I enjoyed this book and am glad I finally read it. Like some of the other novels I have read recently, it was engaging and I wanted to keep reading to find out what happened.
The plot is about a child, the human race, and how the child is trained to save the human race from an interstellar enemy. There is a movie version, and I saw a bit of the ending previously. Like most stories, the good guys win – but it was interesting to see how it got to that point. The majority of the book covers the time when Ender (the child) is going through primary school. Of course, instead of primary school with kids – it’s the military…with kids. The battle simulations that he played were fun to read.
The second half of the story, where he actually grows up and embarks on his mission in life was rather short. After the author spent all that time writing about Ender’s “childhood”, I thought there might be more about the actual war. It’s almost like he had a page limit and had to tell the story within the allocated length.
Although this was a fiction novel, I think it was really interesting how authority (and later Ender) engineered situations and brought out leadership capabilities in talented individuals. I’m sure it wouldn’t work in all situations (i.e., non military ones), but reading techniques with a story is definitely much more interesting than a self help book.
I also found it interesting that while the book was written in 1985 and is science fiction, the idea of the Internet and social networks were fairly accurate!
Hi! and welcome to the eclectic personal blog of Kevin Quan. Come in, stay awhile, peek into the nooks & crannies, and learn a bit about me and my interests.