Books: Ender's Game
"Ender's Game" is a novel by Orson Scott Card, and it won both the Hugo and Nebula awards. It's easily his most popular work, and, much like George Lucas was eventually consumed by the "Star Wars" saga, Card has devoted most of his subsequent time to writing sequels and spinoffs, including the "Shadow of the Giant" series. Like many people, I first read this as a kid, and I definitely have mixed feelings about it now.
The book concerns a young boy named Ender Wiggin, a boy who is training with other similarly gifted children to become Earth's future military leaders in a savage war against an alien race. In order to cultivate their skills, the military sends the children into space and has them fight mock battles in a microgravity environment. Ender has to overcome bullies, the school's machinations, and his own doubts in order to survive.
In a way, the entire book is an embellishment of the original short story, which only included the Battle School and Command School parts. This is a shame, because that stuff is easily the most compelling part of the narrative. I never was fond of the space devoted to Ender's sister and brother, nor the final ending which completely gutted the feeling of guilt Ender was supposed to feel (this ending was the bridge to the numerous sequels, of course). If you like competitive zero-gee combat with schoolkids, this is the book to read.
posted by Mulliga @ 6:43 PM
1 comments
1 Comments:
I loved Valentine and Peter, actually--mostly Valentine. Ender's story is better, of course, but the very fun tactical things Ender did in the Battle Room wouldn't have been nearly as fun for me without the space devoted to showing Ender's social dynamic with his peers. The reorientation of space is neat, of course, as well as the self freezing of bits of the suit. Still, I preferred Ender going one on one and seeing how he handled that. I used to have "I would follow suck beauty. I would see as those eyes see," scrawled on a post it note and stuck to my computer screen for a few years. That one of the minor (stupid) antagonists was a pretty Spanish boy was great for me, 'cause there were not a lot of Spaniards running around in my reading, so I'd take what I could get... I also had to approve of Petra on general terms although really she's not very compelling.
But, you know, the whole you can't know something without loving it and can't love something without knowing how to destroy it theme is nice.
I've read the short story, and unlike basically everyone else I know who has done the same thing...I prefer the book. However, I know that I am shamelessly clinging to a dying art form, and am being deliberately esoteric and obtuse and just generally difficult: I adore the novel. Not terribly deep down, some curmudgeony bit of my soul is growling about how great the Novel is, pretty much constantly.
But the ending--meh. A little anti climatic and kind of a wash out, yeah. The whole holy book thing didn't work for me, although I think the continuation of the race could've, had it been done differently.
Still, totally one of my favorite books ever, when I was 12, and for some time after.
And I always really, really wanted to play that video game--with the giant and the End of the World and so on. Didn't you?
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