from Brian:

I have heard of Ender's Game growing up, but never
got around to reading it. When I watched the movie adaptation
came out a few years ago I thought it was finally
time to read this 30 year-old "science fiction classic."
Knowing too the controversy surrounding the author's political
views made it an interesting read. There was a lot
of things going against the book for me. There was not
a lot of deep character development (regardless of the supposed
big ideas that it emphasizes). The world in the book
is primarily male-driven with few strong female characters to
balance things out.

The prose in the book itself, is often very leaden.
However, the book was still worth reading. Why? This
is because the core idea of the book, the notion of
children being trained as soldiers through an extensive
and systematic gladitorial-virtual drone-schematic was
and is now even 30 years later, awesome-sauce. The battle
school chapters are the book's standouts, and thankfully
80% of the novel takes place within this realm.

The book is cold in many ways, as it should be, its
biggest selling point is its emphasis on cold
strategy. Reading its breathtaking battle room sequences,
one can understand why military schools have given
this book to soldiers in training.

The movie adaptation does a good job in streamlining
much of the clunkiness that weighs the book down,
while the book does offer far more battle school scenarios.

I would recommend both the book and the movie together,
for strategic merit. Both cancel each other's weaknesses.

Endgame. ( )

This book was quite engaging and with a fun twist and theme. ( )

Incredible Science fiction novel exploring many themes with action pact scenes and Ingenius problem solving. Would definitely recommend to anyone into action pact Sci-Fi. Easy read. ( )

This is probably the 6th or 7th time I've read this, and after seeing the movie this past weekend wanted to re-read.
Still powerful, still thought-provoking, still a damn fine read.
My one son has also read this several times (my copy, 1986 printing date) is falling apart. Will need a new copy to give to my granddaughter in a couple of years. ( )

It was good book. I liked the kids and the relationships, but the middle seemed to drag out a little. With each new war and battle, I knew the outcome so I was ready for him to move on long before he did. I was glad it didn't end where it could have. It was nice to have them come full circle and explain more. The last 10 pages answered almost all my questions and changed my rating significantly.

It was also nice to have the edition that had the authors notes in the beginning. I'm glad I read this book. Thx to those who recommended it! ( )