Ender's Game

Warning! Post is full of spoilers

With that out of the way, I will say that I finished reading Ender's Game a couple of days ago. I had an itch to read some scifi. So I looked at some popular lists and Orson Scott Card's novel caught my eye. I think deep down I really wanted something a little deeper in terms of science. Perhaps next time I'll try an Asimov, or Arthur C. Clarke novel, but I'm quite happy with my experience with Ender's Game.

It doesn't take long to find a plethora of reviews about the book that herald it as a 'great' book, even life changing for many. Sadly, I think I've missed the boat for such an impact. Seems that many feel that a teenage mind would be more moved by the book, but I don't think it's the mindset or maturity of a teenager so much as the cynicism of being an adult that limits our ability to accept certain aspects of the story. One has to remember that this book started its life in 1977. Items like the political back story, the way video games are used, the use of the word fart (kidding), and how children are viewed won't be accepted by some. As for the way 6 to 12 yr olds act (most of the characters are this age) and behave? My feeling is that the minute you underestimate kids, you lose.

The writing style is very direct with description being minimal at times. This seems to bother some readers. In Card's introduction, he explains how writing for the stage, minimalism helps the viewer engage their own imagination. I think this approach works well. Much of what happens takes place in the Battle Rooms on a space station. I think it would be easy to overly describe such a place and this would deter from the story pacing and be limiting to what our own minds can choose to focus on. For me, the actual Battle Room structure wasn't so important as trying to imagine the awkwardness of the null gravity and envisioning the maneuvers and the speed required to make the game challenging.

I recently read Tinkers which is a book that explodes with language that is immensely descriptive, beautifully arranged, and has economy to boot. Yet, Tinkers for me had so much style that I think it made me less interested or able to to relate to the characters. Funny enough, the minimalism in Ender's Game has done the same for some of its readers I think. However, I was able to connect with Ender, Graff, Valetine, and Mazer Rackham very well. Mazer Rackham!!!- you have to love this name. His name might as well have been Laser Beams and Ass Kicking! a guy who had beers with Duke Nukem on the holidays!

There's a lot I liked about Ender's Game. The fast pace of the story, the relationship between Valentine and Ender, and the idea of the 'ansible'. This is a device which allows for instantaneous (faster than light) communication across the Universe. I also enjoyed the military components of the story. Interesting that for some Marine's this is required reading. The last chapter of the book was my favorite part and will most likely cause me to buy the 2nd book in the quartet, Speaker For The Dead.

The Formics! Who were they? I'm not quite sure why they attacked us twice. Wouldn't they have figured out the first time, maybe Earthlings are sentient? In the actual attacks on the bugger homeworld -Bean, Petra, Crazy Tom and the rest, they too were controlling real life soldiers many light years away? I have trouble thinking out the trickle down effect of those type of manuevers. And finally, indeed what a horror to think that not one human made an effort to communicate with the Formics. I mean math really is the universal language, everyone has to have math no? Some things you just have to accept though.

Here's one of my favorite quotes from the story by Valentine Wiggin.

"Welcome to the human race. No one controls his own life, Ender. The best you can do is choose to fill the roles given to you by good people, by the people who love you."

And finally, In Orson Scott Card's intro he has a paragraph that really stands out to me :

"Why else do we read fiction, anyway? Not to be impressed by somebody's dazzling language- or at least I hope that's not our reason. I think that most of us, anyway, read these stories that we know are not "true" because we're hungry for another kind of truth: The mythic truth about human nature in general, the particular truth about those life-communities that define our own identity, and the most specific truth of all:our own self story. Fiction, because it is not about somebody who actually lived in the real world, always has the possibility of being about oneself."

This paragraph explains to me why so many people like this book. Somehow the majority of readers find something very compelling to identify with in this book. This is probably why the last chapter resonates with me.