Home :: Books :: Science Fiction & Fantasy  

Arts & Photography
Audio CDs
Audiocassettes
Biographies & Memoirs
Business & Investing
Children's Books
Christianity
Comics & Graphic Novels
Computers & Internet
Cooking, Food & Wine
Entertainment
Gay & Lesbian
Health, Mind & Body
History
Home & Garden
Horror
Literature & Fiction
Mystery & Thrillers
Nonfiction
Outdoors & Nature
Parenting & Families
Professional & Technical
Reference
Religion & Spirituality
Romance
Science
Science Fiction & Fantasy

Sports
Teens
Travel
Women's Fiction
Ender's Game

Ender's Game

List Price: $6.99
Your Price: $6.29
Product Info Reviews

<< 1 .. 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 .. 199 >>

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: A good book but sometimes boring.
Review: I am in the gifted and talented program and I read this book because I was forced to read it. At first this book was very fun. But then it became boring. Then it became fun again. This book is about a kid named Andrew(Ender)and he goes to a battle school in space. Enders game tells about Enders feelings and experiences. In my opinion I woukd say this book is worth reading. Pretty soon I will be reading Speaker for the dead which is a continuation of Enders Game.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Does not deserve it's vaunted status.
Review: "Ender's Game" is a rather amateurishly written book that partially redeems itself in the last twenty or so pages. Some intriguing (but half-baked) ideas and a couple of interesting pontifications on the nature of information/power/education are undermined by silly & unbelievable dialog, sketchy characterizations, and some truly head-shakingly awful writing. The only thing that saves this book from well-deserved placement on my Ten Most Overrated Books list is the plot twist that leads to a satisfying conclusion. Still, I can think of a considerable number of books that are more deserving of hype that surrounds this overrated tome.

I'd like to give it 2.5 stars, but I guess I'll round it up to 3; I think this book would go over better with someone under the age of 16.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Fast-paced and simple science fiction
Review: Ender's Game is a quick and easy read. It took me a couple weeks to read, which is faster than usual for me. The Earth has been threatened twice in the recent past by "buggers", aliens from many light years away, and is preparing for a final decisive war where losing means extermination of the human species. Ever since the bugger threat materialized decades before, the I.F. (Earth's space military) has been identifying bright kids at an early age and selecting some for enrollment in an orbiting training center known as Battle School, in order to become commanders of I.F. forces. But now, with the war expected in only a few years, the I.F. is desperate to find a commander who can take the entire fleet and ensure victory with it.

They've found potential in Andrew "Ender" Wiggin, a genius six-year old kid who seems to have a knack at winning. Ender goes to Battle School and quickly rises to the top. In the simulator games, he and his army can overcome ridiculous odds. But is he good enough to pull the human race through to victory against the buggers?

The cast of characters is largely juvenile. Card does well at reminding us that children don't think of themselves as "kids". They're sentient beings just like adults, in complete control of their thoughts and actions. I dimly remember that as a youngster my priorities were different and that I was ignorant of many things, but I wasn't aware of these facts and resented being controlled by adults, including my parents (heh, some things never change). In the novel, only one or two of the kids we meet truly understand that the purpose of Battle School is to prepare for the bugger threat. To the rest, the games are only a matter of pride and they practice only to improve their team's rank. This is very much how kids think.

For science fiction fans a couple interesting ideas are introduced in this book, such as faster-than-light communication and a weapon of extreme destructive power that can be fired from a small ship. At the end we get a glimpse of the conflict from the buggers' viewpoint that makes you wonder if the final war was justified at all and leaves room for the sequel "Speaker for the Dead".

Highly recommended for all readers, but especially teens!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A classic of science fiction
Review: Obviously, I am not the first person to read and love this book. There's not much to say that has not already been said but I would like to add one more 5-star review to this masterpiece. Card is a great writer and one of the voices that is forcing sci-fi to be taken seriously; this is his greatest work. The sequel, "Speaker for the Dead", is also excellent ("Ender's Game" is a story of triumph at a terrible cost, and "Speaker" is about the subsequent atonement of the main character). Later novels in the series lost focus, in my opinion, and the most recent ones ("Ender's Shadow" and "Shadow of the Hegemon") are retellings of "Ender's Game" from a different perspective -- enjoyable, but not at the level of the original. Even if you don't like science fiction, as long as you enjoy good writing you will like this book.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Science Fiction at its best
Review: Card tells an introspective yet fast-paced tale of manipulation- both genetic and mental. Ender is a character that's always being pushed to his breaking point and always finding a way to overcome. He is both frightened and exhilirated by the lengths he's willing to go to. This is an excellent story of the sort of internal struggle that many people can identify with.

I particulary enjoyed Card's depictions of the military simulations Ender and his fellow gifted peers engage in. Some of the tale was a bit hard on my suspension of disbelief in that it was hard to envision the characters thinking and acting the way they do at such young ages. But that flaw, if you can even call it that, was easily remedied by the sheer depth of Card's character development. This book kept me reading, and the double surprise ending didn't disappoint. In fact, it made getting the rest of the Ender series an easy decision.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Like No Other
Review: I can honestly say that Ender's Game is one of the best books I have ever read. It was an assignment in my Honors Literature class and once I started, I couldn't put it down.

The Buggers are coming again. Ender Wiggin is only six years old when he is taken from his family and sent to Battle School. It is on his shoulders that rests the fate of the entire human world. His sharp mind is well-suited for developing military tactics and he rises to meet all his challenges and obstacles. It is hard to remember that he is still only a little boy.

I would recommend this book to anyone that has an open mind and is willing to grasp the concepts Card includes in this compelling novel. And so the saga begins...

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Psst...overrated...
Review: There, I said it - overrated. Yes it's a good book, imaginative, original ideas, thought provoking - but also more than a little boring. The premise of the book is that the child Ender is the ultimate weapon in a savage war with the mysterious Buggers. Unfortunately the story never really delves into the Buggers or combat with them except in a really abstract manner. I don't want to spoil the story so I won't go into more detail about that aspect of the story.

What you get with this interesting book is lots and lots of psychology, lots of soul searching, lots of dialogue and a minimum of any real conflict. The majority of the plot deals with Ender's training in a military school. There are some interesting wargames that take place and a few shocking incidents that show just how high stakes the games these children play really are.

I found the best thing this book did was make me feel very sad for the boy Ender. There are some moving parts that deal with his isolation and the difficulty of being different from the other kids. There are some emotional parts in the book that helped bring it above the level of run-of-the-mill SF, along with some compelling concepts, but overall I have reservations about this book. It's a good story, certainly better than many, but not as great as a lot of the reviews here would lead you to believe.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Pizza for your Brain
Review: Just about everyone can identify with Ender. Ok sure, you're not six years old, and you're not a military supra-genius, but I bet you remember some point in your past where you were pushed around by the school bully. Or maybe you were terrorized by an
older sibling? Just like Ender. I guess you could argue that the school bully, and your abusive older sibling couldn't identify with Ender, but really, we all know those people are too stupid to read anyway.

The unwillingness to accept defeat, while staring the insurmountable odds in the face, is a central feature of our protagonist, Ender.

He is a six year old boy, removed from his family to train. Train to become the space commander needed by the forces of Earth to defeat "the buggers." The majority of the training takes place in the form of zero-g combat games, played with other students at the orbiting Battle School. I know it sounds a little cheesey on the surface, but Card really pulls it off well. Ender faces trials in and out of the game in what amounts to years and years in basic training.

Throughout it all he is alone, and it is his determination and clarity of purpose that gets him through. You really just want to cheer for the little fella over and over.

This is a very simple novel. It is also a very very good novel, just don't expect the complexity of Foundation or the darkness of The Gap series. But we don't always need to read caviar and sekt books. Sometimes we need pizza for the brain. The simplicity, the age of the characters, and Card's religious background (meaning very little bad language and no sex) make this book an excellant choice for the thirteen to sixteen year old soon-to-be sci/fi fan. It's the kind of book that set me on fire for reading (Actually for me it was Clark's "Childhood's End.")

Will I read the sequel? Not sure yet. The last bit "Speaker for the Dead" seems like an intriguing segque into the next book. It really has emotional depth that the rest of the book lacks. Maybe so.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: definate read
Review: this one of the books that i have read and reread innumerable times. a must read for all.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: One of my all-time favorite books
Review: I will treasure this book forevermore. That said, I feel the need to point out that all Card's female characters are extremely stiff, and usually annoying. Card obviously attempts to portray women in a sympathetic light and as equally intelligent to men, but he ends up with overanalytical loudmouths who are plagued by doubts and end up only arrogantly, ungratefully hampering the males anyway. This observation encompasses Card's Alvin Maker series as well as his Ender books, Treason, and Lost Boys. While I'm on the subject, I also think that his male characters fall a bit flat on the personality and too heavy on the logic as well.
With that off my chest, Ender's Game is one of the most interesting and enjoyable books I have ever had the pleasure of reading, as well as being the book that kicked off my interest in science fiction. It takes a stubborn mind to resist the allure of Ender's world and Battle School, where the brightest children are sent to train as child-soldiers for the next war. The Buggers, the alien race the humans are warring with, really play a minimal part in the story until the very end. Mostly Ender's Game deals with Ender, the little boy who is the smartest of all the genius children, the leader of them all, and his relationships with the other kids, and how they all get through the rigorous, ruthless training of Battle School. It's fascinating, the little plots and brilliant strategem the students employ against each other, with the added shock that they're all small children, though to just read the dialogues you'd never guess it.
Ender's Game should be read by one and all, of all ages. For a while I considered it the best sci-fi book out there...Then Ender's Shadow was published.


<< 1 .. 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 .. 199 >>

© 2004, ReviewFocus or its affiliates