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4.2 AVERAGE
4.2 AVERAGE
ughhhhh and also ew. did not gaf. mid characters. homophobic sexist author ewwwwww
This book left me feeling sad, because I felt so let down by it. It's supposed to be a great classic of science fiction literature. It has so many great ideas that, in the hands of a really good writer, would have been carried out so much better. However, Orson Scott Card's delivery is so incredibly emotionally bland, robotic, so woefully incapable of creating 3-dimensional characters, and so unsurprising that it was all I could do to just try to finish the book.
Spoilers below...
Basically, the ideas are intriguing. Ender Wiggin is a child genius, sent to "battle school" to train to be a great military leader, to stop the "buggers", aliens who are an existential threat to Earth. Along the way, he struggles with bullies and loneliness. He fights practice battle after practice battle, and simulation after simulation, until it is finally revealed that the simulation wasn't a simulation after all, and he has unwittingly destroyed the entire bugger race by vaporizing their home planet (I'm not sure I've read a book with an accidental genocide before, kinda weird). Later, it is revealed that the buggers managed to somehow tap into his mind before this happened, and have left messages for him, leading him along with landmarks from his memories. So that's the plot, basically.
Here's why it doesn't work...at all. The characters. Are. So. Incredibly. BLAND! I can't remember the last time I read a book where the characters are so phenomenally, unbelievably, two-dimensional and interchangeable. There is no reprieve from the overwhelming blandness of the book, as the authorial voice is also bland, only diverging from blandness occasionally to become dry or pompous, or to explain what the characters were feeling (because it would have been impossible to catch any feelings organically; his characters are so flat).
And what is with the strange, unexplained genius children who all talk exactly like the narration? (I often forgot when I was reading narration vs when I was reading dialogue, the voice being used was identical. His characters are mostly children between the ages of 6 and 12, and every single one of them is somehow supposed to have an IQ of like, 200, and talked like a gruff, 45 year old man. What the heck? Only a couple of times Card mentions that the children are not normal children, for some reason, but never explains, never implies, never even intimates WHY all these children are all emotionless psycho-geniuses who talk like old men!! Let me give you a painful example of this awful dialogue. Here is a conversation between two children in the book, around 10-12 years old:
" 'You're just what the world needs. A twelve-year-old to solve all of our problems.'
'It's not my fault I'm twelve right now. And it's not my fault that right now is when the opportunity is open. Right now is the time when I can shape events. The world is always a democracy in times of flux, and the man with the best voice will win. Everybody thinks Hitler got to power because of his armies, because they were willing to kill, and that's partly true, because in the real world power is always built on the threat of death and dishonor. But mostly he got to power on words, on the right words at the right time.'
'I was just thinking of comparing you to him.'
'I don't hate Jews, Val. I don't want to destroy anybody. And I don't want war, either. I want the world to hold together'" [there's more, but it's insufferable to keep typing this strange psycho-pontificating that the children, I repeat, CHILDREN, do incessantly throughout this book.]
What's even worse is the adults talk in the exact same cold, pontificating voice, so that the character's voices are all indistinguishable from each other. You have to look back (if you even care to) to previous pages to remember who the hell is even speaking at this point. Is it a 50-year-old general? Is it a teacher? Is it a space admiral? Is it an 8-year-old child? Who cares? Here is an example of the adults' dialogue, just as thrilling as the childrens':
" 'I was the source of the disease. I was isolating him, and it worked.'
'Give him time with the group. To see what he does with it.'
'We don't have time.'
'We don't have time to rush too fast with a kid who has much chance of being a monster as a military genius.'
'Is this an order?'
'The recorder's on, it's always on, your ass is covered, go to hell.'" [umm...ok...]
It doesn't help that for some reason, once Card enters into dialogue, he simply transcribes the characters words, back and forth, with no supporting narration or details. Just like reading an endless script. Which makes it even harder to remember who is talking.
He lamely attempts to characterize these cardboard cutouts with names that he calls characters, and does it in the most awkward, emotionless fashion. He does it by adding, after pages of bland dialogue, brief explanations of emotions--he never writes the characters in a way where you could actually empathize with them, and feel what they're feeling. Instead, it's endless dialogue, followed by a dry explanation that Ender is feeling sad right now; his sadness is due to his training and being isolated from normal friendships and being far from his sister. We know he loves his sister not because we can actually see him doing so, but because Orson Scott Card says that he loves his sister. Which is just terrible writing. It seems he is incapable of creating actual, rich, interesting characters who you can empathize with, and instead, he stops every now and then in his story to literally explain, oh, by the way, character A is disappointed. Character B is angry. Character C is sad.
And as if the characters weren't boring and interchangeable enough, I was lucky to make it through endless, repetitive scenes wherein Card describes in meticulous detail practice battles and simulations. It felt like I was reading a book written by someone watching someone else play a video game. To his credit, he does give good technical descriptions, but good Lord, we don't want to read 300-plus pages about Ender learning to bounce off a wall in zero-gravity at a perfect 35-degree angle and reversing with both legs bent at a 90-degree angle at the knee as if he was kneeling in midair, yadda yadda, rebounding, angles, trajectory, obstacles, endless battle game technique. The entire book was basically repetitive technical descriptions of practice battles in zero-G, with interludes of painful dialogue and Ender ruthlessly beating to a pulp evil, psycho bullies.
Furthermore, just in case you weren't already aware of how intelligent and perfect Ender is, don't worry, Card will remind you every 5 pages or so. Ender learns everything 100 times faster than anyone else. Ender cracks computer security systems. Ender plays video games better than anyone else. Ender has better technique than everyone else. Ender is stronger than everybody else, somehow ACCIDENTALLY MURDERING not one, but two children in schoolyard fights [literally, what the fuck, he literally accidentally kills 2 people, somehow doesn't find out until the end of the point, at which point he has no emotional reaction]. Ender is so, so smart. Ender is the chosen one. Ender doesn't want to hurt anyone. But he will if he has to. By the end of the book, Ender also apparently learns in 2 seconds how to transition from being a perfect genius child military leader into being a frickin' governor, and 2 seconds later learns how to manage a successful economy. By that point the two-dimensional fawning over Ender was so ridiculous, I wouldn't even have batted an eyelash if Ender had decided to also randomly become the galaxy's best neurosurgeon, pastry chef, and lion tamer, and all before he's 15. Why not? He's so blandly, inexplicably perfect at literally everything else. One can only wish he would become the galaxy's best author, so he could rewrite this damn book.
It was just so disappointing that I couldn't see the general idea for this book in another author's hands, with actual characters one could get into and care about. I loved the little twist thrown in at the end where the hive mind of the buggers somehow actually lays messages in wait for Ender entwined with his memories. But of course, at that point I was so done with the book that the best I could do was go, "Hm! Well, that could have been really cool if this book had been well-written." I finished reading, let out a hearty, "Meh", and tossed the book aside.
ETA: and one more thing. What the hell was with Ender's brother being a random, casual psycho who spends his time torturing small woodland creatures until he becomes a world leader and then apparently everything's ok, Ender's fine with him, whatevs?
Spoilers below...
Basically, the ideas are intriguing. Ender Wiggin is a child genius, sent to "battle school" to train to be a great military leader, to stop the "buggers", aliens who are an existential threat to Earth. Along the way, he struggles with bullies and loneliness. He fights practice battle after practice battle, and simulation after simulation, until it is finally revealed that the simulation wasn't a simulation after all, and he has unwittingly destroyed the entire bugger race by vaporizing their home planet (I'm not sure I've read a book with an accidental genocide before, kinda weird). Later, it is revealed that the buggers managed to somehow tap into his mind before this happened, and have left messages for him, leading him along with landmarks from his memories. So that's the plot, basically.
Here's why it doesn't work...at all. The characters. Are. So. Incredibly. BLAND! I can't remember the last time I read a book where the characters are so phenomenally, unbelievably, two-dimensional and interchangeable. There is no reprieve from the overwhelming blandness of the book, as the authorial voice is also bland, only diverging from blandness occasionally to become dry or pompous, or to explain what the characters were feeling (because it would have been impossible to catch any feelings organically; his characters are so flat).
And what is with the strange, unexplained genius children who all talk exactly like the narration? (I often forgot when I was reading narration vs when I was reading dialogue, the voice being used was identical. His characters are mostly children between the ages of 6 and 12, and every single one of them is somehow supposed to have an IQ of like, 200, and talked like a gruff, 45 year old man. What the heck? Only a couple of times Card mentions that the children are not normal children, for some reason, but never explains, never implies, never even intimates WHY all these children are all emotionless psycho-geniuses who talk like old men!! Let me give you a painful example of this awful dialogue. Here is a conversation between two children in the book, around 10-12 years old:
" 'You're just what the world needs. A twelve-year-old to solve all of our problems.'
'It's not my fault I'm twelve right now. And it's not my fault that right now is when the opportunity is open. Right now is the time when I can shape events. The world is always a democracy in times of flux, and the man with the best voice will win. Everybody thinks Hitler got to power because of his armies, because they were willing to kill, and that's partly true, because in the real world power is always built on the threat of death and dishonor. But mostly he got to power on words, on the right words at the right time.'
'I was just thinking of comparing you to him.'
'I don't hate Jews, Val. I don't want to destroy anybody. And I don't want war, either. I want the world to hold together'" [there's more, but it's insufferable to keep typing this strange psycho-pontificating that the children, I repeat, CHILDREN, do incessantly throughout this book.]
What's even worse is the adults talk in the exact same cold, pontificating voice, so that the character's voices are all indistinguishable from each other. You have to look back (if you even care to) to previous pages to remember who the hell is even speaking at this point. Is it a 50-year-old general? Is it a teacher? Is it a space admiral? Is it an 8-year-old child? Who cares? Here is an example of the adults' dialogue, just as thrilling as the childrens':
" 'I was the source of the disease. I was isolating him, and it worked.'
'Give him time with the group. To see what he does with it.'
'We don't have time.'
'We don't have time to rush too fast with a kid who has much chance of being a monster as a military genius.'
'Is this an order?'
'The recorder's on, it's always on, your ass is covered, go to hell.'" [umm...ok...]
It doesn't help that for some reason, once Card enters into dialogue, he simply transcribes the characters words, back and forth, with no supporting narration or details. Just like reading an endless script. Which makes it even harder to remember who is talking.
He lamely attempts to characterize these cardboard cutouts with names that he calls characters, and does it in the most awkward, emotionless fashion. He does it by adding, after pages of bland dialogue, brief explanations of emotions--he never writes the characters in a way where you could actually empathize with them, and feel what they're feeling. Instead, it's endless dialogue, followed by a dry explanation that Ender is feeling sad right now; his sadness is due to his training and being isolated from normal friendships and being far from his sister. We know he loves his sister not because we can actually see him doing so, but because Orson Scott Card says that he loves his sister. Which is just terrible writing. It seems he is incapable of creating actual, rich, interesting characters who you can empathize with, and instead, he stops every now and then in his story to literally explain, oh, by the way, character A is disappointed. Character B is angry. Character C is sad.
And as if the characters weren't boring and interchangeable enough, I was lucky to make it through endless, repetitive scenes wherein Card describes in meticulous detail practice battles and simulations. It felt like I was reading a book written by someone watching someone else play a video game. To his credit, he does give good technical descriptions, but good Lord, we don't want to read 300-plus pages about Ender learning to bounce off a wall in zero-gravity at a perfect 35-degree angle and reversing with both legs bent at a 90-degree angle at the knee as if he was kneeling in midair, yadda yadda, rebounding, angles, trajectory, obstacles, endless battle game technique. The entire book was basically repetitive technical descriptions of practice battles in zero-G, with interludes of painful dialogue and Ender ruthlessly beating to a pulp evil, psycho bullies.
Furthermore, just in case you weren't already aware of how intelligent and perfect Ender is, don't worry, Card will remind you every 5 pages or so. Ender learns everything 100 times faster than anyone else. Ender cracks computer security systems. Ender plays video games better than anyone else. Ender has better technique than everyone else. Ender is stronger than everybody else, somehow ACCIDENTALLY MURDERING not one, but two children in schoolyard fights [literally, what the fuck, he literally accidentally kills 2 people, somehow doesn't find out until the end of the point, at which point he has no emotional reaction]. Ender is so, so smart. Ender is the chosen one. Ender doesn't want to hurt anyone. But he will if he has to. By the end of the book, Ender also apparently learns in 2 seconds how to transition from being a perfect genius child military leader into being a frickin' governor, and 2 seconds later learns how to manage a successful economy. By that point the two-dimensional fawning over Ender was so ridiculous, I wouldn't even have batted an eyelash if Ender had decided to also randomly become the galaxy's best neurosurgeon, pastry chef, and lion tamer, and all before he's 15. Why not? He's so blandly, inexplicably perfect at literally everything else. One can only wish he would become the galaxy's best author, so he could rewrite this damn book.
It was just so disappointing that I couldn't see the general idea for this book in another author's hands, with actual characters one could get into and care about. I loved the little twist thrown in at the end where the hive mind of the buggers somehow actually lays messages in wait for Ender entwined with his memories. But of course, at that point I was so done with the book that the best I could do was go, "Hm! Well, that could have been really cool if this book had been well-written." I finished reading, let out a hearty, "Meh", and tossed the book aside.
ETA: and one more thing. What the hell was with Ender's brother being a random, casual psycho who spends his time torturing small woodland creatures until he becomes a world leader and then apparently everything's ok, Ender's fine with him, whatevs?
my first ever sci fi read (bc of asa butterfield I loved him so bad)
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
1st time read
bookclub says read i say how fast 😈 speed read at basin lake. i liked it, really compelling, not sure if it was bc of bookclub or the book but i actually took notes on things 😠i found valentine and peter really interesting comparisons to ender and the conversations at the beginning of the chapters was an interesting plot device
bookclub says read i say how fast 😈 speed read at basin lake. i liked it, really compelling, not sure if it was bc of bookclub or the book but i actually took notes on things 😠i found valentine and peter really interesting comparisons to ender and the conversations at the beginning of the chapters was an interesting plot device
Incredible book, 10/10 on first read and reread. Everything about the book from the beginning to the middle to the end (especially the end and epilogue) is gripping and intense; my only complaint is that some of the Peter/Valentine scenes are unrealistic but that’s a minor quibble
adventurous
dark
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
reflective
adventurous
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
4.5 out of 5.0 stars
The very worst thing about this book is that, at times, Ender’s actions, thoughts, and behvaiours seem somewhat fantastical. Granted, genius children often mature faster on the outside, their thoughts would usually betray their age. Not so much in what they are thinking, but how they are thinking. Does that make sense?
The very best thing about this book is how much better it was than I expected. I’ve been seeing this book/series around for years and never read it. Why? Because honestly, based on the teasers on the back I thought I was going to be reading a book about a rebelious child who miraculously succeeds against the giant evil government in spite of all the adults trying to kill him. Yeah… Boy was I wrong! ^_^
The very worst thing about this book is that, at times, Ender’s actions, thoughts, and behvaiours seem somewhat fantastical. Granted, genius children often mature faster on the outside, their thoughts would usually betray their age. Not so much in what they are thinking, but how they are thinking. Does that make sense?
The very best thing about this book is how much better it was than I expected. I’ve been seeing this book/series around for years and never read it. Why? Because honestly, based on the teasers on the back I thought I was going to be reading a book about a rebelious child who miraculously succeeds against the giant evil government in spite of all the adults trying to kill him. Yeah… Boy was I wrong! ^_^