Ender’s Game (thoughts)

I read Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game as part of the wonderful Carl’s Sci Fi Experience 2009 (I wrote this review in February, but it got pushed to the back burner-whoops! -Eva) because of Chris. It’s my third Card read, and my first foray into his sci-fi. I also think it’s a great selection for the Sci Fi Experience, since it won both the Hugo and the Nebula awards and is one of those books that even people who don’t read the genre (like myself) have heard of.

I’ve already mentioned my issues with the introduction, so today I’m going to focus on the story itself. It’s written in a no-frills way that focuses on the plot and characters without much worry over style. Not to say it’s poorly written, it’s just that the language itself doesn’t feel important. Like everyone told me, it’s a fast read: pretty short chapters and a fast-moving plot draw you through the book effortlessly.

In the near-future, Card has created a mildly dystopian version of Earth. People are penalised for having more than two children or being religious, and humanity is worried about another invasion of ‘buggers’ (yep: you read that right), which has allowed what seems like a mildly totalitarian government to take over. The book follows Ender, a preternaturally talented child who is taken at age six to a military school, where he’s expected to become the genius general that will finally defeat the buggers (who outnumber humans by a large majority). With this in mind, the military leaders make Ender’s life difficult in the hopes that ‘suffering will make him stronger.’ The reader is constantly watching Ender come up with solutions to new problems and attempting to overcome long odds to finish his military schooling-which mainly consists of role-playing games-successfully. I thought this was the strongest part of the book; it was thrilling to see how Ender handled all of his challenges, and it was always neat to see what the leaders would think of next. While the plot was my favourite part, this is also a book about ideas.

There are several big questions at the heart of Ender’s Game. What is true power, and how do people achieve it? How does society convince certain members that it’s ok to kill? Is the adult-child relationship one of pure manipulation? None of the issues dealt with in the book are cheery, that’s for sure. But I also felt that they didn’t get a truly *fair* exploration. It was quite clear, from the way the book progressed, where Card fell on all of these issues. And I didn’t feel as if I was being allowed any space to make up my own mind, which annoyed me as much as Ender is annoyed by the continual problems his teachers throw at him. And while the whole books revolves around ‘grey’ morality issues, I can’t help thinking of it has a stark, black-and-white moralistic one (I know this doesn’t make sense considering what happens to several of the key characters…but while they deal with moral ambiguity within the novel, it felt to me as if the reader wasn’t really presented with the same dilemmas). Oh, and I had a serious issue with this passage, from a conversation between Ender and the man who runs the military school:

“All boys?”
“A few girls. They don’t often pass the tests to get in. Too many centuries of evolution working against them.”

Pardon my French, but what the hell is that supposed to mean? I know sometimes authors give characters racist or sexist ideas that they themselves don’t believe, but this was almost a throwaway line, and the guy isn’t shown as sexist anywhere else, so it makes me wonder. And then there was this thought by Ender about Petra (the only girl at the school Ender meets):

Petra still looked like a boy, it was a stupid rule.

It just had me confused. Most of the students hang out naked in their common rooms, which is what this is talking about. But even before puberty, a naked girl does NOT look like a naked boy. Topless, sure. But not completely naked. It didn’t bother me the way the earlier dialogue did, but it definitely snapped me out of the story.

Like in many idea-driven books, the characters really suffered. Ender’s the only one that feels like a real human being; while we also occasionally slip into the head of his sister Violet, I didn’t find any of those passages convincing. It’s one of the drawbacks I had with the book; I wasn’t particularly worried if the buggers destroyed Earth, because I didn’t value any of the characters enough to care about their survival (except for Ender).

This review is turning out to be more negative than I expected; while I was actually reading the book, I enjoyed myself (I tend to suspend all disbelief when I’m reading and surrender to the author, unless the writing’s so terrible I can’t handle it). But the more I think critically about it , the more things bother me. The ending felt rushed, and some of the little details (like Ender being a Third in a society that frowns upon more than two children) that grabbed my attention were later dropped. It feels like Card tried to cram too much into the first quarter, later realised what his real focus was, and didn’t bother editing out the extraneous material.

Would I recommend reading this book? Yes, if you’re curious about sci-fi. There’s a reason it’s a modern classic, and it brings up important issues. But at the end of the day, I think it fails to give them the treatment that they deserve. I’m going to read Speaker for the Dead (the sequel), since Chris told me to (hehe), and since Card says in the introduction that this book was all really a set-up for Speaker. I’m glad I read this one, but I definitely haven’t found a new favourite book.

Notable Passage
“Human beings are free except when humanity needs them. Maybe humanity needs you. To do something. Maybe humanity needs me-to find out what you’re good for. We might both do despicable things, Ender, but if humankind survives, then we were good tools.”