Ender’s Game (Ender's Saga, #1) in Beyond Reality

Sep 11, 2009 Duffy Pratt rated it really liked it

Shelves: science-fiction, childrens

9/5/10 - This is a very engaging, fast read, and it left me curious for more. I don't know if I'm going to go on with the Ender industry that seems to have followed this book, but it's probably I will. I tend to read series long past the point where they are worthwhile anymore.

One of the things that I liked most about this book is how it seems loaded with contradictions. On the surface, it seems quite easy, but...

Ender is trained to be the supreme military commander, but he doesn't get to make 9/5/10 - This is a very engaging, fast read, and it left me curious for more. I don't know if I'm going to go on with the Ender industry that seems to have followed this book, but it's probably I will. I tend to read series long past the point where they are worthwhile anymore.

One of the things that I liked most about this book is how it seems loaded with contradictions. On the surface, it seems quite easy, but...

Ender is trained to be the supreme military commander, but he doesn't get to make any strategic decisions. Instead, he is put in impossible tactical situations, and figures his way out of them. He doesn't ever have a choice in what to attack, or when, etc... Instead, he's just thrown into the middle of battles that someone else has chosen to fight.

People seem to identify with Ender, when there should really be nothing to identify with. He's a very young super genius. (OK, I can see how lots of adolescents could think of themselves as very young super geniuses.) He's also a monster.

He doesn't take kindly to manipulation, and he's a genius, but he doesn't see at the end that the buggers have manipulated him into doing what they want in much the same way as the military manipulated him throughout the book. And they did it in the same way, by understanding how he ticks and appealing to his deeper need -- this time the need for redemption. In the end, he's still acting as someone else's pawn. This comes through even through the title he's given himself -- he's someone else's speaker, not his own.

I have to say that I loved the stuff in Battle School Card did a great job describing the tactics, the way zero gravity fighting might work. And he did just as good a job at getting at the heart of the competitive nature of kids.

But again, the whole take on military training is a bit troubling here. First off, pretty much every assumption the military makes in this books appears to be wrong, from Peter's basic character all the way through the buggers' motivations. But, they get redeemed in the end, not because they were right, but because they won (and thus no one really knows how wrong they were.

For people who like the military training in this book, I would suggest reading The Short Timers by Gustav Hasford. The ideas behind the training process aren't all that different at its core, but I bet most people would have a much different reaction to it.

5/16/13 - This book held up quite well under a re-read. Having read some of the sequels, I noticed a few things that troubled me. In the sequels, I had the impression that the hive queen created Jane to try to get to Ender through his video game. But Ender is done with the video game long before he has any contact with the buggers. This looks like a big inconsistency to me, but I can't find any discussion of it, and I'm a little puzzled. In this book, it looks like the hive queen somehow reached directly into Ender's mind.

This time around I was more interested in the Valentine/Peter angle. There are a few ironies here. With the right training, any of the three kids could have taken Ender's role. Peter was too aggressive, but he ends up being the peacemaker, while Ender ends up destroying a world. Also, Valentine gets Ender to continue with his training basically be convincing him that no matter what he does, he will be responsible for millions of deaths, so he might as well do what he can to save people (and Valentine in particular). The funny thing here is that Valentine is wrong. If Ender had just quit, the buggers would have left us alone and nothing would have happened. This is key, because everything between the buggers and humans hinges on the failure to communicate.

Finally, after having read all four in this series, I'm simply dumbfounded that Card could write a book as good and as tight as this one, and then ultimately devolve into the nonsense of Children of the Mind. I really wish someone I trusted had told me to read this and Speaker For the Dead, and then stop... Thankfully, I haven't made the same mistake with Dune. There, I know those sequels are so bad that I would not even read them. ...more

6 likes · Like · see review

Aug 16, 2009 Vineet rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favourites

This is a book you will either completely hate, or be bowled over and hurt in the guts. Needless to say, it was the latter response for me.

This is a book that I just had to read in a single sitting - it has that kind of compelling power, but only if you relate to it in a very personal way.

The prose overall is heavy yet drab, the characters without exception are nothing to shout about, and yet, the sheer bloody-mindedness of the situation confronting young Ender Wiggins makes it a compulsive pag ...more

3 likes · Like · see review