I have such a love/hate relationship with Orson Scott Card. I happily read everything he published, starting with Songmaster many years ago. I loved the Ender books and the Alvin Maker books especially for their originality, their ideas & intelligence. I loved how Card makes us think about the big issues.

Then, I read Folk of the Fringe, which is basically a Mormon tract. And I read some of Card’s essays and interviews. It turns out that Card is a very public and vehement homophobe. He uses the platform afforded by his success and celebrity to broadcast his ideas about how we (queer people) are going to burn in hell for our sins. So, I no longer read all of his books and I absolutely do not purchase any. Do I still think he is a good novelist, worth reading? Yes. Do I now read his books with a much more skeptical eye? Yes.

For more information on Card, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orson_Scott_Card