J. Magi

alright so, of course I completely respect your opinion dude, but here's what I didn't like about Ender's game:

(Also please keep in mind I read this book around a year ago, so the details are a little fuzzy)

-I found the entire concept and vibe of the book very disturbing, which I think is a product of a lot of my other reasons, but even from the first chapter it just felt wrong. I have no idea how to describe it . . . Maybe it was the syndical/realist tone and narration? There's nothing wrong with that sort of tone but in this book it felt so . . . flippant that it seemed really off putting to me. This is probably just me and my personal biases but it just felt really . . . gross? I don't even know.

-There were a few lines at the beginning of the book about Ender's sister that made the story feel a little sexist? I'm probably misinterpreting that but once again, it was enough to bother me. I can't remember if those lines were said by a character or the narrator, so I don't know if it was meant to be a character flaw or not. It's not super important, but worth mentioning.

-I personally feel like we were given very little reason to care about any of the characters. That being said a lot of the character tropes and personalities used in this books are ones I don't really like in the first place so . . .

-The MC was a mary sue. He was more brilliant and more hardworking and more dedicated than all of the other characters. Don't get me wrong, an op MC can be done right, but for it to work the characters power level cannot be the point of the story. And yet in Ender's game, it felt like it was. Ender just hurtled forward through every challenge given him, and maybe he does fail a little here and there, but almost always the lesson felt like 'well, I'm Ender so I'll just do better next time.' 

It felt like he had little to no arc at all, and that leads into my second point:

-His character arc on a moral/psychological standpoint really bothered me. As the story progressed he seemed to really only get worse. Correct me if he did improve in some way (that isn't physically) but it seemed like every time he changed, he became more hardened, more stern, and more angry. Once again, I don't mind this. Corruption (for want of a better word) arcs can be done well, and I'm no stranger to liking morally grey (also for want of a better word) characters. That being said the story has to call them out on it. The story HAS to stay (whether through a narrator or through other characters): 'Hey, what this dude is doing is kind of messed up.' But it never did . . . he just became this cold shell of what he used to be, and everyone applauded and called him a hero. I understand he needed to be stern because of the military environment, but you can have a 'stern army general' archetype and still have them show real kindness and compassion once in a while. Ender became something that doesn't feel human in my opinion, and the book did little to say 'hey this is not great maybe he needs help.' All I'm asking for is one scene where he and his friends hang out and they have a heart to heart and someone (heaven forbid) actually treat Ender with some kindness.

-The adults are all terrible people and once again no one calls them out on it. 'Oh yeah, lets emotionally abuse and manipulate a child for years because the fate of the world depends on it or something' Come on . . . the fact that they're using children at all feels unrealistic to me. I don't care if they're geniuses or hyper-talented. There will always be an adult with more experience and more skill then some kid--even if that kid comes out of the womb doing college level math. It just doesn't make sense to me.

-My other big problem with the adults is whenever Ender accidentally kills someone, they don't tell him. I don' know about you, but if I accidentally murdered someone, I want to know. They're betraying Ender's trust in them, all while acting like they're some kind of hero's for keeping the 'harsh truth' from him. I'm sorry, but they should have told him. If they'd have told him, then he could actually learn from it. Ender could re-evaluate himself, and work on self control. Instead they let him continue to recklessly charge forward, and never let him experience consequences for his actions. 

-His siblings's sublot felt . . . so out there. It was just so unrealistic. Once again, I don't care if they're genius children, that's not enough to convince me they're capable of getting the entire earth to believe that they're competitive politicians with opposite views effectively manipulating adults with experience and education in this area to do whatever they want. I think this might be why the book feels so jarring to me.  The tone of the story and narration is very realist, dare I say pessimistic. But the plot is constantly going into wild and unbelievable directions. It clashes and feels really disorienting as a reader. 

-Also, this is just a nitpick, but when Ender's sister and brother hack into their parents computer to get unlimited internet access, why does it never occur to the sister to seek help? She has a physically abusive and psychotic brother, and  emotionally neglectful parents. Why didn't she contact the police? Or get info for running away? If it were, me that's what I'd have done. I understand that she wanted to be a part of the politics scheme, but once again the fact that world-wide politics fell onto a child as her responsibility is wild to me. If there was a reason why she couldn't get help or run away the book should have told us!

-I very strongly dislike the end of the book and the plot twist reveals. When it was revealed that the Buggers are a hive-mind, my immediate reaction was indifference. Sure, we weren't given that much info on them to begin with, but if you want a reader to anticipate answers to questions you have to introduce the questions to them in the first place. The reader has to know that a mystery exists for them to be excited when it's solved. The plot twist at the very end of the book was terrible. 'You were fighting the real bad guys the whole time and it wasn't just a simulation.' How is that supposed to be engaging to the reader? Any tension or expectation for a final battle is destroyed and the reader is left feeling disappointed because what they thought was rising tension was just the climax in disguise. There's no impact, there's no struggle for a win. Once again, Ender won because he's Ender. It annoys me to no end. (See my point about the realist tone clashing with the unrealistic events). If I were to write it, I would make the simulation actually just a simulation, and let Ender truly fight the buggers like we expected him too. The book would be longer, ( I don't mind long books) but Card could have done a time skip showing Ender's progress as he got older, and then the final battle. Squishing it all together didn't subvert reader's expectations, it betrayed them. It honestly feels like lazy writing to me.

-The ending section that does timeskip and talk about the future felt very out of place. Like I said above, I already had little reason to care about the characters in the first place, and now I'm meant to feel something when they do stuff later in life? It felt like an exposition dump and was really boring to read. It was probably set up for the next book, but if that's the case then why isn't just a prologue for the next book? Or the lore could just be implied/ integrated to the next book. Shoving it all here feels lazy. I guess there is Ender's arc about his relationship with the Buggers, but that wasn't really expanded upon in the first place and once again I'm left without reason to care. Also, Peter's apology before he died also felt unprecedented and weird. We were given vary little reason to believe he'd do so and his character arc never alluded to it. A last minute change of heart felt out of pocket and I'll be honest, hard to accept. The damage he did was already done, and it's not like he worked to fix any of it. I don't understand why he didn't just die without ever admitting anything he did was was wrong--it would way more in character.

whoops that was a really long rant . . . sorry . I guess I have strong opinions about this book. Once again I respect your opinion, everyone interprets fiction differently and I think it's really cool you can enjoy something I couldn't.

The sequel does sound not as bad (especially if Ender isn't in it . . . I very strongly dislke him) so I guess I'll think about it . . . I don't know.