Ender's Game + the Trouble With Classics | An Informal Review

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

I just finished reading Ender's Game--a reading choice that I surprised myself with yesterday. My super dark secret is that I'm not one to read classics. I've read a few, but only when the mood has struck...and it doesn't strike often. The trouble with classics, is that their wide-spread popularity is usually what keeps me away from them. It's not a situation where I just want to do the opposite of everyone else, it's more that I'm perfectly fine accepting that classics are classics for a good reason, and getting on with my reading elsewhere (blasphemous, I know).

So imagine my surprise when I not only saw Ender's Game on the bookshelf at B&N, but I also carried it around the store with me and decidedly skipped putting it back on the shelf before checking out. When I got home, I began reading. I wasn't ten pages in before I knew that I was reading an extraordinary book. And now that I'm finished...well, suffice it to say that I am utterly blown away. Though part of me is still wondering what on Earth (or off it, I guess) I just read.

There are some very strange qualities to the book, some of which I'm not sure I'll ever get over (children fighting children will never be something I'd like to read about), but overall, this is a book that inspires thinking--both good and bad. All the strategy, the psychoanalyzing, the twists; it's a kind of twisted adventure you never knew you wanted to go on. It was published 28 years ago, yet still applies to us today. And good luck finding anything that marks the story as out of date. You won't.

But I digress. I highly doubt the world needs another full-fledged Ender's Game review. But I don't mind giving it a full five stars, anyway. This is the kind of book that can't be replicated.

Also, I think maybe--just maybe--I'll start picking up classics more often. This isn't the first time I've been blindsided by a book I had subconsciously benched.

Temp. Guide