Rating: 
Summary: Sweet candy shell, poison heart
Review: Ender's Game is one of those works of Sci-Fi that actually fulfills the promise of the genre. Like Heinlein, like Asimov, Card doesn't go in for easy ethical solutions to problems. In fact, in this book, Card uses a relatively easy story of the emergence of a hero to mask a scary and ugly meditation on war and humanity. Like the more-famous and cinematically mangled Starship Troopers, Ender's Game stakes out a middle ground between hawkishness and antiwar preaching. The "issue" for lack of a better term, is the use of children to fight an interstellar war they don't even know they're fighting.[PLOT GIVEAWAY BELOW! ] The plot is thus: Ender, the normal child genius protagonist, goes on the normal voyage of self-discovery through military school. But, unlike more pedestrian works of youthful self-discovery (Anne McCaffrey, anyone?), Card twists the plot at the end, changing the tone of the whole book. Turns out that as Ender advances through ever more complex video game combat simulations, he's actually been commanding the actual Earth starfleet against their alien enemies, and has managed to wipe them out. Obviously, implications abound, and Card does them justice by leaving them tacit. This is one book I keep returning to in my mind, a decade after first reading it. It is full of thought and unassuming complexity, and is as satisfying a read as I have gotten out of trad SF.
Rating:
Summary: Pure adrenaline
Review: Ender's Game is the first book of the Ender Universe, probably one of the most important science fiction milestones of 20th Century. Written following every thought and deed of Andrew Wiggin, it is mostly a relation of the events of 3 years of his life, when he is depicted as a the most promising child genius of Earth, trained to become a general commander against the 3rd alien war. Card succeeds showing with great intensity and a voice full of truthfulness what a genius child would do in a situation where the future of human race would eventually lie in his hands. From the first pages, it deftly make us feel empathy and admiration for the strength and morality of the little kid and a fervent desire for him to succeed. I think it's mostly a fight of a tragic hero, Ender, who is object of fateful situations where to win he has to do what he abhors most: to kill. And how he is tricked and manipulated into using his abilities to do whatever the generals of the Fleet would want. It all results in great surprises that exhilarate the avid reader. I think the book as a whole is brilliant and also well structured. I mean, it has a nice pace although at the end is so fast that your head spins. I also like the way he writes it, from Ender's point of view. It's very clever as a whole and very believable as a story although it's quite contrived. Of course I love stories of geniuses, they are always very exciting and surprising. Ender, in contrast, is a very introspective person, but it's from there where his strength comes. He knows what to do to gain power, leadership and just and plainly win. He knows no failure. We learn to love him for his physical weakness, for his struggle to be self sufficient, to do what is right, to beat the odds no matter what gigantic chances are against him. He has the ability to earn love.
Rating: 
Summary: The introduction to a great series
Review: Ender (Andrew) Wiggin is the result of a genetic experiment - he is a cross between his two superintelligent siblings Peter, who is too cruel to be a good commander, and Valentine, who is to kind-hearted. He is sent to battle school at the age of 6 in order to be trained to save the world from the strange insect-like aliens called "buggers". Orson Scott Card admits that the story is plainly told. However, it has nuances. They aren't poetic nuances like other quality fiction tends to have - they are philosophical. I'd say that this book, and the rest of this series, is for adult readers who are interested in the big questions. Who are we? How did we get here? What's the meaning of life? How did life arise? How should we live our lives? Etc. etc. The author has an uncanny knack for telling the story in a way which makes the facts point in the direction of several different conclusions: This knack is even more apparent in the later books of the series. This means that the book actually DOES move on several different planes. However, it's possible that you need a background in science and/or philosophy to get this. This book is heavily inspired by game theory. This is one of my criticisms of the book: I didn't find it believable that battle school used such naive game tactics that Ender manages to radically change the way they fight. But it might be necessary for the development of the story - and to introduce readers to game theory from the ground. It's also based on a scientifically unsound view of how insect colonies work, but this may be because of the age of the book - science has moved forward since then. Besides, the author can claim poetic licence. Ender is an Anakin Skywalker of sorts - but while Ender uses his gifts to try to save the world with the support of his teachers, Anakin is so seduced by his own abilites that he turns to the "dark side" - but still manages to be the "one who creates balance to the force". How Ender deals with his giftedness is controversial, and I'd also NOT recommend this to young readers lest they should be inspired to be an Ender, but end up like Darth Vader instead..... Ender's game is a fascinating thought experiment and action story, one star deducted for some lack of credibility in the story. I also agree with the author that the later books are stronger: The philosphical issues truly come into play there. Some of the book's loose ends also tie up later in the series.
Rating:
Summary: Definitely a Page Turner
Review: When I first read this book, I was in junior high school and I don't think I really had an appreciation for all that was included in the book. This summer I picked up the book again and started reading. I was captivated, the book hooked me instantly and I couldn't put it down until it was finished (which was unfortunately only a few hours later). I definitely enjoyed reading it, and I'd recommend it to others. However, if you are picking it up with the thought that it is an excellent piece of literature packed full of political philosophy that will change the way you live, you should probably find something else. I praise this book mostly for its entertainment value. The book relies on some cliched techniques to hook the reader, but it works. However, I think the book loses a little bit of value for me towards the end when Card attempts to wax philosophical. I think that Card steps into some very deep issues and fundemental problems with society, but I also think that he doesn't get any further than the wading pool. The political thought references and the genius of Ender is impressive and enjoyable, but I think that Card is trying too hard to make the book into something that it isn't. I'm looking forward to reading the sequels and despite my criticism, I give this book four stars and I strongly recommend it. Just don't take it into your philosophy class.
Rating: 
Summary: Stuck in the middle with you
Review: I really enjoyed reading ENDER'S GAME, although I certainly had a few qualms along the way. I found it to be an entertaining, engrossing read that had me quickly flipping through the pages, eager to see what came next. But, to be honest, I'm a bit baffled by the overwhelming praise directed towards this book. Sure, it's good, but I didn't find it nearly as powerful as others have. Plot is the most important part of this book, coming at the expensive of style. The prose is mostly workmanlike, though it's deceptively good at slowly ratcheting up the tension. Characters are virtually nothing more than ciphers for the storyline, and while they're distinctive, they're rarely given much depth. Ironically, I felt the only character that approached full-development was Ender's sister, Valentine, and she is really only defined by her relations with her two brothers. One thing I should mention is that I absolutely hated the ending of this book. Hated, hated, hated it. It took the suspension of disbelief that I'd been managing to hold onto for three hundred pages and just threw that out the window. I can accept that selectively bred children can be perfectly reasoning geniuses. I can even accept that they can talk in perfectly formed little speeches to each other (though this is a bit harder to digest, to be honest). But I simply cannot believe that any organization (I'm being deliberately vague in order to avoid spoilers) would allow that certain decision to be made by a character of that age. It's laughable. Ridiculous. And unfortunately, coming at the end as it did, it put a bit of a bad taste in my mouth. Not enough to ruin the previous chapters, mind you, but enough to turn me just a little bit away. I can take (and often enjoy) fictions that are overly cynical, but this seemed to be cynical just for the sake of being cynical, i.e. very contrived. It felt exploitative and manipulative. Given that the main themes of the book are exploitation and manipulation, this may very well have been deliberate, and the reaction I felt was exactly what the author wanted me to feel. But you can't expect me to like it. Maybe the kudos that this book receives is because it's a fictional novel that asks and hints at a lot of heavy, deep philosophical questions. Of course, humankind has been asking these same questions for a few thousand years now, and I'm not convinced that ENDER'S GAME is bringing anything particularly new to the table. Truthfully, I enjoyed this book simply as a straightforward science-fiction action-adventure, nothing more. The philosophizing and moral dilemmas were presented in a slightly too clumsy and obvious a manner for my tastes. Clearly, mileage will vary on this point, as many, many others would evidentially appear to have got a lot more out of this than I did. That said, I think the book's attempt to tell the story more or less completely from the point of view of an especially gifted child was a success. On the other hand, the eventual reason for the main characters being so young does come across as a bit of cheat at the end, and one wonders if it wouldn't have been a tad more believable to make these mature-seeming people just a slight bit older in age too. Still, it worked for me, so I can't complain too much. When Ender must deal with bullies and other "child" problems, he is presented as more (adult) rational than (child) emotional (not what I would have expected), but ultimately he does come across well as an unusually composed youth. The parts where I really felt disturbed by the cast's age was during the more bloody of the fight scenes; in particular, when two pre-pubescent boys stand naked in a bathroom kicking each other in the groin until one of them collapses. I suppose the point was to make the reader uncomfortable, but I think it really could have been done better in a less distasteful way. My copy of the book (a paperback of the 1991 reissue) contains an overly defensive introduction from Orson Scott Card wherein he attacks opponents of his book for being too insecure and unable to empathize with gifted, intelligent children. He seems to be of the mind that people either loved his book unconditionally or loathed it utterly, with no room for opinions in the middle. Looking around at the other reviews, he may very well be right. But I find myself in a rare position. I abhorred some portions of this book, but really enjoyed others. Overall, it more than maintained my interest and kept me speeding through, and I'll give it a lot of credit for that. I didn't fall in love with the novel, but I enjoyed it enough that I'll probably get around to the sequels eventually. (Oh, and I was amused to note that Card seems to have correctly predicted the rise of the Internet-based political blogs, although he does get confused as to whether he wants his would-be power-grabbers to be merely influencing memes or controlling people and events directly. Of course, in his fictional universe, we're to believe that people take on-line political scribblings a lot more seriously than they do in ours.)
Rating:
Summary: This book kept me hooked 'til the last page!
Review: The Earth was attacked by aliens, called buggers twice. They were able to win both wars, but a third war seems near. Therefore the World Government is "breeding" military geiniuses.
Ender is one of those geniuses who is supposed to save the world. But only the most genius of geniuses are allowed to attend the "Battle-School", where they are trained to kill. What bothers him most is that he doesn't like to be a killer, and kills "on accident" and then has nightmares about it. As time passes, less and less people like him. The only person he really likes is his sester Valentine, some thousand miles away.
In this Nebula and Hugo Award-winner Orson Scott Card describes hate and loniness, but also new friendships from a 3rd person point of view, but the reader kind-of thinks that it is Ender's diary, because the authors tells many times what Ender is thinking.
Even though there are many geniuses and brilliant commanders, will mankind survive a third time?
Rating:
Summary: Change your Life Forever
Review: This is the best book ever written and if you read it carefully it will change your life forever. You can reread this book whenever there is a crisis in your life and I guarantee it will get you back on track. I don't recommend the books connected to this book because this book in and of itself is a complete masterpiece. The great thing about this book is that it is a great idea and well executed. The reason its so good is because the book tackles a HUGE philisophical problem but doesn't even mention what that problem is. Everything is subtext. Can you figure out what the philisophical question behind the book is? Read and find out.
Rating:
Summary: the first in a line of incredible books
Review: Orson Scott Card is a genius.Ender's game is a great book and never slows down.this is more exciting than harry potter and his dark materials.this is a great read even if you are not a sci-fi fan
Rating:
Summary: A Masterpiece of Focused Goal Efforts
Review: When the fate of humans is at stake, Card pulls no punches in a realistic effort to duplicate what desperate measures call for - an early identification of a master strategist who refuses to accept defeat. Through Ender's story, and the men monitoring him, we learn all the lessons of strategy and command; and how to grab every available resource. At first, he realizes gravity has no meaning in a null-gravity situation. Upon promotion and denied an opportunity to learn, he trains with a sub-class, defying convention. When he first disobeys stupid commands, he turns defeat into stalemate. When a sub-leader recognizes his value, but the commander doesn't, he turns a suicide mission into a strategic advantage for his army. When he is finally given command, he throws out the rulebook in favor of what works. Ultimately, his genius is not just by understanding strategies and tactics that work but also how to utlitze other people in his favor. He trains his subcommanders how to lead and recognize strategic and tactical opportunites, but also gains their respect as a commander. When the wargames are rigged more and more against his favor, he simply responds by adopting new, innovative, and effective methods against his enemeies. I found the end-game predictable, but beyond the military victory, I found a kind of solice. Ender never really wanted to beat an enemy; he wanted them to stop fighting and live in peace. Perhaps that is the true genius of Ender's Game - he never wanted war, but when forced into it, he played to win the war forever. I haven't read the sequels, but I hope in them Ender focuses his mind toward creating peace instead of war. There is just as much strategy in winning a cold war and living in peace as there is to a hot war and fighting with many dead on each side.
Rating:
Summary: Decidedly Engrossing
Review: This book is very well-written, if not a bit formulaic in style. The story is original and the author presents a very interesting idea about space combat that I'm surprised hasn't made it's way into a cheap video game yet. Unfortunately, the author spends too much time alluding to some commonly-addressed problems with humanity and much of the conversation sounds contrived. Happily, none of these things detract from the entertainment value of the book.
|
