Saturday, March 08, 2008
Ender's Game
Orson Scott Card
1985
This is a science fiction novel about a boy who prepares for and leads humanity into battle against aliens.
Like Lord of The Rings, Matrix, Star Wars (even Harry Potter) and so many other fantasy stories, this one follows the same template of events first seen in the Bible. There is an accepted study of 7 or 8 events that Jesus goes through (chosen at birth, shows promise while young, raises people from the dead, leads, dies, is resurrected, etc..) that can be seen in whole or in part in many science fiction stories. Ender goes through perhaps all of them. The chosen one he is, he very quickly distinguishes himself from his peers, he attract followers, has all hope upon him, and at the moment of triumph falls into this death like coma from which he is reawakened and renewed, later ascending (literally, in a spaceship) to lead humanity to a new existence. It's fascinating. It's, I guess, a narrative that has stood the test of time and does not go stale from endless retellings. Neo in the subway station, Frodo with the spider, Harry Potter in that dream place, and Luke Skywalker in that incubator after getting his hand cut off, every time it happens it is one of he most climactic parts of the story, an it's always exciting. Ender's Game is no different. It's a really good book. It falls easily into (or maybe is a founding text of) the sci-fi style that is much more philosophical (technosophical?) than just technological. With Joe Haldeman, Orson Scott Card would be in good company.
It's pretty obvious that the Buggers will end up being not purely evil, and that the main problem is one of communication between the two races rather than aggression. The humans are presented as ambiguously good/evil. The really are no better than the aliens they are fighting, but, as the argument goes, if the humans don't win, the aliens will. And, after all, they attacked first. The powerful moment comes when Ender is communicating with the dead race and they say, upon realizing the humans are attacking, say "they haven't forgiven us." It becomes pretty clear then that the whole war, like so many, was a farce. The book is not short on cool technology, and combined with the twists and series of surprises near the end, it just sends your mind into so many vast places. Imagining and pondering the vastness of the universe are constant company while reading this book. Sometime, after a part about traveling for 50 years, or battling out beyond Saturn, it's impossible not to pause for a second and just absorb what was just read.
I've only read maybe ten sci-fi books and I've loved all of them, more I will seek out, most likely.
Orson Scott Card
1985
This is a science fiction novel about a boy who prepares for and leads humanity into battle against aliens.
Like Lord of The Rings, Matrix, Star Wars (even Harry Potter) and so many other fantasy stories, this one follows the same template of events first seen in the Bible. There is an accepted study of 7 or 8 events that Jesus goes through (chosen at birth, shows promise while young, raises people from the dead, leads, dies, is resurrected, etc..) that can be seen in whole or in part in many science fiction stories. Ender goes through perhaps all of them. The chosen one he is, he very quickly distinguishes himself from his peers, he attract followers, has all hope upon him, and at the moment of triumph falls into this death like coma from which he is reawakened and renewed, later ascending (literally, in a spaceship) to lead humanity to a new existence. It's fascinating. It's, I guess, a narrative that has stood the test of time and does not go stale from endless retellings. Neo in the subway station, Frodo with the spider, Harry Potter in that dream place, and Luke Skywalker in that incubator after getting his hand cut off, every time it happens it is one of he most climactic parts of the story, an it's always exciting. Ender's Game is no different. It's a really good book. It falls easily into (or maybe is a founding text of) the sci-fi style that is much more philosophical (technosophical?) than just technological. With Joe Haldeman, Orson Scott Card would be in good company.
It's pretty obvious that the Buggers will end up being not purely evil, and that the main problem is one of communication between the two races rather than aggression. The humans are presented as ambiguously good/evil. The really are no better than the aliens they are fighting, but, as the argument goes, if the humans don't win, the aliens will. And, after all, they attacked first. The powerful moment comes when Ender is communicating with the dead race and they say, upon realizing the humans are attacking, say "they haven't forgiven us." It becomes pretty clear then that the whole war, like so many, was a farce. The book is not short on cool technology, and combined with the twists and series of surprises near the end, it just sends your mind into so many vast places. Imagining and pondering the vastness of the universe are constant company while reading this book. Sometime, after a part about traveling for 50 years, or battling out beyond Saturn, it's impossible not to pause for a second and just absorb what was just read.
I've only read maybe ten sci-fi books and I've loved all of them, more I will seek out, most likely.
# posted by mz @ 1:04 PM 
