![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
juushikaTitle: Ender's Game
Author: Orson Scott Card
Published: New York: Tor Book, 1991 (1977)
Page Count: 324
Total Page Count: 33,078
Text Number: 96
Read For: my own enjoyment, gift from Lee
Short review: After a devastating war with an alien race referred to as buggers, mankind is in search of brilliant commanders to lead the next assault; Ender is one gifted six-year-old boy selected for Battle School, where he is trained to be mankind's only hope in war. Battle School is an immersive environment where Ender pitted alongside and against his peers in order to develop leadership skills, and is instructed to play a number of games in order to learn how to think and to fight. In the Battle Room, he learns to fight in a zero-g atmosphere and then conducts battles against teams of fellow students. An fast-learning and capable fighter, Ender is advanced through his courses at an incredible speed, and the rules of the Battle Room begin to break down as he is pushed, time and time again, to fight better against increasingly bad odds, all in mankind's desperate hope to find a commander before it is too late. The novel is incredibly intelligent, both in concept and in plot: the science-fiction elements, both in alien race creation and inventions such as Ender's games, are contentiously created with a rational explanation and useful purpose. The young children that make up the bulk of the characters are exceptionally gifted, and so sometimes read too much like grown adults—but Ender's development in particular takes into account his young age. The end of the novel comes as no surprise, but that failing is an unavoidable consequence of the way the plot is scripted. This is a famous, innovative, accessible text, and I enjoyed it and highly recommend it.
I prefer some science in my science-fiction—at statement which seems self-evident, but too often falls short in books in the genre that have inadequate or flawed scientific reasonings. Ender's Game, however, contains science and integrates it seamlessly into the fiction of the novel as a whole. The alien race of the buggers is increasingly investigated and developed through the course of the book, and what Card reveals about them is original and logical. The games that Ender plays, and the course of Battle School itself, are equally well thought out and explained, without tedious detailed scientific sections but with complete integration into the course of the novel. The skillful intermesh of science and fiction is one of the things that makes the novel so successful, and I really appreciated it as a fan of the sci-fi genre.
The choice to make the main character and many of the secondary character children is an unusual one, and a mixed blessing. The children are gifted—exceptionally intelligent, and as a result, well-spoken, thoughtful, and often mature. As a result, they sometimes read as adults, which both undercuts their brilliance and makes them seem unrealistic as characters. It also makes the real adults seem stiff and fake in comparison; their dialog in particular is clunky and exaggerated to the point of melodramatic. Card does tackle some of these problems head on: he stages interactions between the gifted Ender and his normal, largely unintelligent peers, drawing attention to the differences between gifted and nongifted children, and has Ender's siblings discuss some of the difficulties that gifted children face when interacting with patronizing adults. On the whole, the age of the characters can throw the reader off and make the text seem unrealistic at points, but Card handles the difficulty as best he can, in particular in regards to Ender's character, who's progression, on the whole, is that of a brillaint but still immature gifted child.
Ender's Game is a classic text of the sci-fi genre, and when reading it it's easy to see why. The science is existent and well-developed, but seamlessly integrated into the course of the story. The text is well-paced and accessible—almost too accessible and, by the end, too completely explained and laid out—but as a result, the core philosophical issues of the book are openly and honestly presented. I found myself thinking about this book for days after I had finished reading it, and went on to pick up the sequel. To me, that's a sign of a good novel—one that captures the reader during the reading of the text, and continues to provoke his thought after the final pages. I highly recommend the book, even with its faults, and I was happy to have the chance to read it.
Review posted here at Amazon.com.
Author: Orson Scott Card
Published: New York: Tor Book, 1991 (1977)
Page Count: 324
Total Page Count: 33,078
Text Number: 96
Read For: my own enjoyment, gift from Lee
Short review: After a devastating war with an alien race referred to as buggers, mankind is in search of brilliant commanders to lead the next assault; Ender is one gifted six-year-old boy selected for Battle School, where he is trained to be mankind's only hope in war. Battle School is an immersive environment where Ender pitted alongside and against his peers in order to develop leadership skills, and is instructed to play a number of games in order to learn how to think and to fight. In the Battle Room, he learns to fight in a zero-g atmosphere and then conducts battles against teams of fellow students. An fast-learning and capable fighter, Ender is advanced through his courses at an incredible speed, and the rules of the Battle Room begin to break down as he is pushed, time and time again, to fight better against increasingly bad odds, all in mankind's desperate hope to find a commander before it is too late. The novel is incredibly intelligent, both in concept and in plot: the science-fiction elements, both in alien race creation and inventions such as Ender's games, are contentiously created with a rational explanation and useful purpose. The young children that make up the bulk of the characters are exceptionally gifted, and so sometimes read too much like grown adults—but Ender's development in particular takes into account his young age. The end of the novel comes as no surprise, but that failing is an unavoidable consequence of the way the plot is scripted. This is a famous, innovative, accessible text, and I enjoyed it and highly recommend it.
I prefer some science in my science-fiction—at statement which seems self-evident, but too often falls short in books in the genre that have inadequate or flawed scientific reasonings. Ender's Game, however, contains science and integrates it seamlessly into the fiction of the novel as a whole. The alien race of the buggers is increasingly investigated and developed through the course of the book, and what Card reveals about them is original and logical. The games that Ender plays, and the course of Battle School itself, are equally well thought out and explained, without tedious detailed scientific sections but with complete integration into the course of the novel. The skillful intermesh of science and fiction is one of the things that makes the novel so successful, and I really appreciated it as a fan of the sci-fi genre.
The choice to make the main character and many of the secondary character children is an unusual one, and a mixed blessing. The children are gifted—exceptionally intelligent, and as a result, well-spoken, thoughtful, and often mature. As a result, they sometimes read as adults, which both undercuts their brilliance and makes them seem unrealistic as characters. It also makes the real adults seem stiff and fake in comparison; their dialog in particular is clunky and exaggerated to the point of melodramatic. Card does tackle some of these problems head on: he stages interactions between the gifted Ender and his normal, largely unintelligent peers, drawing attention to the differences between gifted and nongifted children, and has Ender's siblings discuss some of the difficulties that gifted children face when interacting with patronizing adults. On the whole, the age of the characters can throw the reader off and make the text seem unrealistic at points, but Card handles the difficulty as best he can, in particular in regards to Ender's character, who's progression, on the whole, is that of a brillaint but still immature gifted child.
Ender's Game is a classic text of the sci-fi genre, and when reading it it's easy to see why. The science is existent and well-developed, but seamlessly integrated into the course of the story. The text is well-paced and accessible—almost too accessible and, by the end, too completely explained and laid out—but as a result, the core philosophical issues of the book are openly and honestly presented. I found myself thinking about this book for days after I had finished reading it, and went on to pick up the sequel. To me, that's a sign of a good novel—one that captures the reader during the reading of the text, and continues to provoke his thought after the final pages. I highly recommend the book, even with its faults, and I was happy to have the chance to read it.
Review posted here at Amazon.com.
