/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.2484846]

I really wish I had read this sooner, when I was a teenager. It would have been mindblowing. Now I'm 27 and can't help but feel slightly...underwhelmed. I had heard great things about it and perhaps my expectations were a bit too high.

I really think it was too nice and glossed over. It wasn't gritty enough on the surface, which contrasted with the darker psychological undertones. No swear words. The battle scenes read like Card was describing a squirt gun play in a kindergarten. Anyone who has gone through public elementary/high school would find the "bullying" of Ender very timid. This along with his invincibility really cut the edge out of the atmosphere, which particularily in the middle of the book seemed like a story meant for children a la Harry Potter rather than a serious science fiction novel. The physics of the book is quite inconsistent and improbable as well, hurting immersion.

While I think the novel on the aggregate was ahead of its time, some concepts proved to be badly aged. Particularily the "nets" concept behind Valentine's and Peter's storyline. The way they developed into major effectors in the novel world through writing in the nets is embarrassingly naive.

Characters other than Ender were left shallow and one-dimensional, with the possible exception of Valentine, and even she had very little time in the books.

To my embarrassment, I didn't see the big twist towards the end coming until right before it was revealed. I thought it was brilliant. I have to praise Card for being able to make silly games quite exciting, and Ender's maturation appear like an RPG character progression.

Overall I went expecting 9/10 and it was 7/10. Entertaining, some interesting concepts and interaction, but ultimately somewhat flawed.

[Anonymous No.2484849]

This book introduced me to more...heavy Si-Fi books, It's slow application of deeper and deeper themes throughout the series that make Orson Scott Card a fantastic writer.

[Anonymous No.2484851]

I read it when it first came out, and through the first part of the second half of the book kept hoping :"don't let it be one of those: "the game was the real battle all along" stories, but by the time it happened I sort of agreed that that's how it had to be done; with a serious minded kid who would never think it might not be just a game because games were all he ever did. I thought it was a clever twist, and I think it's the first time I ever saw that theme at novel-lenght, sine it was already one of those things they tell you never to make the theme of your short stories when submitting to a magazine because it has been done to death (along with "pact with the devil, it was all dream and their names were adam and eve" stories.

I agree it reads best if 1.) you come to it young or 2.) you don't read a lot of science fiction.

[Anonymous No.2484871]

>>2484851

You read it back in 1985?

I was probably unable to see the twist coming, because I thought it would have an open ending. Instead it had a well defined story-arc, which I think didn't work out quite perfectly. I thought the ending was a cop-out, frankly. It should have ended after the crowd began to cheer, before it was explicitly declared what had occurred. Valentine's and Peter's storylines could've been reduced and left ambiguous.

[Anonymous No.2484880]

>>2484871

Yeah, i had only read Card's stuff in Omni before, and his stuff was all Orwellian and pessimistic and if i hadn't got him confused with George RR Martin and thought it might be something like "The Way of Cross and Dragon" I might not have picked it up until later.

I wasn't surprised it got noticed though: that was at the death throes of the New Wave in America and nobody was sure what came next (turned out to be cyberpunk: spoiler ).

[notafaggot No.2484904]

Read the second book. It's much better. And the 3rd and 4th are not worthy of your time.