I legitimately enjoyed Ender’s Game. I don’t know why that has been such a rare occurrence lately. Perhaps I’m getting smarter and realizing that authors aren’t gods, they’re just people who wrote something down. Ender’s Game, albeit not the work of a god, was wonderfully captivating. I loved the concept of fighting the buggers using children, although I never quite realized why that was necessary. I understand the necessity of training the kids all their lives for the battles, but are their reflexes really that much faster? I didn’t buy it. I suppose they may have been hoping to find their commander sooner, so he could grow up before he had to fight. But they probably could have slowed down their ships if necessary.
I know enough about science to know that most of the space travel stuff was terribly unreasonable, but that didn’t stop it from being fun. I think what I liked most about the book was how it came full circle. His first fight, where he beat up the kid and then kicked him until he died, to win all future battles- that was all foreshadowing. I really love foreshadowing. I love when you reach the end of a book, and you realize it couldn’t have ended any other way. If I get to the end of a book and just start thinking of better endings, the book seems even less godly and more like a muddled up pile of words. I wish Ender’s Game has been a little more streamlined though. I would have liked to see it end right after the last battle instead of giving us some details of their lives after the war. I want to image Ender forever as the young commander who defeated the buggers against his will, not as a 20-something on some other planet. With that ending, he is no longer immortal. Also, Ender’s relationship with Valentine creeped me out. Brother/ sister relationships aren’t supposed to be that passionate, unless I’m doing it way wrong. Actually, I think Ender’s siblings did more to take away from the story than add to it. Ender being a third made him slightly more of an outcast, but not enough to add to the plot. And the side plot of the two siblings controlling the world back home didn’t really develop into anything impactful.
Okay so I guess there are some things I would have changed. Overall though, it was a good and entertaining read that also made me think. What more can you ask for?