Friday, May 09, 2008
Ender's Game
by Orson Scott Card
This is a good book, despite the fact that it has one of the plot elements I loathe--the gifted child. (In fact there's more than one gifted child in the tale.) In this future time, humanity has twice been attacked by the insectoid race referred to as "Buggers". The only reason they survived the second invasion was by the brilliance of a single commander, who in a single battle managed to decimate the alien fleet. So now, years later, the leaders of Earth's space fleet are looking for the next commander who might enable Earth's survival of the third invasion. Children are monitored from an early age to determine those who might have the necessary potential, and the likely candidates are drafted into military academies for further training and evaluation. Ender Wiggen is a six year old boy whom the monitors consider the prime candidate to be humanity's savior. The book follows Ender's journey through Battle and Command Schools as he is pressed and molded into command material. It's a fascinating tale, with an interesting cast. Mr. Card has endowed his child prodigies with enough character to almost make me forget that they're @#$%^ wunderkinder. On the down side, the fact that the soldiers in the book are kids does give the tale a creepy edge. Also, I found some aspects of the end to be disappointing. Whether it's because they didn't seem well developed or because they conflict with my worldview, I don't know. Still, it made for quite an enjoyable read.
Check it out!
LibraryThing link
This is a good book, despite the fact that it has one of the plot elements I loathe--the gifted child. (In fact there's more than one gifted child in the tale.) In this future time, humanity has twice been attacked by the insectoid race referred to as "Buggers". The only reason they survived the second invasion was by the brilliance of a single commander, who in a single battle managed to decimate the alien fleet. So now, years later, the leaders of Earth's space fleet are looking for the next commander who might enable Earth's survival of the third invasion. Children are monitored from an early age to determine those who might have the necessary potential, and the likely candidates are drafted into military academies for further training and evaluation. Ender Wiggen is a six year old boy whom the monitors consider the prime candidate to be humanity's savior. The book follows Ender's journey through Battle and Command Schools as he is pressed and molded into command material. It's a fascinating tale, with an interesting cast. Mr. Card has endowed his child prodigies with enough character to almost make me forget that they're @#$%^ wunderkinder. On the down side, the fact that the soldiers in the book are kids does give the tale a creepy edge. Also, I found some aspects of the end to be disappointing. Whether it's because they didn't seem well developed or because they conflict with my worldview, I don't know. Still, it made for quite an enjoyable read.
Check it out!
LibraryThing link
Labels: CheckItOut
// posted by John @ 9:07 PM 
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