Ender's Game - another book read 


Sucking in the 70s Sci-Fi style 

Finished Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game - the story of a young (about 10 years old) boy who conquers aliens by playing Nintendo real good. Actually, there's more to it than that. The story moved along with reasonable speed, a series of interesting characters, and a twist towards the end that a most could see coming. Why the ace pre-pubescent strategist doesn't see it coming is beyond me, though. Also, I couldn't figure why the author made the characters children, other than to possibly de-sex them so it doesn't get in the way of the story (like Hemingway "wounded" his proxy in The Sun Also Rises - it would have made the plot and his life a lot more complicated). It's been a long time since I've read hardcore space opera, so I forgot how difficult it is to forgive errant predictions, e.g. the survival of the Warsaw Pact. Though Card's treatment of Val and Peter's Internet alter-egos (Locke & Demosthenes) tags the blogger phenomena dead on. I might poke around here a while, since the series seems to have a devoted following.

I'm closing in on the final chapters of Keegan's Intelligence in War (I'm sorry, the Falklands?), and have got Boyd: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War on deck. 

Posted: Mon - February 21, 2005 at 09:04 PM           |

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