Ender's Game

[biodroid]

I assumed its almost like a coming of age series, I kind expected Ender to grow up since Enders Game takes place over a few years of his life. I just need to source it at a bookshop somewhere but all I get is book 3 which is pointless reading 3 then going back to 2. I guess I will have to look at amazon.

 

[bobbo19]

pretty much the first sci-fi book that i ever read and made me fall in love with the genre. Read it at 14 and understood it (very easy going novel) and still one of my favourite's. deserves to be up there amongst the best ever books.

 

[Rodders]

Yes, this is a great book and one of the few titles worthy of the name "Classic". I didn't think too much of the immediate follow ups though and had real trouble sticking with them until the end.

 

[ratsy]

I just finshed Enders Game last night. I had been meaning to read it for years but never got a copy. I was very impressed with the story. Although the twists at the end were a little predictable (well at least the "Final Exam" was), it was a very good read. It almost makes me not want to read the rest of the books and just leave it where it is, but I am sure I will pick them up just because I know they are out there.

 

[Rodders]

I read Ender's game some time ago and was really blown away by it. I wasn't too impressed with the subsequent books though.

 

[KESpires]

I was much more impressed with SPEAKER than with the original.

 

[Patrick Mahon]

I've just read Ender's Game, having meant to do so for a long time - and thoroughly enjoyed it, particularly the psychology of isolating Ender in order to make him rely entirely on his own resources. Very cruel, but also very believable, in context.

 

[Rodders]

Have there been any plans to make this into a film?

 

[littlemissattitude]

Have there been any plans to make this into a film?

Yes. Plans that have been going on for years. I doubt it will ever get made, personally, but you can go to Card's website for any updates. I quit checking ages ago, so I don't know if any real progress has been made recently.

 

[bobbo19]

I love Ender's Game. It was acutally the book that made me start reading SF. Before I read it, I had only read really terrible SF books, and had decided I didn't like that genre. It took a lot of convincing by my friends, but I'm glad I read it! It's a great book, very thought provoking.

Yeah same here. It was my first SF book at 14 years old. Never looked back since!

 

[Vertigo]

I've just finished Ender's game and... ah... I might upset one or two here but here goes...

Firstly I enjoyed it and thought it was very good but I also thought it had serious flaws:

It has been mentioned elsewhere here about the inconsistentcy of building and equipping a fleet of starships despite the apparent prosperity of Earth and I agree. He could have easily made that more believable by simply mentioning a "terrible time of austerity whilst humankind built the starfleet".

With the human race faced with the possibility of invasion and extinction I don't think they would be restricting birth rates in that way.

More though I simply didn't find the bunch of six year old launchies belivable. From the minute they were in the Battle School (though not on the shuttle) they all behaved like and showed the attitudes of young teenagers (Ender included). Yes they were gifted but at that age they simply wouldn't have had enough experience of life for the way they behaved and thought. Also I don't think he needed to use such a young kids. The story would have worked just as well starting with say 12 year olds and been much more believable for me.

I'm also afraid I thought the ending was trite and... SPOILER:
the sudden introduction in the last few pages that the buggers had read his mind and he was all forgiven (how nice!) was one of the worst deus ex machina pieces I have come across.

As I say I thought it was a very good but not as excellent as I had been expecting.

 

[hyperchord24]

I, too found the six-year-olds very unbelievable. I know a six-year-old, and he does not act, talk or think like that. I don't know if it would've been hard to age them up a little bit. The character development is top-notch, if not missplaced.

If anything, it goes to show you what you can get away with as a writer. This novel won the Hugo and the Nebula and the author can't even write a believable 6-year-old?

 

[Parson]

As I say I thought it was a very good but not as excellent as I had been expecting.

This is probably my fault. I said: "Ender's Game is the only SF book I've ever given a 10." which in retrospect has to be the kiss of death. I read the book when I was much younger, probably 30 years ago. I was not nearly as discerning a reader then as I am now. I might change my rating if I were to read it again at my advanced dotage. But it still does shine like a beacon in my mind. I will probably resist re-reading it for just that reason.

 

[Vertigo]

No, no not your fault at all Parson just take a look at this thread for some exceedingly positive views. And I did enjoy it. It is undoubtedly a brilliantly written story, I just felt it had too many holes in it for the praise it has received. Most I got around without any real worry. I couldn't believe in the kids as six year olds (I agree with you completely there Hyperchord24) but I simply didn't think of them as that young; problem solved. The ending though, I had real trouble with, in my opinioin he should have left it at the end of the war. SPOILER the whole let's go off and live happily ever after in a new colony bit was just sugar coated tosh and the Speaker for the Dead business smacked of proselytizing to me. The whole business with his brother's and sister's lives was completely unecessary and contributed nothing to the plot except on the two occasions the sister "helped" Ender.

I know it sounds like I hated it, but I didn't; the whole premise of the book was fascinating and well carried out (depsite the six year old business). Ignoring the six year old stuff and the diversions to his sister and brother. He had me turning the pages. I think I could see where it was going farily early on but he took me there in a compelling well written story.

 

[Parson]

The ending though, I had real trouble with, in my opinion he should have left it at the end of the war. .

I have heard that the reason Ender's Game was written was to provide background for Speaker for the Dead. I'm not sure I put too much stock in that, but it does make sense when you look at the ending part that you had trouble with. A lot of people like Speaker for the Dead and Xenocide better than Ender's Game. I put Speaker for the Dead as significant (it changed the way I do funerals) and Xenocide as good. But my next most favorite OSC book has to be "Songmaster." A book I hear very little about.

 

[P.G.Bell]

It's been very interesting to read everyone's opinions on the Ender series, particularly the disparity in tone and style between some of the volumes. I've just this week finished 'Children of the Mind' and am still a little undecided about whether or not I really enjoyed it. While it's by no means a bad book, it left me feeling a little flat. Perhaps it was the lack of Ender himself and the rather cursory (almost offhand) way in which he "died". Call me sentimental, but I think the old boy deserved a bigger send off.

The real trouble with "Children of the Mind' though, was that it definitely felt like an appendix to 'Xenocide', which was a book I really struggled with. It tackled some hugley interesting and very deep subject matter but, after the toned and trim pace of the first two books, it felt terribly flabby and introspective.

Maybe it was just the change in tone that threw me. Either way, I'm looking forward to moving on to the Shadow saga.

 

[Vertigo]

I was reading some stuff written by Card about the writing of this series it makes quite interesting reading. Apparently (and as I say from his own mouth)...

The first Enders Game was a 'novelet'.

The original idea for The Speaker for the Dead had nothing to do with Ender, but after he stared work on it he decided to make it about Ender. This required that he first rewrite Ender's Game as a full novel that would lead into TSFTD. The publishers agreed and so he did that first.

Before he had finished TSFTD his agent triumphantly informed him that she had sold the Ender trilogy to a British publishing house. "But there are only two books!" "Oh!". So he decided to add a third book; Xenocide. He comments that he was reasonably happy to do this as he hadn't figured out what to do with a couple of loose ends (the Hive queen and the Starways Congress fleet - kind of big loose ends I would have said).

So Xenocide came to be. Only he couldn't get it all into one book and it spilled over into a second; Children of the Mind.

With a history like that I guess it is inevitable that it got a bit choppy!

 

[gully_foyle]

Yes. Plans that have been going on for years. I doubt it will ever get made, personally, but you can go to Card's website for any updates. I quit checking ages ago, so I don't know if any real progress has been made recently.

Maybe it will....
http://www.imdb.com/news/ni19903485/

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Very interesting; I wonder who gets to play Ender. This I'd definitely go to see!

 

[Boneman]

I bet they don't call the invaders the Buggers, though....