I loved this book. This is actually the book that got me back into reading books. ( )

This book was a rough ride for me, and I'm not sure I can write an adequate review. It has long been a book my husband has really liked, but I'd never read it and not had much desire to read it. And for the first few chapters, I did not care for it at all. As my husband promised, it did pick up after that, though I still struggled with a lot of the content. I did somewhat anticipate the "big reveal," though to be honest, I thought there'd be another twist coming after that.

I had a really hard time following and caring about all of the politics, both on earth and at Battle School. The chapter and later sections about Peter & Valentine frankly went over my head and bored me, and I didn't understand the point of them. I know that some of this is delved into a lot more in other books, but it's really not something that interests me, so it detracted from the book for me. And while the end was mostly good, the last chapter felt like a tack-on, and I could have done without it.

What really turned me off in the beginning, while I was waiting for things to really get going, was Card's writing style. I do not care for it. It bugged me so much that the narrative and characters would reference things off-hand as if they'd already been explained to us and then expand on those thoughts, and I was left mentally sputtering as I tried to keep up. I think that, in the end, this kind of writing just does not mesh with my way of thinking, my personality, my preference in reading...whatever the case may be, it frustrated me, where most seem to be fine with it.

I'm surprised to say that I was not actually put off by Ender's tendency to be the best at everything. I mean, that was kind of the point. He was genetically bred to be that way (though to be honest, I barely picked that up from the book itself, but the synopsis does state that). I couldn't imagine him as a 6-year-old, though, and had to just think pre-teen from the start. My daughter is 9, so I couldn't get past how ridiculously unrealistic it was, but I'm not saying it didn't make sense for the story...it just didn't make sense in my head.

Overall, I don't fully get why it's such a classic. I get why people like it, but do not understand the fanatical draw. This was my second Orson Scott Card book (the first being Lost and Found). I didn't particularly care for the other, either, and it's interesting to note that they were published decades apart. I kinda think that maybe Card's writing just isn't for me. ( )

3rd, 4th, 10th time around....still great. Except, I have NO IDEA how they can make a good movie out of this - I'm concerned. Although, I did read once that OSC said that if he could get someone to make Ender's Game to the same level of quality as Serenity, he would say "Yes". Here's hoping..... ( )

Classic story of the kid that grows up in Battle School and winds up saving the world. ( )

I've had mixed feelings about this book and its author for quite a long time. How could something so innately intuitive come from someone so intolerant? Jay Lake had an insight that revealed it to me, though -- "the man who wrote that book so full of human understanding and real pain had long since turned into a very sad, vile person who worked very hard to do evil to many other people," he wrote.

Ender's Game remains a timeless and thoughtful insight into the nature of childhood and the isolation of intelligence, no matter the current nature of its author. ( )