4 ms·

If you haven't read the book first, DO SO, it is worth it.

by deletes 13y ago

baldfat 13y ago
I also don't know how the ending could be half as good as the book? Also I feel like I spoil the whole thing by saying the ending is good because when you read it with that knowledge you might get let down. Strange the BEST ending totally ruined by having an expectation of a awesome ending.
nodata 13y ago
I don't agree. I think if I'd read the book as a teenager, I would have loved it. As an adult reading the book for the first time, it's nothing special.
- moron4hire 13y ago
  It is something special, though. If you read it, you realize where the Bush Administration's foreign policy came from. And by extension, the Obama Administration's foreign policy. I likewise did not enjoy the book as an adult reader. I thought it was far to apologetic for ultraviolent, genocidal overreactions to be considered healthy reading for teenagers. The end of the book is not "genocide is bad". It's "isn't is a shame that poor Ender had to be tricked into committing genocide?" It's not that "governments shouldn't be given the sort of power capable of genocide", it's that "you can get away with it scott-free if your intentions were good." Also, the whole "they hate me because I'm the best" wore really thin on me. It's just not a thing you see amongst real kids. In fact, being good at things is a good way to get other kids to like you. The kids didn't like Ender because he was a self-righteous prick, a spoil-sport punk with a Napoleon complex. The dialog also sucked. Grade A shitty dialog. As a teenager, you might be intrigued by the idea of alternative slang (and that is probably why Buffy the Vampire Slayer was so popular, and by extension why Joss Whedon has such a following now, but can't seem to follow it up). But as an adult, it is really annoying.
  - rcfox 13y ago
    > In fact, being good at things is a good way to get other kids to like you. Maybe in highschool. In elementary school, having any perceived deviation from "average" is a great way to get ridiculed by the majority of kids.
  - mrgoldenbrown 13y ago
    Have you ever been in a class where you are graded on a curve? If you're the best and you ace and exam, meaning everyone else gets a C or F instead of a B, the other kids don't like you.
  - westicle 13y ago
    For those who haven't read the book, you might consider editing out your second paragraph, or at least adding spoiler tags.
    - moron4hire 13y ago
      For a book that is nearly 30 years old? SPOILERS: King Kong dies at the end and the Titanic sinks at the end.
      - talmand 13y ago
        I agree, because new generations never watch old movies or read old books for the first time.
        moron4hire 13y ago
        There is more to a book than the end. Just because you know what happens in general doesn't mean you can't enjoy reading the book at all. Why do people re-read books? Why do people watch movies based on books, or go back and read the book after they've seen the movie? I'm not going to destroy my prose with legalistic gerrymandering just because you're too emotionally underdeveloped to enjoy a story after knowing details about it.
- Joister 13y ago
  Try "Speaker for the Dead", one of the sequels. I found it much more interesting than Ender's Game.
- Shorel 13y ago
  I guess I was still a teenager at 28 then. In fact, I still enjoy reading 'The Little Prince'. Silly me.
ghaff 13y ago
Or at least the short story (albeit there be spoilers here). I vaguely remember way back when not being convinced that the novel, much less the entire trilogy (which was IMO uneven), represented an improvement over the original story.
AlisdairSH 13y ago
Read Ender's Shadow as well. And probably the other main-line Ender stories. None are a difficult read - you'll breeze through them in a weekend.
- flatline 13y ago
  I personally did not like Shadow, and stopped about 3/4 of the way through. The original two books were great. Xenocide and Children were...readable. The standard of writing went way down in Shadow, and while the concept was interesting, I didn't feel that it added anything to the story. It read like Card was just filling in the blanks in a plot outline he had lying around.

If you haven't read the book first, DO SO, it is worth it.

by deletes 13y ago

If you haven't read the book first, DO SO, it is worth it.

I also don't know how the ending could be half as good as the book? Also I feel like I spoil the whole thing by saying the ending is good because when you read it with that knowledge you might get let down. Strange the BEST ending totally ruined by having an expectation of a awesome ending.

nodata 13y ago

I don't agree. I think if I'd read the book as a teenager, I would have loved it. As an adult reading the book for the first time, it's nothing special.

moron4hire 13y ago
It is something special, though. If you read it, you realize where the Bush Administration's foreign policy came from. And by extension, the Obama Administration's foreign policy. I likewise did not enjoy the book as an adult reader. I thought it was far to apologetic for ultraviolent, genocidal overreactions to be considered healthy reading for teenagers. The end of the book is not "genocide is bad". It's "isn't is a shame that poor Ender had to be tricked into committing genocide?" It's not that "governments shouldn't be given the sort of power capable of genocide", it's that "you can get away with it scott-free if your intentions were good." Also, the whole "they hate me because I'm the best" wore really thin on me. It's just not a thing you see amongst real kids. In fact, being good at things is a good way to get other kids to like you. The kids didn't like Ender because he was a self-righteous prick, a spoil-sport punk with a Napoleon complex. The dialog also sucked. Grade A shitty dialog. As a teenager, you might be intrigued by the idea of alternative slang (and that is probably why Buffy the Vampire Slayer was so popular, and by extension why Joss Whedon has such a following now, but can't seem to follow it up). But as an adult, it is really annoying.
- rcfox 13y ago
  > In fact, being good at things is a good way to get other kids to like you. Maybe in highschool. In elementary school, having any perceived deviation from "average" is a great way to get ridiculed by the majority of kids.
- mrgoldenbrown 13y ago
  Have you ever been in a class where you are graded on a curve? If you're the best and you ace and exam, meaning everyone else gets a C or F instead of a B, the other kids don't like you.
- westicle 13y ago
  For those who haven't read the book, you might consider editing out your second paragraph, or at least adding spoiler tags.
  - moron4hire 13y ago
    For a book that is nearly 30 years old? SPOILERS: King Kong dies at the end and the Titanic sinks at the end.
    - talmand 13y ago
      I agree, because new generations never watch old movies or read old books for the first time.
      - moron4hire 13y ago
        There is more to a book than the end. Just because you know what happens in general doesn't mean you can't enjoy reading the book at all. Why do people re-read books? Why do people watch movies based on books, or go back and read the book after they've seen the movie? I'm not going to destroy my prose with legalistic gerrymandering just because you're too emotionally underdeveloped to enjoy a story after knowing details about it.
Joister 13y ago
Try "Speaker for the Dead", one of the sequels. I found it much more interesting than Ender's Game.
Shorel 13y ago
I guess I was still a teenager at 28 then. In fact, I still enjoy reading 'The Little Prince'. Silly me.

ghaff 13y ago

Or at least the short story (albeit there be spoilers here). I vaguely remember way back when not being convinced that the novel, much less the entire trilogy (which was IMO uneven), represented an improvement over the original story.

AlisdairSH 13y ago

Read Ender's Shadow as well. And probably the other main-line Ender stories. None are a difficult read - you'll breeze through them in a weekend.

flatline 13y ago
I personally did not like Shadow, and stopped about 3/4 of the way through. The original two books were great. Xenocide and Children were...readable. The standard of writing went way down in Shadow, and while the concept was interesting, I didn't feel that it added anything to the story. It read like Card was just filling in the blanks in a plot outline he had lying around.