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.
