A Young Man with Prospects (short story)

Infobox short story |
name = A Young Man with Prospects
title_orig =
translator =
author = Orson Scott Card
country = United States
language = English
series = Ender's Game series
genre = Science fiction
published_in = "Intergalactic Medicine Show"
publication_type =
publisher = Hatrack River Enterprises
media_type = Electronic (HTML)
pub_date = 2007
english_pub_date =
preceded_by =
followed_by =

"A Young Man with Prospects" is a story by Orson Scott Card set in his Ender's Game universe. It tells the story of how Alessandra and Dorabella Toscano end up colonizing one of the former formic worlds. It appears in Card's Webzine "InterGalactic Medicine Show".

Plot summary

"A Young Man with Prospects" is the story of Alessandra Toscano. Alessandra is a poor thirteen year old girl from Monopoli, Italy. One day Alessandra seemingly irresponsible mother comes home and announces that they will be colonizing one of the former Formics worlds. When she first finds out Alessandra doesn't want to go. Alessandra then tracks down her grandmother who she had never met and asks her for help. However, when her grandmother hears that Alessandra wants to stay with her she throws her out. Upon returning home Alessandra finds out that the reason they are so poor is because her mother has been paying her mother to stay out of their lives to protect her. When she learns this Alessandra agrees to go. Later Alessandra learns that she will be traveling with Ender Wiggin who will be made governor of the colony when they arrive. Her mother hopes that they will fall in love and get married. On their last day in Italy Alessandra's grandmother comes to their house and begins screaming at them. Alessandra's mother stands up to the woman and tells her to go away.

Characters

*Alessandra Toscano
*Dorabella Toscano - Alessandra's mother
*Isabella Santangelo – Dorabella's mother
*Alessandra’s neighbors – unnamed

Relationship to "The Gold Bug"

According to Card while he was writing "The Gold Bug" he started to think about how Ender got to the colony. As a result he came up with a story idea which involved a power-struggle between Ender and the ships captain. However, since Card didn't want the story to be only about Ender and the captain he decided to put a mother and daughter on the ship. When he first began writing about Alessandra and Dorabella Toscano it was suppose to have been the opening for that story, but as he sat down to plan the scenes they developed into a story of their own. [http://www.intergalacticmedicineshow.com/cgi-bin/mag.cgi?do=issue&vol=i4&article=_card-essay Orson Scott Card, "How One Story Can Give Birth to Another"] "Intergalactic Medicine Show", February 2007.]

Publication

"A Young Man with Prospects" was published in the February 2007 issue of "Intergalactic Medicine Show". [http://www.intergalacticmedicineshow.com/cgi-bin/mag.cgi?do=issue&vol=i4&article=_card Orson Scott Card, "A Young Man With Prospects"] "Intergalactic Medicine Show", February 2007.] It also appears in the anthology "Orson Scott Card's InterGalactic Medicine Show".

References