Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
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Book Summary Author: Orson Scott Card Brand: Books Edition: Paperback Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published) Published: 2002-02-18 ISBN: 0765342294 Number of pages: 336 Publisher: Starscape Product features:
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| Collectible | Collectible Usually ships in 1-2 business days | $3.50 |
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Book Reviews of the Ender's Game
Customer Review: Meh.
Summary: 1 Stars
I think "Ender's Game" is one of the most overrated books I've ever read. Style of writing aside, there was so little I liked about this book that I'm amazed how many people act like it was life changing.
Most critical reviews focus on the unrealistic elements of the story. I agree, and I think it hurts the story a lot. Ender is too smart for suspense. Nothing challenged him. He never failed. Sure Card makes it seem as though he's struggling with acceptance and fear of other kids, but his situation didn't reinforce these thoughts, and you knew from the get-go that he'd have no problem figuring out what to do. A story where the protagonist never fails is boring. It would have been much more engaging if he'd struggled and lost in the battle room a few times, and it wouldn't have hurt the image of him as a super genius since he was contesting other geniuses with maturity and experience advantage.
Ender's extreme intelligence also made him unrelateable. I didn't feel a connection to him because I'm not a genius and I know it. I feel like people who think they relate to Ender are kidding themselves (exception being military personnel who relate to basic training). I only know of a few people in history who could honestly say they understand Ender, they would be Alexander the Great, Einstein, and the other anomalies who's brilliance defies logic. The fifteen year old who wins at Warcraft on the internet every day and thinks that makes him a genius can't claim any real bond with a character like Ender and should stop kidding himself. And if you were hated for being a teacher's pet, remember that you chose that for yourself, Ender was singled out against his will. For those of us who actually fail every once in a while at anything, Ender is like some mythical god.
When I realized the ending that Card was building toward I thought there was no way he'd really do that. I was wrong, it was exactly as predicted with even less of a payoff than I could have envisioned. No rising action, and if you didn't predict what would happen, the climax happens before you even realize it's coming. Aweful.
Peter's little political coup was terrible. The entire chapter could have been replaced with one sentence..."The children were so genius that they decided to make themselves into the most world's powerful political figures using the internet." That and it doesn't relate to the plot at all. Had I known that I would have just skipped that absurdly long chapter.
In short, for a book with a highly unrealistic and essentially boring character, weak plot, no rising conflict or climax, and a giant chunk of wasted paper, this book gets way too much praise. I don't recommend it to anyone over the age of thirteen.