A few of my readers may know Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card. It is one of the most popular and honored science fiction books ever. I loved it when I first read it. Rrereading it as an adult left me feeling disoriented, and I’ve found his other books surprisingly childish. I recently came across a pair of revealing essays about the book.
The first one draws explicit links between Ender and Hitler, claiming that Card deliberately wrote the story as an apology for Hitler. (One of her friends goes further, claiming that Card didn’t even write the book.) Card wrote a rebuttal, but it isn’t available online.
A more tempered and ultimately convincing essay from John Kessel is worth reading in full. His last section (“Why is Ender’s Game popular?”) gets at the heart of my difficulties reading Card’s fiction as an adult.
By the way, Enders Game is currently being made into a movie.
I really like the historical fiction aspects of Doomsday Book; the sci-fi parts of the story were fairly weak, especially on re-read. (I mean really, Connie Willis couldn’t have imagined a future with pagers or cell phones? Didn’t those things exist when she wrote the book in 1992?!) But again, love the Middle Ages part of the story. That’s why I ultimately decided to read Ken Follett’s The Pillars of the Earth, despite its lack of NYTimes vetting. (I often don’t trust unknown books without an NYTimes blurb on the jacket – yeah, I’m a snob.) Just started reading it, so we’ll see how it turns out!
I read Doomsday Book for the first time last month. I don’t think I could reread it. It’s a story where the small scenes ring true but the overall plot makes less sense every time you think about it. Nevertheless, I liked it a lot. It felt different than most SF books, and I liked that you really didn’t know who was going to pull through at the end.
Oops: battle school, not station
Interesting! Ender’s Game is one of Jonathan’s perennial favorites; I’ll have to pass along those links and see what he has to say. (Although I’m doubtful that he is capable of objectivity where this book is concerned – he just loves it too much!)
I experienced my own disappointment with a recent re-reading of Connie Willis’ Doomsday Book, yet another award-winning sci-fi book that I first loved as a teenager. I still like the story, but the flaws become more and more glaring with each re-read.
I’ve been hearing about an Ender’s Game movie for awhile now, but they don’t seem to be making much progress. It’s a shame, because I know a lot of fans (including myself) would like to see the battle station on the big screen.