Ender's Game review

[alobear]

I couldn't remember much about Ender's Game (by Orson Scott Card) when I started reading it again a couple of days ago, but it felt quite familiar as I went along.  It's extremely well written but desperately sad - as well as an interesting discussion of what it means to be a child and what it means to be a killer.  I loved all the battleroom sections, seeing how Ender worked out how to respond to all the different types of challenges.  I also liked the fact that it wasn't entirely from Ender's point of view - the conversations between the teachers at the start of each chapter, and the side plot about his brother and sister back on Earth gave some effective varied perspectives, and stopped the story form being too insular.  They also added a great deal more pathos in demonstrating how other people felt about Ender, even though they were unable to reveal those feelings to him.  I wasn't too sure about the ending - I could see what Card was trying to do, and it worked to a certain extent; it was just impossible to imagine Ender as an adult (despite his intelligence and maturity throughout) because his youth had been emphasised to such a degree for the preceding 300 pages.  Overall, a very good book, though I remember the subsequent volumes in the series being very different and gradually getting weirder and less enjoyable.