"Mazer in Prison" is a story by Orson Scott Card

Orson Scott Card

Orson Scott Card is an American author, critic, public speaker, essayist, columnist, and political activist. He writes in several genres, but is primarily known for his science fiction. His novel Ender's Game and its sequel Speaker for the Dead both won Hugo and Nebula Awards, making Card the...

 set in his Ender's Game universe

Ender's Game series

The Ender's Game series is a series of science fiction books by Orson Scott Card. The series started with the novelette "Ender's Game", which was later expanded into the novel Ender's Game. It currently consists of eleven novels and ten short stories...

. It tells the story of how Mazer Rackham and Hyrum Graff started Battle School. It appears in Card's Webzine InterGalactic Medicine Show

Intergalactic Medicine Show

InterGalactic Medicine Show is an American online fantasy and science fiction magazine. It was founded by multiple award-winning author Orson Scott Card. An anthology also called Orson Scott Card's InterGalactic Medicine Show was published by Tor in August, 2008, featuring selected stories from...

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Plot summary

"Mazer in Prison" is the story of Mazer Rackham, the hero who saved earth in the second Formics

Formics

The Formics, also known as Buggers, are a fictional insectoid alien species from the Ender's Game series of science fiction novels by Orson Scott Card.The term "Formic" is derived from formica, the Latin word for ant...

 invasion. As soon as the battle was over, Earth put together a fleet to send to the Formics home worlds to end the conflict once and for all. Since they needed a leader for this war, the Earth government decided to send Mazer out into space in a craft that was capable of near-lightspeed travel so that due to the relativistic

General relativity

General relativity or the general theory of relativity is the geometric theory of gravitation published by Albert Einstein in 1916. It is the current description of gravitation in modern physics...

 effect he would return still young enough to lead the fleet into battle. Since he knew that he was not the best person to lead the fleet, Mazer reprogrammed the computer on board his ship so that the Earth government would no longer be able to control it. He then forced them to find a new fleet commander and arranged to have a young Hyrum Graff set up the Battle School to train possible candidates.

Characters

• Admiral Mazer Rackham
• Kim Arnsbrach Rackham Summers - Mazer's ex-wife
• Pahu Rangi - Mazer's son
• Pai Mahutanga - Mazer’s daughter
• Kahui Kura (English name Mirth) - Pai Mahutanga's daughter
• Pao Pao Te Rangi (English name Glad) - Pai Mahutanga's daughter
• Mazer Taka Aho Howarth - Pai Mahutanga's son
• Struan Maeroero - Pai Mahutanga's infant son
• Lieutenant Hyrum Graff - later promoted to captain

Audio

In addition to the text version of the story, "Mazer in Prison" is also available from InterGalactic Medicine Show as an audio download. The story was read by Audie Award

Audie Awards

The Audie Awards are annually bestowed annually in the USA for outstanding audiobooks. The Audies have been granted by the Audio Publishers Association, a not-for-profit trade organization, since 1996. The nominees are announced each year in January, and the winners are announced at a gala banquet...

 winner Stefan Rudnicki.

Publication

"Mazer in Prison" was published in the October 2005 issue of Intergalactic Medicine Show. It also appears in the anthology Orson Scott Card's InterGalactic Medicine Show

Orson Scott Card's InterGalactic Medicine Show

Orson Scott Card's InterGalactic Medicine Show is an anthology edited by Edmund R. Schubert and Orson Scott Card.Originally published in paperback by Tor Books in August 2008 , It contains eighteen stories from Card's online magazine InterGalactic Medicine Show including four from Card set in his...

. It was also published in Subterranean Press

Subterranean Press

Subterranean Press is a small press publisher in Michigan. Subterranean is best known for publishing genre fiction, primarily horror, suspense and dark mystery, fantasy, and science fiction...

's Subterranean Magazine Issue #5. It was included in the 2009 "Federations" anthology of John Joseph Adams

John Joseph Adams

John Joseph Adams is an American science fiction and fantasy editor and critic. He is the editor of the anthologies Federations , The Living Dead , The Living Dead 2 , Seeds of Change , Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse John Joseph Adams (born 1976) is an American science fiction and fantasy...

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