6.5/10
+Excellent fighting scenes that are described well
-Formations are very poorly written, making it difficult to visualize
-Mixture of short and long chapters
+Strong character development
+Several themes are present
A confession is in order before I delve into the review: this marks my third time reading Ender’s Game, and I am actually teaching this novel to my grade 7 class. Upon a first reading, I immensely enjoyed the book. The second time leveled off to a “meh,” and now that I am teaching it (for the second time), I am struggling to stay engaged with the writer’s words. Does reading a book three times constitute a sudden shift in interest? I thought I loved this book (at some point)!
Ender develops as a character through all the conflicts he faces. The most moving section of the book, for me, occurs in chapter 1. After an event, Ender struggles against himself. He believes that “I am just like Peter. Take away my monitor, and I am just like Peter.” If you want to know who Peter is, and what a Monitor is, you’ll have to read the book!
Without spoiling, I can safely say that the fighting scenes in this book are very well written. Orson Scott Card engages my senses as reader, and isn’t afraid to splatter blood on the wall! My type of book; very riveting. The problem is that the fight scenes are far and deeply separated by pages of exposition, and other confusing wordings that make journeying through this book seem like a job.
Any time Card tries to describe null gravity, or the formations that take place in the battle room, I find my mind swimming with confusion. It is impossible for me to decipher how the soldiers are formatting themselves in null gravity. Here’s a section that leaves me boggled:
“Ender motioned for them all to back away from the door. Then he pulled foreward a few of the taller boys, including crazy Tom, and made them kneel, not squatting back to sit on their heels, but fully upright, so they formed an L with their bodies.”
This section gave me a headache! Card was trying to illustrate an image in my cogs, but fails.
Themes are prevalent in this book, making it–somewhat– a useful tool to teach literature to middle school students. Bullying, leadership, creativity/innovation, strategy, justification of violence, and humanity vs inhumanity are all themes that slap this book on it’s pages.At face value, these themes ring true to the bare bone, but some are easier to decipher than others. Bullying is definitely more prevalent in this text, than, lets say, the justification of violence. Card’s Ender’s Game did not lose points for weighing themes more heavily.
Card certainly flexes his ability to develop a character; this is a facet where I commend his writing. Ender develops as a character through all the conflicts he faces. The most moving section of the book, for me, occurs in chapter 1. After an event, Ender struggles against himself. He believes that “I am just like Peter. Take away my monitor, and I am just like Peter.” If you want to know who Peter is, and what a Monitor is, you’ll have to read the book! The character development saved this book from a scathing review.
Structurally, chapters in this book start off short, but become longer, longer, and then even longer. Lines are plopped in logical positions to help divide elongated chapters, but, at times, chapters seem to drag on and on. One particular chapter, Locke and Demethesis, was dry to no end.
I feel strongly that Scott Orson Card crammed too much into a single book. He could have focused on Ender’s life in Battle school, and forgone the happenings on earth in this volume. Several subplots, combined with Card’s confusing writing style, make this title a tiresome and elongated read. Speaker for the Dead (the second book in the series) will not be downloaded on my Kindle. Unfortunately, I will be removing it from my reading list; I don’t like reading a sci-fi that struggles to put images in my head.
Odd. I found that segment about preparing for the battle extremely clear. But I do agree than many of the battle room descriptions leave a lot to be desired. I think he might have been taking on too much in trying to describe such a complex of movement.
Also agree that he overdoes the exposition. I just finished rereading Ender’s Shadow and that’s even more heavily overloaded with exposition. As a result, the book doesn’t have nearly the emotional impact of EG.
Still, Ender’s Game is one of my favorite SF novels, and I’m 81. I tend to be somewhat ambivalent about teaching such books in school. For one thing, EG wasn’t written for children, so the sections about Locke and Demosthenes aren’t at all out of place. The political situation on earth is important, and is pursued further in Ender’s Shadow, but it’s definitely going to be boring and dry for most 7th graders. Also, kids generally get turned off forever from books that they’ve had to “study” in school. I believe books like EG should be “discovered,” at whatever age the child or adolescent is ready for it, rather than have it inflicted as something to be studied, learned, and either tested on or forced to write a paper for which they aren’t intellectually prepared.
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Lovely commentary! Thank you for sharing your opinion.
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Planned to respond to your comment, and just found some time to do so now. Here’s the meat:
Yes, you are right, Ender’s Game was not written for children, but that does not mean an educator cannot teach the book to middle school students. Concepts and themes in this text relate to adolescents. The idea of being isolated, having strategy in a game, being creative are all relateable themes for emerging teens. In my opinion, we cannot just use material that is geared towards children to teach, our students are capable, and they are intellectually prepared to discuss EG.
I respectfully disagree with some of your commentary, but I do love discussion!
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Oh, absolutely, the themes are very relevant to adolescents. Even though I was an adult when I first came across Ender’s Game (and married, with children of my own) I related to it on many levels, but mostly to Ender himself. Still do, in fact. If you can enhance your students’ enjoyment and understanding of the book, rather than turn them off it, more power to you. Not every teacher is capable of that, I’m afraid. The political framework may be beyond the students at this point in their lives, at least as far as their interest is concerned, but the basic story certainly isn’t. I read a few reviews of the movie and don’t remember any mention of Locke and Demosthenes, so I imagine the politics were either downplayed or left out entirely.
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