'Ender's Game' discussion

[Singin Hobo]

Part of the Sci-fi/Fantasy GW Book Club (http://forums.gamewinners.com/forums/showthread.php?t=536568)
A very good book, but I'm not sure I'd place it as the "greatest" of the science fiction books out there as many are prone to do... for a 20-year-old story, however, it holds up surprisingly well to modern scrutiny.

I enjoyed the first half of the book in particular... the slow progression of his isolation and overcoming all of the obstacles in his path was always fun and interesting, then I felt like the whole story just started moving in fast forward... everything in "Command School" just kinda moved along really quick, getting to the end... the "simulation-that-wasn't-a-simulation" went pretty quick, and bringing Mazer Rackham into the story just seemed weird at that point. It was just sorta like, "Mazer Rackham....? Why the hell not?"

But there ya go.

Quite a lot about the story seemed to be quickly closed off and unresolved... and I know that there are quite a few other titles out there that might deal with those things... but for a story that probably didn't have any sequels planned in first place it's hard to understand exactly why Peter turned into an okay sort of guy. I'm glad the book didn't end with Ender being dead... I was certain that it would. And I'm glad he ended up traveling with his sister. It was a good ending.

Even for a genius, his 6-year-old inner monologue was a bit advanced and mature... Card definitely doesn't know how to write children very well.

Overall, I give it the thumbs up :^: (did you see that? I gave it the thumbs up.) I look forward to picking up the other books in the series and see how he draws out the other characters.

Oh, and they're apparently making a movie of it. Pretty sweet... though I'd be interested to see how they find 4 different actors to play the many different stages of his young life at such short intervals :)

[Tome]

Ender's Game is one of my favorite books of all time. I've read through the book several times (though it has been a while). Still, I can see exactly where you are coming from.

I, too, loved the initial isolation. That part of the book was fantastic. And, yes, I felt the second part of the book felt rushed, but I also felt like that rushing was part of the plot, and so I found that I loved that, too. The whole concept of running out of time gave the book a little extra edge. As for Mazer, I just kind of went with it. I don't know that it was needed. Since you find out his victory was a kind of fluke (or whatever), I didn't quite buy him as a military genius.

Peter...all of the Shadow books (Shadow of the Hegemon, Shadow Puppets, Shadow of the Giant) deal with Bean and Peter. "Ender's Game," the original short story written by Card, did not deal with Ender's family the way the book did (as far as I can remember). The short story picks up when Ender first gets his Dragon team. I never really cared reading about Peter, but Valentine kept me interested. I loved her character. Peter...well, I found it hard to care about what he did (although, once you get into the Peter in Xenocide and Children of the Mind, I feel he's kind of interesting). However, that being said, I'm glad they didn't make his character a one-dimensional "mean person." That's just unrealistic. I thought Card did a great job of showing that Peter was evil in Ender's head, and not in actuality.

I thought the six-year-old monologues were fine (well, maybe a little too complicated, but not by much). When he's is first offered the change to go to battle school, his goals for going are short sighteded. He wants to escape his brother, and get out of what he did at school. It's gets complicated from there, of course, but he's in a school full of geniuses. That pushes you. I see where you are coming from, though.

I like the way Card writes his children characters. Maybe that's just me, and maybe it isn't realistic. Meh.

If I can make a suggestion, read the Speaker books before you read the Shadow series. Pick up Speaker for the Dead, the direct sequel to the original book. Know that the books take a different direction (I loved the Speaker series. My favorite series of books, I think). Anyway, read Speaker, Xenocide, and Children. I always suggest this order, and people typically agree with me.

Afterwards, pick up the Shadow books, which focus on Bean and Peter. They're...okay. They aren't great. Ender's Shadow, which is the parallel novel to the original book, is good, and gives you a different view of the battle school. And Shadow of the Giant is pretty good, but you feel like there's a couple of filler novels in between. They just aren't great.

The movie is in question right now, last I heard. No filming has been done yet. I'm not sure if casting has taken place or not. I have high hopes for the movie, but I also expect the worst.

[Singin Hobo]

Well poop :( I already downloaded Ender's Shadow... but I'll just keep it in the library and use one of my credits next month to get one or the others.

I started Dune today, though, so I've got time to wait for the other story :shrug: Let it settle for awhile.

Anyways, I skimmed through the short story last night after I finished the book (Card posted it on his site (http://www.hatrack.com/osc/stories/enders-game.shtml)) and it really doesn't seem to be worthwhile except to kinda see the subtle changes made.

I enjoyed the book, don't get me wrong, but I'm not quite a 'believer' yet... I'll give it awhile and a few of the other books before I devote my life to as to other of my favorite series :)

[Dr. Manhattan]

I loved enders game, read it when I was 12 and found it amazing, I then tried to read the sequels but wasn't able to get hooked into them, They were actually very boring. One of the main things that I loved about it was how the heroes in the book were so young and so brilliant, in fact much smarter than the adults. I'm glad you enjoyed it.

[Singin Hobo]

Yeah, it's definitely written for kids to enjoy, it's simply written and with the kids as heroes that pretty much seals the deal... but it's nice that he's so much a better writer than JK Rowling... I still haven't been able to finish a Harry Potter book without falling asleep.

[Tome]

I like Harry Potter, in a way. No, it's not great, but if you just want some light reading, it's perfect.

Some people do think the sequels are boring, simply because they aren't as action oriented, but I liked them better than the original book. The plots are far more complicated in the later books.

[Singin Hobo]

There's nothing particularly wrong with Harry Potter, it is excellent children's reading... I just don't quite get the obsession that adults have with it. It's just waaaayyyyyy too simple for me :shrug:

[Zodiac19]

Ender's Game is my second favorite sci fi series (with the Dune books being the first). I remember reading Ender's Game for the first time and I finished it relatively quick, which surprised me because it usually takes me a while to read books. But the story pulled me in from beginning to end.

Although I will say that I didn't expect the final battle at the end to be visualized the way it was, but it was well executed. I love the character of Ender Wiggin and I've picked up Speaker for the Dead but only got halfway before putting it down. Not that I put it down because I didn't like it, quite the contrary I think it's an interesting book and good sequel for as far as I got. But that's my problem, I read too many books at one time and I can't focus on just one.

I also read Ender's Shadow and I loved it. I would love to read Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow back to back one day because by the time I read Shadow, I forgot some of the plot points in Ender's Game.

I'm looking forward to the movie, I just hope they don't mess it up like they messed up the movie version of Dune.

[Singin Hobo]

Well, I'm 1/3 of the way through Dune right now and I can say that some careful pruning is just what the story needs... I'm 1/3 of the way through and I think it's just now started (I won't give any plot points away in this thread, though... just take my word for it :))

[Tome]

The thing is, I felt that Ender's Shadow took something away from the original book. I won't say why, since you haven't read it, but it gives Bean credit for a lot of things you don't even think he did in the first book.

[Zodiac19]

Ah, I get what you're saying Tome and you have a good point too because that crossed my mind when I read the book as well.