Apparently, they are just going to make every single book into a movie
now. That's okay. As long as you know the movie is coming out in time to
read the book first.
***SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT!***
So here's an embarrassing story. You were first turned on to this book because you saw a preview for the movie. Well, that part isn't so embarrassing. What is embarrassing is that you saw the preview and misread the caption and thought is was just a baddass trailer for cool sci-fi book. "That is awesome!" you yelled when you saw that. "I hope this is a new thing," you said, "Spending lots of money on glossy, super high def trailers for books, not just movies!"
Yeah.
No.
You're an idiot. The book was written in 1985 (although the short story that it was based on was published in '77). The preview you saw was for the actual movie and you were just confused. Oh well. You got a fantastic book out of your mistake so no harm, no foul.
You've never read any of Card's stuff before, but he has a large body of work. His recent stupid remarks on gay marriage didn't keep you from reading his book. You've never had a problem listening to the opinions of people even when you disagree with those people on other issues. In fact, you've always been of the opinion that if you never listen to the people you disagree with, you can't really disagree with them. It's why you listen to Rush Limbaugh and Rachel Maddow and Alex Jones. Listening to all three helps you figure out where you stand on certain issues. If you can't figure out why you don't agree with one of them, maybe you don't know as much about the issue as you thought. Even better, maybe you're wrong. And sometimes you can even find yourself agreeing with someone on certain issues, even when you've never seen anything else eye to eye.
In short, Card's opinion on same sex marriage has no affect on his ability to write a fantastic sci-fi novel. And that's what "Ender's Game" is. Fantastic. Another one that you just couldn't put down.
The bulk of "Ender's Game" follows the life of a gifted child named Ender Wiggin, six when the story begins, as he is honed and trained to become a commander in a looming war against an insectoid alien enemy. Humanity was only saved from utter annihilation in the last alien war by the skin of its teeth, and the Powers That Be don't intend to let luck be the deciding factor in the next close encounter. The political reality on Earth is deep into an alternate future where the Cold War is still sort of being played out, and organized religion is frowned upon. Spouses are only allowed to have as many children as their governments allow. The citizens of all the nations of Earth have joined together to resist the "bugger" invasion, but those alliances are more fragile than anyone realizes.
But high above the political squabbles of the Earth, Ender Wiggin attends an orbiting Battle School, where he learns to navigate and fight in three dimensions. He is an extraordinarily quick study, having been selected for this duty by his off-the-charts aptitude for strategy, and empathy. Strategy and battle smarts without compassion and empathy are just a recipe for psychopathic tendencies. Humanity doesn't need more psychopaths. Ender's siblings left back on Earth can testify to this truth. Ender excels at everything he does at Battle School, infuriating some and inspiring others. He finds he is capable of more than he ever wanted to know.
"Ender's Game" moves quickly and without indulging in the painstaking detail of other fantasy novels. Card allows your own imagination to fill in the gaps he leaves. That's one of the things you don't like about movies adapted from books. A movie, however dazzling, is only ever one perspective of a story that was intended to allow for infinite possible interpretations, for endlessly varied imaginings of the same tale. Even though Card's clairvoyance for future technologies is uncanny (the kids log on to world wide information "Webs" and carry around their touch screen "desks," which we call "tablets" today, with them everywhere they go) he leaves the specifics to be fleshed out in your own mind, giving you just enough to let your imagination go wild. Man, you love it when authors do that.
The book explores the concepts of leadership (for good or otherwise) and the curious ethics of a culture that allows their children to be sacrificed on the altar of war whenever it is deemed necessary. It also dives into questions of morality without any heavy-handed obviousness. It makes sense that some children should die and kill others in order for a species to continue its existence, but that's not what any war in human history has been. As effective as our propaganda machines have been, no war has ever been fought to preserve the entire human race. In fact, at this point, if one of our wars gets too out of hand, it could result in the destruction of all life itself. Where is the line there? What is moral in warfare and what is not?
"Ender's Game" is as psychological as it is sci-fi. Ender is able to quickly sum up people and alter his behavior accordingly, like we all do. But the way Card writes these moments is intriguing. He brings clarity to that murky reality that describes how humans are often capable of intuitively anticipating a far distant end result and instantly adjust to either allow or resist that same result from coming to fruition. Card left you thinking, "Yeah... We do judge people like that sometimes, don't we? What is that instinct that enables that?" Ender knows that he is being used for something important, but it doesn't mean he has to enjoy it. His dreams reveal his moral dilemma in being used as a weapon and also a longing for the comforts of the presence of people who love him unconditionally. As childishly honest as he is, Ender knows he can't allow himself to make friends. But his soldiers come to love him anyway. His dreams reveal his moral dilemma in being used as a weapon and a longing for the comforts of the presence of people who love him unconditionally.
This was another book you just could not bring yourself to stop reading.
What is it with novels as opposed to non-fiction? You can become immersed in the story of a great non-fiction book, but it almost never grabs you like a great novel. It must be because you almost always already know how the non-fiction one ends, so you are free to savor the story and dive deep, indulging in the analysis. Whereas with a novel, you become so addicted to the story itself that you aren't nearly as worried about analyzing as much as simply finding out what will happen. Allowing yourself to enjoy the ride.
But as good as the main body of the book was, the ending was far better. It left you with the nagging doubts that most fictionalized war stories tend to forget. What if the wars we choose to fight are all really over some tragic misunderstanding? What if the fights we choose are not necessary? How can we ever know that we are communicating clearly enough to ever think that any war is justified? Can we ever be truly satisfied that we own the moral high ground? How much of a role should forgiveness and grace play in our international (or interstellar) affairs? How can empathy help us as a people, how can it hurt us? How can two cultures, as different as aliens must be from one another, by definition, ever hope to be able to communicate?
In the end, whether it is defeating your enemy on the field of battle, or forgiving them of the atrocities they committed, it all comes down to you learning how to genuinely understand their culture and the way they think. "Ender's Game" helped you begin to understand your own culture a little bit better than you did before. For that, you were grateful.
On to the next book!
P.S. Oh, who am I kidding? Here are a couple clips from the movie that's coming out in a few months.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vP0cUBi4hwE
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