Ender's Game Discussion

[Dlmrose, Moderator Emeritus]

This is the discussion thread for the Fall 2012 Group Read Ender's Game. Please post your comments here. This thread is not restricted to those choosing this book for task 20.10, feel free to join in the discussion. Warning- spoilers ahead!

[Riya]

I have a question. I have read this book before (about ten years ago). Do you still get points for this book if it is a reread? I would really like to read Ender's Game again.

[Dlmrose, Moderator Emeritus]

Mariya wrote: "I have a question. I have read this book before (about ten years ago). Do you still get points for this book if it is a reread? I would really like to read Ender's Game again."

Sure, rereads are fine anywhere in the challenge unless specifically excluded in the task description.

[Kate]

I am upset with myself. I read this book like a month ago! I am not really interested in the other two but it is too soon for a reread so it looks like A Tree Goes in Brooklyn might get my read. Luckily this is still fresh enough in my mind that I can participate in this discussion thread.

[Bea]

I read this one for SRC Spring 2011, so I will choose one of the other two for my group read. I might, however, join in on the discussion when it gets going.

[Vivian]

This is one of my favorite childhood books! Hmmm, sounds weird to call a book with this topic something from "childhood"...Anyways, looking forward to a re-read and the discussion!

Oh, and for anyone who likes this, I'd highly recommend reading Ender's Shadow too. It's kind of a companion book from another character's POV, with some overlap in time frame. It's been a while, but I might think it's better than Ender's Game :D

[Andy]

I'm planning to read Ender's Game for my group read. I read this in 2006 but assume a six year gap makes a reread ok.

[Kate]

Vivian wrote: "This is one of my favorite childhood books! Hmmm, sounds weird to call a book with this topic something from "childhood"...Anyways, looking forward to a re-read and the discussion!

Oh, and for any..."

I plan on reading Speaker for the Dead sometime for this challenge. I have heard it isn't as good as Ender's Game. I might try to fit in Ender's Shadow.

[Kathy G.]

I've read both books and LOVED them. If you love Ender's Game, you'll enjoy Ender's Shadow as well. :-)

[Vivian]

Kathryn, if it works for the challenge, I hope you get to Ender's Shadow also! (Personally, I think the Shadow books are better than the Ender sequels)

[Sandy, Moderator Emeritus]

Vivian wrote: "Kathryn, if it works for the challenge, I hope you get to Ender's Shadow also! (Personally, I think the Shadow books are better than the Ender sequels)"

I really liked the Shadow books too - I thought Ender's Shadow was a great follow up to Ender's Game, and then I jst had to keep reading the rest of the Shadow series.

[Jensownzoo]

Kathryn CA wrote: "I plan on reading Speaker for the Dead sometime for this challenge.
..."

We read Speaker for a scifi lit class I took for fun in college about 15 or so years ago. It was a really good book for discussion. I then went on to read all the other Ender books because while I had read Card's Alvin-Maker books, I hadn't ventured into his scifi yet.

[Riya]

I'm planning on reading Ender's Shadow and Shadow of the Hegemon after I am done reading this one. Ive never read the Shadow series.

Speaker for the Dead I had a chance to read several years ago and it was GOOD, just in a different way than the first book.

What do you guys think of the movie that's coming out (in 2013, I think?) Harrison Ford's gonna be in it!

[Vivian]

I'm curious but a little unsure about how it will translate. Plus, there is some violence that I'm not I want to see on a big screen, just started rereading and it bothers me more than it used to. But I had similar reservations about Hunger Games and thought that was done really well.

[Kate]

I am really looking forward to the movie coming out. It looks good. I also thought that the Hunger Games exceeded my expectations (which were admittedly, very low). I am cautiously optimistic about this book to movie adaptation.

[Laurie]

Fascinating book. I'd never read this one when I was younger. It certainly kept me turning the pages very quickly. Still it was dated by the world in 1985, which was still dominated by the Cold War, the Soviet Union with the Warsaw Pact and NATO. One reason I did like the book was it was at least a sci-fi book set in the 'near' future and sort of near the earth.

[Vicky]

I read Ender's Game a few years ago for the first time and loved it. This is the perfect excuse for me to re-read it! I've also read the entirety of both Ender's Saga and the Shadow Saga - both are amazing but they are very different, so I can see why some readers like one and not the other.

Ender's Saga goes on to explore more about the xenophobic attitudes of humankind as it pertains to alien races. The formics are included in this, but there are also several other alien races introduced and the stories are more about humankind learning to understand these races. I found it to be a bit more philosophical than The Shadow Saga.

The Shadow Saga follows Bean and the majority of the battle school kids on Earth after the end of Ender's Game and is more about the internal conflicts and power struggles of humankind and it has more of a war/action feel to it than Ender's Saga.

[JoLene]

I read this book several years ago. It is a favorite of my husband and several of my book-ish friends. Unfortunately, I was not as enamored as everyone else. It wasn't bad, but definitely not a favorite for me -- I can clearly see how young boys would really love this book.

I'm not sure if it was because it was pretty dated; also, I'm not much of a science fiction fan either.

Although I tried not to let it interfere, but my view might have also been tainted by some of the personal views of the author. I find it ironic that he is writing books about xenophobia when he is known as a homophobic.

[[deleted user]]

I wasn't a fan either. There were some interesting bits but I got bored reading about the battles, felt that Ender overcame each challenge too easily and that not enough was explained about the world and how it worked.

[Vivian]

Vicky wrote: "I read Ender's Game a few years ago for the first time and loved it. This is the perfect excuse for me to re-read it! I've also read the entirety of both Ender's Saga and the Shadow Saga - both are..."

Great explanations about the two sagas!

[Sue]

This one had been on my TBR for a while, so I was glad to finally get the chance to read it. I really liked it, despite the whole theme of training children for war.

I listened to the audiobook which had a commentary by Card at the end. One of the things he mentioned was that the story would only work if Ender was a young child, still believing everything that adults said. He also said that his vision for the movie would be sort of a combination of Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow. I think I'll need to read Ender's Shadow before the movie comes out.

[KSMary]

This is a reread for me also but it's one of those books that you can catch something new when you reread it. My daughter is a big fan and gave me a list of these books to read in order - not necessarily in the order that Orson Scott Card read them. She highly recommends Enders Shadow next although I have already read Speaker for the Dead. My adult nieces are also highly anticipating the movie next year.


Personally, I was not expecting the ending. I did not expect the battles to have been real. What does everyone think of Ender's family dynamics?

[Jessica]

I enjoyed this, but I didn't love it largely because I felt like I just didn't quite get Ender. My mom passed me her copy and I echo her sentiment on this one that a child reputed to be as sensitive and empathetic as Ender should miss his parents at least a little - it seems like a significant gap in his makeup that Card doesn't attempt to explain. Overall it's an engaging book, but I do miss that sense of connection you get with a character that can (and does) stumble and fail sometimes.

[Sue]

I though the family dynamics were really strange. I would agree that Ender should, it would seem, have felt more for his parents.

[Andy]

Andy P.
Ender confuses me. He is clearly capable of emotion which he demonstrates in his interactions with his sister, yet as a six year old he fails to show much of the usual six-year old emotion toward his parents or any regret at having to leave home at such a young age

[Hillary]

I read this book in September and enjoyed it. Eventually I plan to read the sequel. The biggest surprise was, that the book was written 20+ years ago
.

Thank you for suggesting this book.

[Megan]

This is one I've read about 20 times (at least once a year since I was a kid), so I didn't pick it to read for this task. However, it never bothered me at all that he didn't get homesick for his family. In his society, having a Third child is a major disgrace--even though the government wanted his parents to have him. Ender knew this, and I think there was always some emotional detachment between him and his parents. He doesn't go to them when Peter has been beating him up not necessarily because he's afraid for his life if he tells, but because he doesn't believe his parents would be able to help him at all. The only one who ever really seems to care for him is his sister, which is why he's so attached to her. But his parents just aren't available emotionally (or physically--they leave the kids home alone after school and are distracted during the one breakfast we see them at) for him to grow close to them. I think he always assumed he'd be chosen, because what other point would there be to his existence if he wasn't.

Physically, he may be six when he leaves his family, but his circumstances have made him older and wiser than his years. He's so far beyond everyone around him in terms of intellect, and growing up with a clever bully for a brother and parents who weren't really concerned with him made him older emotionally. The one time he does cry for home, he's more upset about leaving his sister, because she's the only thing he really cared about at home.

I guess it just never occurred to me that he SHOULD be upset. I know he's just a kid, but because of his maturity and intelligence, he just doesn't come off as childlike. He--as well as the others at the battle school--aren't your average group of kids. He doesn't have much faith in adults, even before the leaders of the game start messing with his army. He doesn't trust his parents to protect him from Peter, and he knows he's smarter than his teachers, both on Earth and at Battle School. The only adult he ever truly respects is Mazer, and that's because he finds someone who can keep him on his toes (and believe it or not, this isn't just a fictional phenomenon; I know several super-smart kids who feel that way).

Ender is empathetic in that he can sense just how far to push someone and why Bonzo and the other bullies he encounters are behaving the way they are, but he doesn't let that stop him from doing what he realizes must be done. He doesn't really want to leave his sister, but he knows that if he doesn't, not only could there be another invasion, but that he also won't have much of a place at home. He misses his parents inasmuch that he's familiar with them, but he recognizes their resentment of him, even if he doesn't put it into words. He wants to apologize to his father at the end of chapter 2 when he (the father) is complaining bitterly about having a third child. In chapter 3, when Graff tells him straight out that his parents didn't want him because he represents their childhoods in non-compliant families, Ender doesn't even fight him on it because he recognizes the truth of Graff's statements.

I'm sorry for going on and on about this...I guess it's just me, but even as a kid I never got the sense that he would truly miss anyone other than his sister.

[Stacie]

I have to admit, I was very hesitant to read this. I could totally envision giving up after 50 or so pages and switching to another book. Thankfully, though, I liked this book so much more than I anticipated. I found myself reading this much more slowly than I usually read books, so that I wouldn't miss anything.

[Candy]

I finally read this after having it recommended to me by a few people and I really enjoyed it. I'm definitely planning on reading the sequels.

[Valari]

I couldn't believe while reading the book that it would have such a beautiful ending.

[Katy]

Something I have always loved about this book (I read it for the first time maybe 5 years ago and just re-read it) is the structure of the Battle School. Not that I love it like, I'd love to attend, but that it's so fascinating to me to see in such detail what someone envisions it might take to create these genius child warriors. I love authors who are good world-builders and this is exactly that, to me.

And Valari, I agree, I absolutely love the ending!

[Hillary]

Thanks to this book's read, I have now read the sequel. Thank you for electing broadening my horizon.

[Barbara ★]

I just finished Ender's Game and though I liked it, I thought the writing was kind of stilted. The paragraphs just didn't flow from one to the other. It seems hodge-podge to me as if someone edited whole paragraphs out so those left behind didn't quite fit together.

I did like Ender and really felt bad for him in all situations. His brother hated him so he wasn't comfortable at home. His fellow students picked on him so he wasn't comfortable at school. So it was no surprise to me that when given the Battle School option, he jumped at the chance to escape his situation.

I was surprised to find out that the flight school was "live" action. That was an interesting twist and I agree with the "teachers" that Ender would not have been able to succeed had he known he was "playing" with real lives. He was a sensitive child and even after his harrowing experiences at the schools, he stayed a sensitive person.

I will definitely be reading further in the series to see how Ender, Valentine and his peeps survive the bugger's colony and to see what Peter does next.

[Donna Jo]

This was a re-read for me, but I found myself enjoying it just as much this time around. I found myself looking more closely at the adults in Ender's life and the ways they related (and didn't relate) with him. It certainly gives a jaded look at child/adult relationships.

[Stesse]

I first read this book back in upper school... I believe I stole it from my brother at the time. :) Hard to believe it's been nearly 20 years.

I think what struck me the most this time around was the twisted yet symbiotic relationship between his brother and sister. Val and Peter have this whole story (that I think Card covers in another book) which ultimately greatly impacts Ender's life. The yin and yang of Peter and Val really struck me.

[Sandra]

I've wanted to read this book for a while so when I finally did for the challenge I was somewhat disappointed. It wasn't so much that I didn't like it, it's just that I expected more from it. I like science fiction books and enjoy reading the classics which I find stand the test of time but in my opinion this one hasn't. I found it dated, not futuristic at all. On the other hand, I can imagine it as a movie and look forward to watching it when it comes out.

[JennRenee, Moderator]

I have been meaning to read this book for a very long time and never seemed to get around to it. I wasn't sure if it would be my kind of book. I ended up liking the book more than I thought I would. It was slow in a few parts for me and more fighting not quite enough character interaction as I like, but I enjoyed it and thought it was really good.

[Ms.soule]

Ender's Game was a re-read for me (like a lot of others apparently!). It's good but I think the other books set in this world are so much better, specifically Speaker for the Dead & Ender's Shadow. This was part of the summer reading list for the high school by the library I used to work at - and I do wonder if I'd gush about it like the young adults at the library did if I'd read it as a teen.

[Marie-Anne]

I really did not expect to like this book too much when I started reading it -- too much war, too many male figures, too few females, etc. But in the end I liked it, especially the end. I will read the next one.

[Vi]

Barbara, I agree with you on the writing. There were at times when I was jarred out of my reading by the writing.

I'm glad though that I ended up reading the book. The adults in the book were perfectly hideous. But I still don't buy the premise that only kids could have saved the future. While I liked Ender, I don't get the overall premise of the book. Ultimately that was the weakest point of the book for me.

[Stefu]

Having read this book for the challenge this season, I am up to a count of 8 times. I loved this book as a teenage boy, which I think is the intended audience. I still enjoy reading it now, although some of the appeal has faded. It does, however, serve as a necessary springboard into the other books set in the same universe, which have a bit more depth.