I never thought of writing as a career. I just did it for fun."

He considers his experiences in writing plays for his LDS ward to be the crucial element that propelled him into a writing career. "When you hear actors reading your lines, you know if it will work. Actor-proofing a script is the best thing there is."

Card still directs plays in church and at Southern Virginia University, a primarily LDS school, where he teaches part-time. Now he tells young writers to focus not only on "the manner of writing, but to learn a lot of stuff. Yet I'm always disturbed when Mormons speak as if we have the final answer to everything. We need a posture of humility — but science needs it, too."

Though it's "not a conscious influence," Card said that Joseph Smith's writing reminds him of his own. "There's a stateliness to the flow of what I write, a kind of 'Smithian language.' Maybe because I read the Book of Mormon when I was 8 years old. Though it has its flaws, that language is locked up inside me."

But he also emulates Shakespeare and often uses "Shakespearean cadences."

The hostility in the literary world toward science fiction galls Card, who says that "studies have shown that science fiction readers have the highest IQs. The literary world just doesn't know how to read it or interpret it. They don't do that to westerns or romance."

And Ender's comic book is in Card's future, too, a natural by-product of his experience writing "Iron Man" comics for Marvel. He still hasn't been able to persuade the film industry to go for Ender and hopes the comics may have some influence.

Currently he is writing a "heterosexual marriage-and-civilization book for Deseret Book. It's intended for the public at large, though. I scrupulously avoid religion in it.

"It's a study of civilizations that last. The reasoning and the science is sound. I hope to defend the institution of marriage without saying, 'That's what God wants us to do."'

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E-mail: dennis@desnews.com