Ender's Game

[Tharkun]

I thought the Library board looked lonely, and some mysterious force has caused me to scour the house for Ender's Game, that I may reread it. It's definitely one of those compulsive-rereading books.

Things that probably don't apply to you first: I find that the comparison of a gouged-out giant eyeball to cottage cheese gives me a feeling comparable to squeezing bubotubers. If you haven't read the book, don't let that put you off it. It's fantastic.

Only the writing style keeps you from throwing the book across the room in despair at a certain point, but that writing style, even in the darkest hour, kept me going, "How is Dragon Team going to win this one?" And the description of the technology and realistic circumstances of world peace and all those smart-yet-childlike children are fantastic. I especially like Dink.

But the best part has to be Demosthenes and Locke. (Oh, sorry, Locke and Demosthenes. But that doesn't have rhythm, dangit.) I mean, have you ever heard of a cooler scheme to take over the world? Cool, cool, cool.

I heard that in the original novella Valentine doesn't even exist. That, friends, is phenomenal editing.

I've read the Shadow series up to Shadow Puppets, and Bean is SUCH a Gary-Stu, but Virlomi and Sister Carlotta make up for it in the first two. Then Petra is transformed into a weepy, fertility-obessed... blech, Carlotta and Virlomi get a lesser role, one way or another, and it kind of goes downhill.

I've heard two things about the Speaker for the Dead trilogy: a) it takes place three thousand years in the future and b) it involves an adult Ender. I assume there are buggers, too, but my basic point is: Huh?

[Christopher]

The Ender/Bean series are one of my favourite sets of books, when Ender finds out the truth I was laughing for several minutes XD

(I have read all of them).

[Cassi]

Chris, you really are strange.

Anyway, as Chris said, the Ender/Bean books are some of my favourite books.

I'm currently rereading Speaker for the Dead. It's hard to explain, but really good. Xenocide and Children of the Mind drag on a bit at times, but they're good too.

[Sock]

That's on a list of ten books I want to read this year. (Required for English, but I did want to read them! ...well, most of them...) So I'll probably be picking it up soonish. It looks good. :3

[Maureen]

I read Ender's Game for English last year. I love it. I want to read the rest of the series, like my brother. Funny thing is, I hate science fiction. -shrug-

[alien]

The Ender/Bean series are one of my favourite sets of books, when Ender finds out the truth I was laughing for several minutes XD

(I have read all of them).

lol, in the first one hes like=| you tricked me ¬.¬ ihateyou! lol i love that book, out of all the books that i have read, that and eragon have to be in the top 3... i havnt read the 2nd one yet tho...

[Riddikulus]

Haha, I just read Ender's Game for the first time a few days ago. I really, really enjoyed it. And I feel I need to stress that, because a few people that I talked to afterwards were under the impression that I disliked it or something. I thought the story was excellent and I especially liked the twist at the end. I also liked the characters and how he gave so many of them such depth. However, I found that there was a distinct lack of physical description so I had a hard time picturing any of the characters or the Battle School (the Battle Room in particular). Maybe I just lack imagination, though. Also, while I understand it's perfectly allowed to write in third person omniscient, it really got on my nerves in this novel. It seemed so much to me like it wanted to focus on Ender but couldn't because Card kept going to that Valentine/Peter side-story.. and that didn't even seem entirely necessary to me. But yes, overall, it was a wonderful book and for the most part I couldn't put it down. I liked it a whole lot and started on Ender's Shadow just the other day.

[Tharkun]

Yeah, I never got a handle on anyone's appearance, except Petra, Peter and Bean. Petra I picture like a female Viktor Krum. Peter looks just like the jerky older brother from Malcolm in the Middle. Bean is black, despite the fact that he is explicitly described as Greek.

[bgryph]

Ender's Game is one of my all-time favorites.

I liked Speaker for the Dead as well, but the last two I found quite dull.

The Shadow series is all right. My major problem with it is that, frankly, I don't really like Bean much. When you don't like a major character, the book sort of falls flat. I do still like Petra (I don't have a problem with how she grw up, really... you don't stay 8 forever) and I think learning more about hw Wiggins and how the Hegemon rose to power is interesting.

Oooh, it looks like another book in the series came out in March and I didn't even notice! Library time...

[endeavourl]

Did the bean series end, or is there going to be another book?