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dda9's review against another edition
3.0
The final book of Card's trilogy is the best in my opinion. The story lines finally come together completely, and the action is nearly continuous without losing the compelling personal stories. My biggest complaint about this book, and the series, ended up being unfounded. I felt while reading the series that it wasn't shaping up to match how these events were described in "Ender's Game" and the "Ender's Shadow" series. I was a little slow to catch on and it wasn't until partially through the third book that I saw what was coming. If you are like me and get a little irritated that you aren't getting what you thought you were going to get, keep reading. The epilogue sets the plot nicely on the trajectory you would expect.
I was a little disappointed that this trilogy didn't cover some of the events I thought it would, but the plot ends up hanging together pretty well. There were a few points in the trilogy that seemed to not have been researched very well, or seemed to be somewhat "unrealistic." An example is the behavior of Bingwen, a character who is eight-years old. He is a brilliant eight-year old, but he is still a child. Bingwen behaves like a brilliant adult, never once acting like a child. He speaks like an adult, responds to emotions like an adult, is as perceptive as an adult about adult relationships, etc. This was a minor nit to pick however.
More serious in my mind was the language throughout the series. I expected a pretty clean series, coming from Orson Scott Card, and for the first two-thirds or so of the first book it was. Then there were multiple instances of profanity within a few pages. Overall it was a fairly clean series, but there are also some fairly detailed descriptions of combat casualties and a few adult situations (not explicit). If you are considering this book for a child that is something to consider.
Overall, I enjoyed all three books of the series, and I'm glad I read them, but they won't be books that I read multiple times, as I have with "Ender's Game."
I was a little disappointed that this trilogy didn't cover some of the events I thought it would, but the plot ends up hanging together pretty well. There were a few points in the trilogy that seemed to not have been researched very well, or seemed to be somewhat "unrealistic." An example is the behavior of Bingwen, a character who is eight-years old. He is a brilliant eight-year old, but he is still a child. Bingwen behaves like a brilliant adult, never once acting like a child. He speaks like an adult, responds to emotions like an adult, is as perceptive as an adult about adult relationships, etc. This was a minor nit to pick however.
More serious in my mind was the language throughout the series. I expected a pretty clean series, coming from Orson Scott Card, and for the first two-thirds or so of the first book it was. Then there were multiple instances of profanity within a few pages. Overall it was a fairly clean series, but there are also some fairly detailed descriptions of combat casualties and a few adult situations (not explicit). If you are considering this book for a child that is something to consider.
Overall, I enjoyed all three books of the series, and I'm glad I read them, but they won't be books that I read multiple times, as I have with "Ender's Game."
protoman21's review against another edition
4.0
Card demonstrates flare for military strategy and wit. No Ender. :(
katricia's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
hopeful
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
hivequeen's review against another edition
4.0
Well, that ended with a cliffhanger, as usual. As an avid Ender's Game fan, I love reading these books. But, also as an avid Ender's Game fan, I also kinda dislike reading these books. Each one gets more and more familiar, as if Card and Johnston are recycling many of the ideas from the original series and from the previous 2 books. Oh look, there's a genius 8 year old who can handle problems better than most adults. Is that an "enemy's gate is down" moment I spot over there? And how many times are the characters going to get themselves out of trouble by telling the media that the government or the military ordered them to do it, thus trapping the government/military into praising them rather than punishing them? But despite all this, I truly did love this book, and I was under the impression that it was the third in a trilogy, but now I'm not so sure... Hopefully there will be more to read in the future!!
sarahanne8382's review against another edition
2.0
Ugh, I am officially done reading any more Enderverse books. They've become so watered down. At least I did this on audio, which is the best way to experience them. They have such an exceptional cast, but this story was just a shadow of Ender's Game.
flagstaff's review against another edition
4.0
Finished the First Formic War series. If this was an action movie they would have botched it and I probably would pass on it. But in book form it has enough depth that I could care about the story.
jmoses's review against another edition
3.0
Eh? This was acceptable, but not great. It settles the series, but I mostly trudged through it.
humanignorance's review against another edition
4.0
An entertaining mix of action, politics, and scheming complemented the plotting and character development, rounding off an excellent series.
gyiriiiii's review against another edition
5.0
Orson Scott Card and Aaron Johnston outdid themselves yet again! The grand finale to the First Formic War series is an action-packed ride!
nikomikiri's review against another edition
4.0
I enjoyed the story a lot but I know for a fact if I had read it instead of using Audible I would never have finished it. Something about it didnt keep me drawn in as much as the previous books in the series.