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View Full Version : Speaker for the Dead - A Review of [u]Ender's Game[/u]



Pete
1st June 2003, 01:26
What we have before us is the rotting corpse of a human body. It used to hold a name. That name used to hold a personality. The personality commited many deads. Today that man is dead. He will not step foot on this world, or any other, again. As our governor he was kind and forgiving; as a boy-general he was ruthless and powerful. Look before you and view Andrew "Ender" Wiggins: Our Governor! Our Brother! The Xenocide! The Murderer!

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card teaches many lessons, the least being that the truth must be told. This novel, set prior to and during the Third Invasion, opens up new doors of understand. Social control. Manipulatoin of facts. The power of schools and the effects of games on society. These themes are ever present, and in a single cryptic sentence, one that makes no sense until even later in the book, each theme is presented and solved. "The enemies gate is down."

Bean. A child. Yet worthy of his own book. Look to Ender's Shadow for his story.

Back to Ender. He is the third child in an age when parents may only bear two. Teasing follows him everywhere. He is called "Third" as an insult and always has to play the Buggers in games of buggers and spacemen. Growing up is hard, but his mind is brilliant.

The School is horrible. Young children, almost all male, are forced to endure insane amounts of lectures and physical activity (they are only 5 and 6 at the begginning). The reason? Of course the Third Invasion is about to begin and the humans must be ready.

Battle. It is all about the games. The boys lust for their first "combat" experience, and no one is better than Ender Wiggins. He is the youngest General ever, and leads the cursed Dragon Army. Soon, though, he is gone.

Gone to bigger things.

Gone to deadlier things.

Death haunts Ender.

Death haunted Ender. But now it has caught up to him. For all of his love of life, Ender was a killer. Tonight, as the sun sets so does his story. Here lies the empty body of Andrew Ender Wiggin: Our Governor! Our Brother! The Xenocide! The Murderer!

Blibblob
2nd June 2003, 00:42
Woah, I'm confused. Is this like a book report or something? It looks like what my English teachers would want, something that states the facts and doesn't delve into philosophy. Not trying to sound rude, but it seems rather bare. So, if I do a book, you want it like this, or with the philosophy involved?

I can't really come up with anything worth debating about with this, because I don't see anything that is opinion... sorry... and I haven't read the rest of the series, only the first book.

Pete
2nd June 2003, 00:45
It is a review. I am trying to start getting weekly reviews, and this is my example (check for the thread on weekly reviews :))

Blibblob
2nd June 2003, 00:55
I knew you were starting weekly reviews... I volunteered... for some reason :D. But, shouldn't a review be more than just an outline of the book? I don't even see it as complete in a book report or review sense, or deep enough for any kind of philosophical meaning.

Pete
2nd June 2003, 00:57
It is meant to stir up interest, but yes this one is a bit bare. Half-ass written. Unlike the beautiful Israel paper I am now writing for the Socialist Front (http://www.socialistfront.org)