The Beginning of the Ender

[Earlier in the week I posted a video on YouTube in order to motivate myself to write. In it I stated that anyone could punch me in the arm should I not update my blog once and upload three videos to YouTube. This is said blog post. Want to watch the videos? (1) (2) (3)]

About two weeks ago I finished a book and couldn't decide what to read next. I had been meaning for a while to read Michael Crichton's final book, Micro, but it is still rather pricy as it is only available in hardcover. When it is released paperback or I find it used, I will buy it. I walk into the library, trying to decide what to read. There it sits, highlighted on the shelf: Micro. I check it out.

Getting home, I immediately begin reading it. Mystery and intrigue fill the first chapter. From there it steadily goes downhill. I have no attachment whatsoever to the characters. I know they are going to die, and I don't care. A storyline with a great deal of potential is boring. A far-out, non-scientific event is given a shallow, illogical scientific explanation. I give it about 150 pages before returning it to the library.

The time has come. I have put it off for too long. I will read Ender's Game.

Frankly, I have been afraid to read this book for a considerable amount of time. It is too culturally entrenched. I already hate Lord of the Rings. If I don't love Ender's Game, it's over. I find this to be the favorite book of a lot of nerdy girls, a group I certainly don't want to alienate. "I've never read it," is much better than, "I don't like it." But the time has come. It's being released as a movie next year, and I have to read it before I see the movie.

I shouldn't be afraid of this: this is Orson Scott Card. Don't get me wrong - he has written some crap. This being said, he has also written some amazing stuff. What with the general sense of agreement on which is which, I should not be concerned. Further, I've been told that some of his Seventh Day Adventist themes that seem to be crowbarred into some of his other books (i.e. the later books in the Legends of Alvin Maker series) are absent from this series. Okay, fine, I'll do it. Here we go.

After work on Tuesday I walk up the hill to Half Price Books. I head straight to the sci-fi section. I pick up Ender's Game. I consider buying the rest of the series (or at least the four they have on the shelf), but I'm trying not to spend very much money, so I only buy the first. I check the board games section, but decide not to pick anything up*. Discipline. I do need to remember that they have a deal going next month - buy $25 in gift cards, get a $5 card free.

I brought it home and immediately began reading. Card does not waste our time with background or description of characters. After all, those will be interspersed throughout the story and are not as such necessary at the beginning. The character interactions reveal everything we need to know. We can be thrown straight into the story with little difficulty. And he's got me. We all know what will happen, but how? Oh how?

As of yet, I don't know how. But I'm finding out, and thus far I'm loving it. I will soon go back and buy the rest. I look forward to seeing the movie. And, much like the episode of Seinfeld in which George pretends to be a socialist leader, "the future of the world depends on the outcome of this 'game.'"

*It was very hard not to buy Sid Meier's Civilization: The Boardgame.

[Earlier in the week I posted a video on YouTube in order to motivate myself to write. In it I stated that anyone could punch me in the arm should I not update my blog once and upload three videos to YouTube. This is said blog post. Want to watch the videos? (1) (2) (3)]

About two weeks ago I finished a book and couldn't decide what to read next. I had been meaning for a while to read Michael Crichton's final book, Micro, but it is still rather pricy as it is only available in hardcover. When it is released paperback or I find it used, I will buy it. I walk into the library, trying to decide what to read. There it sits, highlighted on the shelf: Micro. I check it out.

Getting home, I immediately begin reading it. Mystery and intrigue fill the first chapter. From there it steadily goes downhill. I have no attachment whatsoever to the characters. I know they are going to die, and I don't care. A storyline with a great deal of potential is boring. A far-out, non-scientific event is given a shallow, illogical scientific explanation. I give it about 150 pages before returning it to the library.

The time has come. I have put it off for too long. I will read Ender's Game.

Frankly, I have been afraid to read this book for a considerable amount of time. It is too culturally entrenched. I already hate Lord of the Rings. If I don't love Ender's Game, it's over. I find this to be the favorite book of a lot of nerdy girls, a group I certainly don't want to alienate. "I've never read it," is much better than, "I don't like it." But the time has come. It's being released as a movie next year, and I have to read it before I see the movie.

I shouldn't be afraid of this: this is Orson Scott Card. Don't get me wrong - he has written some crap. This being said, he has also written some amazing stuff. What with the general sense of agreement on which is which, I should not be concerned. Further, I've been told that some of his Seventh Day Adventist themes that seem to be crowbarred into some of his other books (i.e. the later books in the Legends of Alvin Maker series) are absent from this series. Okay, fine, I'll do it. Here we go.

After work on Tuesday I walk up the hill to Half Price Books. I head straight to the sci-fi section. I pick up Ender's Game. I consider buying the rest of the series (or at least the four they have on the shelf), but I'm trying not to spend very much money, so I only buy the first. I check the board games section, but decide not to pick anything up*. Discipline. I do need to remember that they have a deal going next month - buy $25 in gift cards, get a $5 card free.

I brought it home and immediately began reading. Card does not waste our time with background or description of characters. After all, those will be interspersed throughout the story and are not as such necessary at the beginning. The character interactions reveal everything we need to know. We can be thrown straight into the story with little difficulty. And he's got me. We all know what will happen, but how? Oh how?

As of yet, I don't know how. But I'm finding out, and thus far I'm loving it. I will soon go back and buy the rest. I look forward to seeing the movie. And, much like the episode of Seinfeld in which George pretends to be a socialist leader, "the future of the world depends on the outcome of this 'game.'"

*It was very hard not to buy Sid Meier's Civilization: The Boardgame.

The Beginning of the Ender