serinlea reviewed on
My enthusiasm for Card's work has been dampened somewhat since I learned that he is a virulent misogynist and homophobe. It took another hit while writing this review, when I went to amazon.com to find the book cover image and page count, and found the author posting a review of his own book, insulting the intelligence of those who gave it a low rating.
However, when I first read Ender's Game in 2003 , I had no idea about any of that, and the book itself tells a fairly absorbing story. I loved the idea that a book could be written from a child's perspective without necessarily being a "children's book" specifically geared toward children of an age with the main character. I didn't see the end "twist" coming, primarily because there was no real build-up to the climax; it just appeared out of nowhere. In retrospect, I suppose the lack of rising action was probably necessary to avoid stretching the premise too thin, too soon. Most readers can accept the idea of a six-year-old genius being taken out of regular school and put into military school on a fast-track to soldierhood; most cannot accept that said six-year-old would have been sought out by world leaders as the planet's immediate and only hope.
The fact that the characters call their hive-based, insect-like alien enemies "buggers" is now oddly hilarious given OSC's political views. Was this a subtextual "let's exterminate the queers"?
However, when I first read Ender's Game in 2003 , I had no idea about any of that, and the book itself tells a fairly absorbing story. I loved the idea that a book could be written from a child's perspective without necessarily being a "children's book" specifically geared toward children of an age with the main character. I didn't see the end "twist" coming, primarily because there was no real build-up to the climax; it just appeared out of nowhere. In retrospect, I suppose the lack of rising action was probably necessary to avoid stretching the premise too thin, too soon. Most readers can accept the idea of a six-year-old genius being taken out of regular school and put into military school on a fast-track to soldierhood; most cannot accept that said six-year-old would have been sought out by world leaders as the planet's immediate and only hope.
The fact that the characters call their hive-based, insect-like alien enemies "buggers" is now oddly hilarious given OSC's political views. Was this a subtextual "let's exterminate the queers"?
