Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Ender's Game

Most Recently Read Book;

Ender's Game

By Orson Scott Card

I love science fiction but I realized while reading this book that I'm a certain kind of science fiction fan really. This book is the first I have read in the science fiction genre about saving the world from an alien invasion. When I ventured over to the science fiction at Barnes and Noble last, I also realized the books there are so not the books I think of when I think of science fiction. I guess I tend to think more on the dystopic-futuristic books versus save-the-world-from-aliens books. Anyway, I'm glad this was the first kind of real, hard-core science fiction I have read. This was a great book. There were times when it seemed to drag for me, but I think that's because I wasn't used to the genre. Overall, this book was completely well written. It was interesting to listen to the author commentary at the end. It made me really appreciate what he did with the book. He pointed out that he doesn't do much description in the book, mostly it's what the character is thinking and dialogue but not lots of description. I think that also was different for me when reading the book.

I can't say that I'll read any of the other books in the series. I think this book actually stands on it's own very well. Most series today are frustrating because you finish the first book and there are so many things left undiscussed that you just have to read the next books. This one, on the other hand, is a complete story all by itself. You can read the other books, but I'm perfectly happy with the end of this book.

Let me briefly tell you a little about this book: Ender's Game is about a boy who is determined to be the right person to command our ships into an enemy attack. Earth has been attacked twice and now we're on the offensive: setting out to destroy this alien life completely. They recruit Ender from the time he is 6 and he spends his childhood in battle school where he is completely challenged in every way possible by his superiors. Does Ender finally save the world? You'll have to read to find out!!! It's a very deep and thought-provoking book about war and peace.

5 comments:

Emily Jane said...

Oh I love good sci fi books - my favs are "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" by Philip K Dick; "The Lathe of Heaven" by Ursula Leguin and, for a laugh, "Only you can save Mankind" by Terry Pratchett - have you read any of those?

Nicole said...

I am generally not a sci fi reader, but I LOVE this book. Some of the books in the series are worth reading (The books about Bean)and there are a couple that were too sci fi.

I love that Ender's game is from the persepective of smart kids. Their reality is very adult, but with somewhat childish emotions.

thekettrickfive said...

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Kathy Lou said...

This is what I mean when I say I need to read more sci-fi. It's not my favorite genre, but I often do enjoy the books when I read them. My hand just doesn't reach for them.

Unknown said...

This was Mike's favorite book as a kid. He was the one who inspired me to read it a couple of years ago and I was surprised that I really enjoyed reading it. It was a total boy book and not something I would normally read, but I still found it so interesting.