Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

69 reviews

tomel's review

adventurous dark 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

1.5

The best thing I can say about Ender's Game is that it is bad in fascinating ways. There are so many intersections of awful in this book that I will probably never stop thinking about it. But it is an extremely bad book about how

a group of naked racist/misogynist children (plus one tomboy) are trained by the Eugenically Perfect War Messiah to commit a genocide but it's okay because they're going to adopt the new generation of the people they killed and raise them as their own.

Imagine if Paul Atreides was really into laser tag and felt the White Man's Burden and gave himself the occasional n-word pass. I strongly suspect that the book must have been significantly changed since the 1991 edition I read, because there's stuff in here that should be at least as notorious as the scene in the sewer in IT and nobody talks about them. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Emotional abuse, Child abuse, Murder, Xenophobia, War, Bullying, Physical abuse, Genocide, Racial slurs, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Moderate: Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, Animal death, Cursing, Animal cruelty, Sexism, Religious bigotry, Cultural appropriation, Antisemitism, and Death

For some reason nobody talks about how the children in this book are constantly naked.

erinwolf1997's review against another edition

challenging tense slow-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, War, and Genocide

Moderate: Child death, Bullying, and Child abuse

sedgewren's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

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

3.75

I enjoyed the detailed description of the games, the tactics and strategies used, and how Ender used the strengths of his commanders. This might be because it appealed to the chess player in me! I also enjoyed (and found interesting) the underhanded way the adults manipulated Ender, and despite Ender knowing most of it, how he had to go along with it. 

I would have liked to hear more about how Ender's brother ruled Earth after the war though, that would've been interesting. I'm also confused as to how the Buggers got into the game system to observe Ender's dream-like sequences enough to know how Ender would react to the places in real life. Maybe these points are covered in the next books, but apparently they're not as good, so I won't be reading them.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Physical abuse, Violence, Bullying, and Child death

betweentheshelves's review

adventurous dark 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

I guess I get why so many people love this book because it is easy to read and moves rather quickly. At times, it does get a bit repetitive, and the ending felt a bit rushed to me. But it is the first in a series, so the pacing and the info dumping does make sense.

Read this for a banned book club, and it will be an interesting discussion because of Orson Scott Card's problematic behavior. I'm not sure how much this is still banned because of content, it's something I will have to look up. I am looking forward to our discussion, though!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, and Violence

Moderate: Child death, Death, and Genocide

Minor: Sexism

fi_reads_books's review

adventurous challenging tense slow-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Antisemitism, Blood, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Emotional abuse, Racial slurs, Sexism, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence

saskiahill's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

Brilliant audiobook, really well performed. The book is clever, engaging and surprising - I'm listening for the first time as I near 30 and it's still relatable and brilliant, by no means just a kids book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Abandonment, Child death, and Murder

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Colonisation, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Gaslighting, Violence, War, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Gore, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Antisemitism

ephalent's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Violence, and Child death

janang3l's review

adventurous dark medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Religious bigotry, Racism, Bullying, and Violence

caspian's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War and Violence

Moderate: Child death and Racial slurs

leah_shufelt's review

adventurous dark informative inspiring tense medium-paced

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

4.25

This book is a classic and one of my all time favourites; it was a blessing to revisit this year and I felt nostalgic really digging into a sci-fi again.

However I will deduct a few points for the weird writing of women and Ender’s relationships with women and more importantly- his sister. Sometimes it can come off a little incesty and I’m not sure if that was intentional but boy is it uncomfy. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Violence, and War