Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
My rating: 4/5 cats
ender’s game is pretty awesome, when it’s not being boring.
and of course it is just me—in class yesterday the parts i mentioned as being boring TO ME were other people’s favorite parts. and this is all due to a design flaw in me: i am physically incapable of visualizing action sequences. in movies, they make it so easy. in books, i frequently have to reread scenes a few times before i can orient myself. throw in zero gravity and weapons that don’t actually exist, and i am loster than lost.
but—the parts of this that are good (to me) were very very good. why have i never read this before?? because i thought it was a total little boy book—all outer space and video games. and it is. but it is also about the formative years of a military savant—pushed nearly beyond his endurance into this pit of loneliness and pure strategy and honed into a killing machine. usually i hate precocity, but this was just brilliant. i liked so many of the characters, i loved watching ender progress, i just loved every minute of it. and even the parts i couldn’t wrap dumbhead around, they were still fast-paced, even though i couldn’t understand “wait, so who is hiding behind the star?? and who has been flashed? and what does that cord attach to??”
and of course, all that it has to say about the role of ethics on the military and about the suppression of the individual in these circumstances is gorgeous.
and if you like this book, be sure to check out o.s.c’s many review of snacks and other sundries:
this one is pretty informative
i am sorry this review is crap, but i am supposed to be studying for a midterm. plus, almost everyone has already read this, so it’s not like i am discovering anything here.
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