Tuesday, December 25, 2012
T’is the Season for Some Reading!
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In stores January 15th |
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In Stores February 5th |
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In Stores February 26th |
Sunday, December 16, 2012
Book Review: Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
Title: Ender’s Game
Author: Orson Scott Card
Publisher: Tor Science Fiction
Publication date: July, 1994
Stand Alone or Series: Series–this is a part of a series.
Softcover: 352 pages
How I got this book: Bought
Why I chose this book: This book has an interesting synopsis and after it was recommended to me I decided to give it a try.
Synopsis:
In order to develop a secure defense against a hostile alien race’s next attack, government agencies breed child geniuses and train them as soldiers. A brilliant young boy, Andrew “Ender” Wiggin lives with his kind but distant parents, his sadistic brother Peter, and the person he loves more than anyone else, his sister Valentine. Peter and Valentine were candidates for the soldier-training program but didn’t make the cut–young Ender is the Wiggin drafted to the orbiting Battle School for rigorous military training.
Ender’s skills make him a leader in school and respected in the Battle Room, where children play at mock battles in zero gravity. Yet growing up in an artificial community of young soldiers, Ender suffers greatly from isolation, rivalry from his peers, pressure from the adult teachers, and an unsettling fear of the alien invaders. His psychological battles include loneliness, fear that he is becoming like the cruel brother he remembers, and fanning the flames of devotion to his beloved sister.
Is Ender the general Earth needs? But Ender is not the only result of the genetic experiments. The war with the Buggers has been raging for a hundred years, and the quest for the perfect general has been underway for almost as long. Ender’s two older siblings are every bit as unusual as he is, but in very different ways. Between the three of them lie the abilities to remake a world. If the world survives, that is.
Review:
All it takes is a look at my bookshelves (or my reviewing history) to see that this book is different than what I usually read and talk about. So I was surprised when I really got pulled into this book. The plot follows Ender Wiggin, a small boy, who has the fate of the world resting on his shoulders. Sounds like a burden, right?
A lot of what this book deals with is political and psychological as you wonder if what the adults are putting through Ender is humane and worthy. Though the setting for the novel is primarily Earth, it is set in the future when space travel is common and there are new technologies and government structures. Card does a fantastic job of taking so many different sub-plots until at the end of the book the reader is completely satisfied with what is given throughout the story. Though the story is a part of a series, it is very possible to be appeased with just this one novel.
I was a little worried near the middle of the book while Ender is in battle school and the plot-line starts to plateau. I started reading slower and even picked up a second book to read at times. However, it is worth it to plow through the slower sections, because overall the book is definitely worth a read.
You can visit Orson Scott Card’s website here: http://www.hatrack.com/
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