Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

One thing I've noticed about sci-fi books is that they have a tendency to get analysed a lot more than the average bestseller. People seem to love to analyse the crap out of sci-fi in a way that simply doesn't happen with other genres, with everything being an allegory for something else. Ender's Game has suffered from this somewhat, particularly when considering the questionable views of its author. I however believe that you should judge a book solely on its own merits so I shall avoid discussing any potential 'hidden messages' and instead focus on reviewing the book simply as a book.

In a nutshell, this is a book about children being trained for war using advance computer simulations. Really though it's a story about Ender and the way he is broken down and manipulated to become the perfect soldier.

It's hard to describe how I feel about this book. Most of my problems with it come from general problems I have with this particular genre rather than problems specific to the book itself. There's a lot of politics in this as well as a lot of description about the futuristic setting. Some of it is interesting, a lot of it isn't, but it's well-written and not as bad as in some other cases. The general tale is very compelling and the clinical style in which it's written fits the character of Ender perfectly. I had mixed feelings about the subplot with Ender's siblings but ultimately I think I enjoyed it due to how interesting I found their characters.

Before I started reading this book, I'd heard a lot of fuss about the ending. I'm ashamed to say I didn't see the twist coming (although it was fairly obvious in hindsight) but it also wasn't as big a twist as I was expecting based on the hype. I felt that the book maybe carried on too long after its climax but at the same time, I did enjoy reading about the stuff that happened afterwards so I can't really fault it for that.

I'm aware I'm being a bit vague in this review but as I said, I can't quite sort out my feelings about it. Strengths-it's a solid sci-fi book with strong themes, reasonably strong characters and it will definitely provoke thoughts/feelings in its readers. Weaknesses-some parts are just so weird that they seem disjointed and other parts tend to be dull. Overall, I did enjoy Ender's Game and I'm glad I read it. Would I read it again? Probably not for a very long time. Should you read it? If you enjoy sci-fi, then yes. Definitely.

Overall Score:

.5