Reviews tagging 'War'

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

62 reviews

mika_the_librarian's review

adventurous challenging reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, War, Death, Blood, Child abuse, Child death, Emotional abuse, and Suicidal thoughts

paguroidea's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I get the hype behind this one, finally. Kind of surprised that there are so many sequels, I could see two or three making sense with where things ended but there’s around 16 in the whole series? Can’t see myself reading them all but who knows. Definitely interested in at least the ones that will round out that last arc in the ending…unless that takes all 16 or so in the series to get to…

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse and Child abuse

Moderate: War and Violence

luis_vieira's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Bullying, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: War, Violence, Confinement, and Murder

Minor: Child death and Suicide

ktdakotareads's review

adventurous medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Death, Violence, Sexism, Torture, Bullying, War, Misogyny, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Medical trauma, Toxic relationship, Blood, Body shaming, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Grief, Gun violence, and Injury/Injury detail

miastr's review

adventurous dark sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Animal death, War, and Racial slurs

Moderate: Death, Sexism, Child death, Racism, and Violence

psydneigh's review

adventurous dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

I read this in high school and loved it, and read it again now and still love it. Parts of this are incredibly poignant and this book stands the test of time. Highly recommend to anyone.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Grief, War, Animal cruelty, Bullying, and Xenophobia

robin_reads's review against another edition

adventurous fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

This was not for me for so many reasons. Mainly because of the amount of violence, how the book jumps right in and the reader has to catch up and the fact that children are taken away and trained to be soldiers. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Child abuse, Gaslighting, Murder, and War

Moderate: Bullying, Genocide, and Death

rubyfusca's review against another edition

adventurous reflective medium-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? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, War, Murder, and Death

directorpurry's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark medium-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

1.0

Perpetuates antisemitic conspiracy theories. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Xenophobia, Child abuse, Antisemitism, War, Violence, and Genocide

Moderate: Racism and Homophobia

onyxisalive's review against another edition

dark emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.5

This book was alright. Some parts of it I liked- I enjoyed the exploration of is it okay to do monstrous things for the sake of survival? That was very interesting. However,

the fact is that they are abusing children, it isn’t older people that are making the choices, you see this young child being forced and manipulated into doing things he wouldn’t have willingly done. The fact that there are no consequences is interesting and sad. It would’ve been nice at the end to see the guilt of the adults and the people that did this instead of nothing. As a result, the theme feels under explored. I don’t have an issue with the lack of consequences, as I think that is pretty unrealistic, but the emotional consequences and the fact that there are characters that could call out (at least internally) how wrong this was, yet didn’t, is a little strange.

The book really lagged in the middle, and the pace was all over the place. Years were skipped in sentences whereas other points really dragged. The book would go from really exploring the emotional impact on Ender, to these action sequences. It felt quite jarring and left the emotional moments feeling really skipped over and under explored. 
The action sequences were fine. The writing was fine. 
Overall, this was alright. I feel kind of disappointed as the parts of the book I did find interesting, in the end were so under explored it felt really meh. There was so much more to say about those things, and because of the way things are left it kind of comes across like the author is excusing

the things done to Ender rather than exploring the lengths humans will go to for survival (and all the moral complications that come with it).

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Murder, Genocide, and War

Moderate: Toxic friendship