Space Opera Fans discussion

The March 2018 READER pick is Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. Please use this thread to post questions, comments, and reviews, at any time.

Official description:
Ender's Game is a 1985 military science fiction novel by American author Orson Scott Card. Set in Earth's future, the novel presents an imperiled mankind after two conflicts with the "buggers", an insectoid alien species. In preparation for an anticipated third invasion, children, including the novel's protagonist, Ender Wiggin, are trained from a very young age through increasingly difficult games including some in zero gravity, where Ender's tactical genius is revealed.

I look forward to rereading this in March. I have read it many times but not recently. I can remember reading the original shorter version when it was published in Analog.

The main character is a child, and some high schools include this book in the curriculum, but it was not written for children. There's a lot of violence, and not just against the buggers. There's also some creative tactics and moral issues.

There are sequels and concurrent novels, and not all of them are military stories. It's not a set of books were there is a clear order of reading. This one and Ender's Shadow are my favorites of the set, but I haven't read any of the books after Shadows in Flight.

I really liked this book when I read it years ago. And I liked the next in the series, Speaker for the Dead, even better. The third one, Xenocide, was okay, but not great. I haven't read any of the Shadow series, which is apparently a spinoff of the Ender series. I tried The Memory of Earth and didn't care for it. Haven't tried anything else by Card since that. I'm one of those readers who has been put off by Card's personal philosophy. I find his toxic homophobia to be so off-putting that I'm just not interested in reading any more of his books. At the same time, I can acknowledge that Ender's Game was a very good, innovative book.

I thought the short story was superior to the book. As Jack L. Chalker once said, “Turning a short story into a novel merely makes it longer.”

I’m with Betsy about Card — he is a despicable human being who deserves no more attention. He has caused real pain and suffering to innocent people merely because they are different from him. Some real talk: The sooner disgusting people like him die the better off this world will be.

Please attempt to keep this thread on the topic of the book. The book is not the author, and vice versa.

I enjoyed the book, but I didn't think it was fantastic. Well written, with one major twist, but otherwise just a good YA space opera.

Teresa wrote: "Please attempt to keep this thread on the topic of the book. The book is not the author, and vice versa."

I'm sorry, Teresa, but I consider that unacceptable censorship. My decision about whether to read a book usually relies solely on the book, but only because I don't know much about the author. When I do, and it affects my choice, I believe I should be able to share that opinion. I will try to keep my comments civilized and respectful, but I will not be censored.

And I believe, the book IS the author and the author IS the book.

Betsy, I was not concerned about your comment. Trike's seemed to me to be heading us off in a direction that would be detrimental to the health of this group. I didn't think it was enough to require deletion of the comment, but I wanted to put the brakes on it.

This group is not a political forum. A civil comment about why you chose not to read the book is fine. Please everyone, keep it polite, or just skip this thread.

Teresa wrote: "Betsy, I was not concerned about your comment. Trike's seemed to me to be heading us off in a direction that would be detrimental to the health of this group. I didn't think it was enough to requir..."

I can agree with you on that. Violence or the advocacy of violence is not acceptable.

I read Ender's Game many years ago, and the sequels. I never understood why so many people were enthralled with it. it is also one of the few books my son voluntarily read, as it sits on my shelf from my purchase 25 years or more ago.

I did not know about Card's position on same-sex relationships. Knowing it now, I wouldn't buy his books. But, he didn't interest me enough to buy his books before this.

As to whether such issues are poltical, I think they are more than that, especially in science fiction. I recently read Zen DiPietro's Dragonfire Station series. I wrote her an email because it stood out to me how she treated non-hetero relationships so matter of factly. Some sci fi concentrates on it, some seems embarrassed by their own scenes.

To me, one of the joys of sci fi is that it presents things that were no mainstream at the time the book was written. How sci fi authors act and treat their own books in regards to sexuality, gender and the relationships between characters is just as important as the theme of how we treat AIs.

Betsy wrote: "Teresa wrote: "Please attempt to keep this thread on the topic of the book. The book is not the author, and vice versa."

I'm sorry, Teresa, but I consider that unacceptable censorship. My decision..."

I have to agree with Teresa that if we are having a discussion on a book, controversy over the author should be left out of it.

It's not censorship, we're just discussing the book and not the merits of the authors religion.

Censorship would be, for instance, banning the book because you don't agree with the author. Therein perhaps lies some irony.

Lots of great artists had despicable beliefs, or beliefs that might offend modern sensibilities.

Surely we should not ban Shakespeare from our schools because he was an anti-semite, and Othello originally involved blackface! And surely Mozarts music is no less beautiful, despite his infamous canon, "Leck mich in arse" being full of gross sentiment.

With regards to this book, I thoroughly enjoyed it when I read it,
However, looking back on the storyline with a bit more critical eye, I'm not sure I'd put it on my list of must read books.

First off, it's a bit interesting that in the war with the bug aliens the solution is to find a kid with the best tactical mind, and make him a general.

But of course you don't want to traumatize the kid, so you tell him it's all just a big video game. And because he's good with video games, he'll beat the war.

And you want the kid to be vicious, so you goad him and a bully, and put them in an explosive situation, looking the other way when the kid kills his bully.

So, I guess while I followed the story at the time, it all kind of falls apart when looking at it after the fact. It's creative in some respects (for instance, I like the way of thinking about zero G tactics), but it's also kind of silly.

I'm glad I read it, but I wouldn't read it again.

The original short story was published in Analog in 1977, according to Wikipedia. It's quite possible that the reason I liked the novel was because I read the short story while still in college. I was devouring SF at that time, with a very limited budget for buying it (both in 77 and 88 when I got the novel).

What impressed me most about the short story were the creative tactics. I particularly liked Bean and his rope that was used to change his direction by magic as far as the opponents could see, and the times they purposely froze team members to form shields.

The novel was published in 1985. The writing was more mature, and there were a lot more details about what was going on elsewhere. I do think I prefer the short story, but I'm a sucker for creative tactics.

Ender's Shadow is even more dystopian, but does have a happy ending. It takes place at the same time as Ender's Game, but the main POV is Bean.

Maybe one reason this story was so popular is that it was very unusual at a time when a lot of science fiction was very similar in plot and tone. I read the book before I learned about Card's political views, and I enjoyed it. But I find that I have no desire to reread it, even apart from my antipathy for the author. It depended a lot on surprise, I think. Part of what Teresa calls creative tactics. I might someday reread Speaker for the Dead, which I think dealt with more enduring and everyday issues, with some interesting ideas.

I read this book in junior high or high school. I was not a very critical reader then (and still am not too much of one now), so the surprise near the end worked very well on me. Even without that, the story is extremely memorable. I wouldn't call it great or a must-read, but it holds up in a lot of ways, much better than the pulp-type stories of the 1940s-1950s.

I just finished reading it for the second time, and enjoyed it. I found I didn't have that much of a problem accepting the premise; maybe having already read the book as a teenager helped. I do think it relies too much on the "Great Men" model of history though.

There's not much YA sci-fi that I find to be good, but this was one of my favorites. The buggers kinda reminded me of Starship Troopers in that you have no interest in not killing the aliens. I found it an engaging read.

I read another book in the series and found it to mystical or something. Just didn't work for me. But I think the first book is a good stand-alone.

I didn't like the movie at all, really.

Without the the element of surprise in the end of the war reveal and knowing some of the "Bugger" side of the story from reading the sequels, this reread (listen) lost some of the luster of my first read of this story. It was still an enjoyable 4 star book but I probably won;t read this one again.