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Review Features
S - Science Fiction
F - Fantasy
H - Horror
Complete Listing
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Adams, Douglas (S)
Asher, Neal (S)
Aylett, Steve (S)
Banks, Iain M (S)
Barclay, James (F)
Barker, Clive (H)
Baxter, Stephen (S)
Brin, David (S)
Bury, Stephen (S)
Card, Orson Scott (S)
Cherryh, CJ (S/F)
Clute, John (S)
Cockayne, Steve (F)
Cook, Glen (F)
Danielewski, Mark (H)
Dick, Philip K (S)
Egan, Greg (S)
Feist, Raymond (F)
Gaiman, Neil (F)
Gibson, William (S)
Goodkind, Terry (F)
Grimwood, Jon C (S)
Hamilton, Peter (S)
Jeter, K.W. (S)
Jordan, Robert (F)
Lethem, Jonathan (S)
McAuley, Paul (S)
MacLeod, Ken (S)
Martin, George RR (F)
McMullen, Sean (S)
Miéville, China (S)
Moran, Daniel K (S)
Morgan, Richard K (S)
Nagata, Linda (S)
Niven, Larry (S)
Noon, Jeff (S)
Robinson, Kim S. (S)
Rucker, Rudy (S)
Simmons, Dan (S)
Smith, Michael Marshall (S)
Stephenson, Neal (S)
Sterling, Bruce (S)
Vinge, Vernor (S)
Westerfeld, Scott (S)
Williams, Sean (S)
Williams, Tad (S/F)
Collections (S/F)
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| The Classics |
Bradbury, Ray (S/H)
Burgess, Anthony (S)
Tolkien, JRR (F) |
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| Orsen Scott Card |
| Author Information |
Reviewed Books |
Other Books |
Notes: (E) - Ender's Game Series
(H) - Homecoming Series |
Ender's Game
(E) |
Children of the Mind (E) (Coming)
Speaker for the Dead (E)
Wyrms
Treason
Xenocide (E)
The Memory of Earth (H)
The Call of Earth (H)
The Ships of Earth (H)
Children of the Mind (E) |
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 Our
Ranking I know I'm going against the norm on the
opinion. Everyone that I know that has read this has sworn by it, claiming it
changed their lives or was the best science fiction book they've ever read. The
book even won both the Nebula and Hugo award so I went into this figuring it had
to be good. Instead, I found myself disappointed throughout most of the book.
This isn't a bad book, it was a pretty enjoyable read for most of it, but I still
can't see why this is so acclaimed. In a nutshell, mankind is being threatened
by a more powerful alien race who has been winning the war against humanity. In
a last ditch effort, the powers that be begin breeding child geniuses for the
war effort, training them from birth to be the generals of the future. One in
particular, Ender, stands out and looks to be mankind's only real shot at defeating
the aliens. The book mostly centers around his training where he is subjected
to the cruelties of his other child peers as well as the fierce competition of
the training base itself. Card does a pretty good job describing the children
and how they would respond to this kind of circumstance. The leaders of the base
encourage the competition and it becomes brutal, especially since all the children
are all geniuses breed for this sort of behavior. Along with that, some of the
games/training exercises are very amusing. Card does a good job showing Ender
and the other children develop, and slowly assume the semblance of military leadership.
The characters are pretty well developed, but nothing spectacular. Most of the
behavior is fairly predictable, being kids there are the bullies and the smaller
kids that are picked upon. Ender happens to be one of the smaller kids, and his
reactions to the bullying are just as predictable. Where I felt the book began
to fall apart were the computer trainings where Ender was supposedly becoming
the greatest hope. I never found these sequences to be exciting or even anything
that displayed the child's genius. Then came the ending, which left me feeling
pretty cheated and aggravated. It was predictable enough that I didn't think Card
would even bother, but he did. The ending is more or less what completely ruined
the book for me. I only recommend the book because so many people seem to love
it that I could be wrong, and like I said I didn't hate the book, just didn't
love it. |
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