Ooooooooooh! I'm glad... something that bad shouldn't just disappear.
well he does become the hegemon :)
I find it interesting how the book was written before the internet, but kind of predict the use of computers and internet today (obviously not exactly)
Oh and...... the name for the poor unfortunate 'enemy' got a bit annoying. I didn't like that.
agree, that was my main gripe. When I heard it was sci-fi, teenage boy book I was a bit dubious I would enjoy it. But I did enjoy it, apart from the little things (like above) which kept reminding me it was apparently a book for teenagers.
I read it quite quickly and I'm about 85 pages into the second one. Can't really think what else to say. I'm glad I read it, nice way for me to open my reading horizons and try something new.
hi beads - the next book in the series focuses more on the females of he Ender universe and characters become more fleshed out. The more you read of the ender books, the more they grow as people as well as a maturity that affects the themes and plots. If you enjoyed the first oen I would really recoommend you read Speaker for the Dead.
I didn't think it was overly similar to Harry Potter, claudio, but as Bloaty said, it is older so HP copied Ender's game if anything (and greg has already posted here the author lambasting Rowling for copying him!
I had to pick my copy up from the kids' library :-/ Also it was missing the first 3 pages. But anyway, started it last week and finished v quickly - and because it was on my amazon wishklist, someone has now bought it for me! Oops.
I quite enjoyed it. I have to say, I found it difficult to accept how freakishly intelligent the kids were. I was waiting for some sort of explanation - genetic engineering or something - but no, they just seem to be immensely precocious.
Reading about them being practically tortured and forced to be moulded into military roles was v depressing. I didn't notice the ridiculous lack of female characters until beads pointed it out. i can see why she is irritated that it was the female soldier who broke down. I really enjoyed the computer game, wish there was something like that in real life!
The surprise ending to their final assessment was not something I had anticipated as I was reading it so fast I didn't have time to wonder what was going to happen next!
The ending was a bit limp, it just sort of petered out (no pun intended!). I quite enjoyed the Peter/Valentine contrast, although again their almost demonic precociousness was disturbing.
All in all, quite enjoyed it but then I like sci fi anyway. 8/10.
My thoughts about this book are still rather mixed, even though it’s now two weeks since I finished it.
On the positive side I did actually finish this selection for the book club and am not totally averse to reading more, although it hasn’t appeared on my ever-growing “to read” list.
I was slightly disturbed by the use of such young characters in the story and how they were manipulated. Unfortunately I didn’t think any of the characters were particularly well developed although I suppose there is now a grounding for the future stories. The strongest of all was the interaction between Peter and Valentine although even that wasn’t particularly well written at times.
Any religious overtones went straight over my head although I was speed reading so didn’t really give them chance to grab hold.
One stylistic point annoyed (which may not be the author’s fault); At various points in the book (often at the beginning of chapters) the font was changed to indicate that the adults overseeing the whole thing were now talking. A good author shouldn’t have to resort to such crude methods to indicate a change of scene.
Overall, I liked the storyline but am not too sure about some of the characters which were somewhat wooden and stereotypical.
Would I recommend it? Probably not, but I wouldn’t put people off it either.
I was slightly disturbed by the use of such young characters in the story and how they were manipulated.
You're supposed to be disturbed. It's the main theme of the book - innocence and age.
tuff wrote:
Any religious overtones went straight over my head although I was speed reading so didn’t really give them chance to grab hold.
Why bother reading it in the first place?
tuff wrote:
One stylistic point annoyed (which may not be the author’s fault); At various points in the book (often at the beginning of chapters) the font was changed to indicate that the adults overseeing the whole thing were now talking. A good author shouldn’t have to resort to such crude methods to indicate a change of scene.
You can thank the publishers for that, earlier editions don't do it.
I've read stuff by this author before and have noticed a common theme of two brothers. One is the chosen one, and the elder brother is always evil and mean and jealous of his brother and acts cruelly to him. I wonder if Orson scott Card is trying to work through his personal issues ;)
