lovelymisanthrope's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I picked up this book as part of a buddy read with a friend. After a lot of thought and discussion, I think I really enjoyed this novel! This novel follows Ender, a "third" (in this future world, you are only allowed to have two children), and his journey to help defeat an alien race. He is recruited into this program from a very early age, 6, and the story progresses until he becomes a teenager. From the beginning, the reader can see he is being manipulated by the adults to become the military leader they need.
Ender has two siblings: Peter, a very rough around the edges boy who is seemingly evil, and Valentine, an empathetic girl who is always watching out for Ender. One of my favorite aspects of this book is how Peter and Valentine's characters are used to highlight how Ender is a blend of both of them.
There were some very difficult to read scenes, especially with depictions of animal cruelty from Peter. It was also hard to read Ender's story in general because he was so young when he started with battle school, and you cannot help but feel like his childhood was stolen from him.
Ender has two siblings: Peter, a very rough around the edges boy who is seemingly evil, and Valentine, an empathetic girl who is always watching out for Ender. One of my favorite aspects of this book is how Peter and Valentine's characters are used to highlight how Ender is a blend of both of them.
There were some very difficult to read scenes, especially with depictions of animal cruelty from Peter. It was also hard to read Ender's story in general because he was so young when he started with battle school, and you cannot help but feel like his childhood was stolen from him.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Genocide and Animal cruelty
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Bullying, and Physical abuse
stylo_'s review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
It's striking that for someone with repellent and destructive beliefs in the real world, Card was able to write a novel so deeply concerned with the question of empathy in darkness. Ender's Game I first read as a child, taken with the verisimilitude of its depiction of children's mentalities and concerns, even if the characters' speech patterns and invulnerability to emotion strains credibility. As Card's introduction in the revised edition points out, adults often criticize the work for its "unrealistic" depiction of childhood, whereas children have the exact opposite reaction, appreciating the work's refusal to dumb down their internal dialogues and concerns for the sake of appeasing adult egos and perceptions. Yes, children are in fact concerned about war; they do think about the meaning of life; they do wonder at the cruelty of their peers and humanity; they do wonder how to atone for their sins. They are whipsmart and know more than you think.
The prose is sparse and utilitarian, the plot straightforward and fast-moving, but all in service of the themes: why are human beings so vicious towards the other? Why is empathy so hard to exercise? What is the point of war, and what does it do to us? And what does redemption look like? Intense cruelty towards the characters only sharpens the point on which these examinations take place. (During one pivotal reveal towards the end of the novel, I pictured Ender's face as none other than Aleksei Kravchenko's in Come and See, the greatest and most tragic war movie ever made.)
The young-adult nature of the book does mean that themes, while mentioned, are not fully explored. Exploration of the themes rests in the realm of allusion; there's an impressionistic character, the way so much is communicated through Ender's dreams, through the fantasy game he plays on the computer, and the all-too-brief conclusion which I still find thrilling and evocative. I look forward to seeing if these themes are expounded on in Speaker for the Dead.
As a 30-something, this remains a striking, sad, and unique work.
(Caveats: There is some casual sexism in the book, and Card fumbles the ball on racial sensitivity with some of his characterizations - see for example the slang language used by the kids.)
The prose is sparse and utilitarian, the plot straightforward and fast-moving, but all in service of the themes: why are human beings so vicious towards the other? Why is empathy so hard to exercise? What is the point of war, and what does it do to us? And what does redemption look like? Intense cruelty towards the characters only sharpens the point on which these examinations take place. (During one pivotal reveal towards the end of the novel, I pictured Ender's face as none other than Aleksei Kravchenko's in Come and See, the greatest and most tragic war movie ever made.)
The young-adult nature of the book does mean that themes, while mentioned, are not fully explored. Exploration of the themes rests in the realm of allusion; there's an impressionistic character, the way so much is communicated through Ender's dreams, through the fantasy game he plays on the computer, and the all-too-brief conclusion which I still find thrilling and evocative. I look forward to seeing if these themes are expounded on in Speaker for the Dead.
As a 30-something, this remains a striking, sad, and unique work.
(Caveats: There is some casual sexism in the book, and Card fumbles the ball on racial sensitivity with some of his characterizations - see for example the slang language used by the kids.)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Emotional abuse, Injury/injury detail, Murder, Physical abuse, Violence, and War
Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Colonisation, Racial slurs, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, and Xenophobia
tubbo's review
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Mental illness
Moderate: Abandonment, Genocide, and Physical abuse
Minor: Bullying, Death, and Emotional abuse
poetskings's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
“Humanity does not ask us to be happy. It merely asks us to be brilliant on its behalf.”
Ender’s Game will always be one of my favourite books. It resonates with me in a way that few other books do, and Scott Card creates a world that is both easy to fall into and wholly believable. These are twelve year olds who are being forced into committing atrocities because the human race can’t believe for even a moment that any other species might be interested in peace.
While yes, I know that Orson Scott Card is kind of an awful person, and some of his less savoury views come across clearly in this book (misogyny is basically coded into every character from the get-go and reading a six year old say the n-word with a hard -er is incredibly jarring to say the least), I can’t help but believe in and root for these characters as the adults increasingly become the enemy.
I don’t think I’ll ever read the rest of the series, but Ender’s Game is a classic, and that’s a label it deserves.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Genocide, Gore, and Violence
Moderate: Murder, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, and Racism
Minor: Sexism
bekah445's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, and Violence
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