So in anticipation of the upcoming Ender’s Game movie
(released December 5 in Australia), I have finished reading the original
Ender’s Game series of books (Ender’s Game, Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide and Children
of the Mind). I am planning on finishing the second Ender’s quartet (Ender’s Shadow, Shadow of the Hegemon and Shadow
Puppets) soon. I will try not to put too many spoilers in this review, but
consider this a minor spoiler warning.
Ender’s Game is the story of Ender, a small boy drafted into
a military academy in the future. At this stage of the book, the human race has
fought one war with an alien species and was nearly wiped out. The purpose of
the military academy is to find a master strategist to lead humanities forces
for the next war with the aliens. I thought that this book was pretty well
written and kept the action moving along at a good pace. The actions of the
characters, even the “villains” in the military school, also felt very
believable. This was because Ender’s thoughts and strategising within the
school was used by the writer as the reader’s window into the world and other
characters motivations. I felt that this method worked and didn’t make Ender’s
Game feel too heavy handed.
Ender’s Game effectively felt like a prequel to the main
trilogy that kicked off with Speaker for the Dead. Speaker of the Dead focuses
on another world colonised by humans where they discover another alien species.
For most of this book, there is a completely different cast of characters than
Ender’s Game and the writer does a good job of establishing these characters. I
felt that Speaker for the Dead was the best written of the four books and is my
personal favourite in the series. Once again, it keeps the action moving and
starts to tackle some deeper issues about the human condition. Although it
doesn’t have as much action as Ender’s Game, the book does not feel too
narrative heavy and most the characters and the world of Speaker for the Dead retains
a strong grounding and believability. The grounding and believability came from
the actions they take, the believability of the dialogue, and the petty family
squabbles and politics at work.
I felt that this strong grounding and believability from
Ender’s Game and Speaker for the Dead begins to be lost in Xenocide and
Children of the Mind. In these books, the planet with the humans and aliens is
threatened with destruction because they harbour a deadly virus capable of
destroying humanity and the also humanities first sentient artificial
intelligence. These two books felt like they had allot of filler material in
them and they could’ve easily be combined into one (albeit slightly longer)
book. Despite going for a grander scope, I felt like the scope was reduced as
characters and locations were left by the wayside in order to focus on a
handful of characters. The development of these characters also felt like a
step backwards I felt they started to represent ideals rather than actual
people. I can sort-of understand what the writer was trying to achieve, but
several elements in Xenocide and Children of the Mind hindered it’s execution
in my mind (i.e. whole worlds that were shaped after just one culture on earth,
forced narrative that felt like the Star Wars prequels in some stages rather
than what actual people would say, decisions made to serve the plot as opposed
to what is believable).
Despite Xenocide and Children of the Mind being the weaker
books, I would still recommend reading this trilogy. Although the writer didn’t
quite pull-off the landing he was hoping for, I was still drawn into the world
enough to finish these books and am looking forward to the Ender’s Shadow
trilogy. If nothing else, you should definitely check out Ender’s Game and
Speaker for the Dead .
Note Besides: I should also note that I was well into this
series before I found out his views on gay marriage, and probably wouldn’t have
bothered reading his books if I had known. There are too many other good books
out there by authors whose views I support and not nearly enough time to read
them all anyway.
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