Too much geek makes the reader go blind.
Feb. 13th, 2005 06:48 pmI finally sat down and read Ender's Game yesterday. It was assigned for class, which is the only way you'd ever get me to read Ender's Game. Someone made me read an Orson Scott Card book before, and I didn't like the experience any better the second time.
This is apparently a Very Big Book in the science fiction world. All I can say is that the idea has since been re-used by writers I like better, in ways I find more meaningful.
Basic plot is that very bright children are trained in warfare in order to save the world from creepy alien invasion antics, and then tricked into committing alien-genocide. I believe the book has three or four sequels. With any luck, I will never be asked to read any of them.
Reasons I hated this book:
1. The two female characters have the personality of medicated ants and entirely subordinate roles in the story. (Bonus for the author stating that women have less fighting instinct due to centuries of breeding! Woohoo for one of the most sexist statements I've ever seen not called on the carpet!)
2. The military-industrial complex, despite committing planned breeding, deliberate psychic cruelty et al, are consistently portrayed as humane, tormented, good guys throughout all their deliberate cruelty, unto the end.
3. The sociopath of the story never receives his comeuppance.
4. None of the genius level children in the military training camp ever does or thinks anything during the entire story that isn't directly related to the machinations of the adults. No stray fantasies, no meaningful friendships, no pet theories, nothing. This is just not humanly possible. It may make for a taut storyline, but it makes for characterizations slightly less deep than sheets of paper.
Other books that did similar things much, much better.
1. Crashcourse, Clipjoint, and Psykosis by Wilhelmina Baird. The brooding assasin-killer of these books is the horribly scarred survivor of a military fighting force that fuses young boys with killer reflexes to the minds of fighter-pilot ships and then sends them out in space. He has a chestful of war medals and a ruined life, and talks about how as teenagers they had no fear, no conscience, no awareness of death. This book essentially starts after the kind of events in Ender's Game. The main character is a woman, and a tough-as-hell woman at that.
2. Orbital Resonance by John Barnes. This book has young brilliant people who actually discover their governments plans for them and resist usefully, taking charge of their life and their culture. (As opposed to Ender who "resists" by doing exactly what's planned for him. There's a huge plot hole in that - exactly how is it that this boy is such a genius that he can outstrategize every human alive, and yet he falls victim to the psychological strategies of his keepers? That's either straining credulity or making him an idiot savant.)
I could talk endlessly about why this book sucked, but since it basically comes down to "the author believes in things I don't, and upholds things I think should be destroyed" I guess I'll leave it at that.
This is apparently a Very Big Book in the science fiction world. All I can say is that the idea has since been re-used by writers I like better, in ways I find more meaningful.
Basic plot is that very bright children are trained in warfare in order to save the world from creepy alien invasion antics, and then tricked into committing alien-genocide. I believe the book has three or four sequels. With any luck, I will never be asked to read any of them.
Reasons I hated this book:
1. The two female characters have the personality of medicated ants and entirely subordinate roles in the story. (Bonus for the author stating that women have less fighting instinct due to centuries of breeding! Woohoo for one of the most sexist statements I've ever seen not called on the carpet!)
2. The military-industrial complex, despite committing planned breeding, deliberate psychic cruelty et al, are consistently portrayed as humane, tormented, good guys throughout all their deliberate cruelty, unto the end.
3. The sociopath of the story never receives his comeuppance.
4. None of the genius level children in the military training camp ever does or thinks anything during the entire story that isn't directly related to the machinations of the adults. No stray fantasies, no meaningful friendships, no pet theories, nothing. This is just not humanly possible. It may make for a taut storyline, but it makes for characterizations slightly less deep than sheets of paper.
Other books that did similar things much, much better.
1. Crashcourse, Clipjoint, and Psykosis by Wilhelmina Baird. The brooding assasin-killer of these books is the horribly scarred survivor of a military fighting force that fuses young boys with killer reflexes to the minds of fighter-pilot ships and then sends them out in space. He has a chestful of war medals and a ruined life, and talks about how as teenagers they had no fear, no conscience, no awareness of death. This book essentially starts after the kind of events in Ender's Game. The main character is a woman, and a tough-as-hell woman at that.
2. Orbital Resonance by John Barnes. This book has young brilliant people who actually discover their governments plans for them and resist usefully, taking charge of their life and their culture. (As opposed to Ender who "resists" by doing exactly what's planned for him. There's a huge plot hole in that - exactly how is it that this boy is such a genius that he can outstrategize every human alive, and yet he falls victim to the psychological strategies of his keepers? That's either straining credulity or making him an idiot savant.)
I could talk endlessly about why this book sucked, but since it basically comes down to "the author believes in things I don't, and upholds things I think should be destroyed" I guess I'll leave it at that.