Scan barcode
A review by the_gandy_man
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
3.25
Saved by the last 15%.
The bulk of this book is not very interesting. Very little happens that is actually interesting, and it's pretty repetitive. Ender is like mildly interesting. He just kind of does what they want him to do, doesn't really make choices. He tells us he doesn't want to hurt people, but he hurts people because they make him hurt people.
I strongly dislike the worldbuilding. It reminded me of Ready Player One in that a lot of it just doesn't feel thought through. The psychotic fever-dream videogame is nonsense. Sexism and anti-Semitism seem to be worse than they are for us today (there's one woman in the battle school, and there's a stereotype that Jews are good commanders so they get bullied for that or something along those lines). The aliens are called "Buggers". Come on. At one point Ender isat the top of the standings because he hasn't missed any shots (because he hasn't fired any shots). Nobody with a brain would design standings like that. The slang is grating. And of course their whole strategy to beat the Buggers is to send all their ships to an attack that will only succeed if they find a 12 year old genius commander. This seems like a terrible plan. There's a general sense throughout the book that everybody is really stupid. "I have this obviously great theory for how the Buggers work but the scientists won't listen to me. WHY? Why have the smartest people in the world not figured out what some random old commander and this twelve year old and us, the reader, can clearly see? Also they discover faster-than-light technology, but the only implication is that they can communicate instantly with their ships. What about causality and time travel? This should be the biggest scientific discovery ever, which completely upturns everything we think we know about everything, but it's just an excuse to be able to command ships that are really far away. AND for some reason they still have pilots in the ships. Couldn't they just as easily pilot them remotely with this technology?
Most of this book annoyed me or bored me, and it was on pace for 2 stars until the end.The twist that the game wasn't a game is incredible. While I still don't like Ender's lack of agency, I think the ending justifies it. We're led to believe that Ender feels like he has no choice but to go along with their games, but he doesn't want to actually kill anybody. We're led to believe in the end, he will make a character choice to get along with the Buggers instead of killing them or something like that, but instead that opportunity is taken from him. I liked how the Buggers view life completely differently than us, so that they didn't think they were killing us. I also liked when we get to see Ender strategize. Unfortunately, too often the book likes to focus on less interesting aspects of the world and the story.
In the end, I liked Ender's Game. I liked the were the story ended up. I like Ender's personal journey. I liked the themes at play. I just found the worldbuilding weak, and the meat of the book not especially interesting.
The bulk of this book is not very interesting. Very little happens that is actually interesting, and it's pretty repetitive. Ender is like mildly interesting. He just kind of does what they want him to do, doesn't really make choices. He tells us he doesn't want to hurt people, but he hurts people because they make him hurt people.
I strongly dislike the worldbuilding. It reminded me of Ready Player One in that a lot of it just doesn't feel thought through. The psychotic fever-dream videogame is nonsense. Sexism and anti-Semitism seem to be worse than they are for us today (there's one woman in the battle school, and there's a stereotype that Jews are good commanders so they get bullied for that or something along those lines). The aliens are called "Buggers". Come on. At one point Ender is
Most of this book annoyed me or bored me, and it was on pace for 2 stars until the end.
In the end, I liked Ender's Game. I liked the were the story ended up. I like Ender's personal journey. I liked the themes at play. I just found the worldbuilding weak, and the meat of the book not especially interesting.