Since my three older children read one of the "Ender" books in school (different ones from each other), I assumed that this was a "child fiction" book. Hmmmm. Not sure I would classify it as such after reading it. It was much more sophisticated than I was expecting. I actually googled both Demosthenes and Locke so that I could correlate the real people to the pseudonym of Valentine and Peter, respectively - although they were actually speaking for each other. Of course if you are writing a book about brilliant children, I guess you had better be quite brilliant yourself. I have no doubts as to the intelligence of this author - but I'm second-guessing my own. ;)
I really didn't believe there were "buggers" - or at least that they were gearing up to fight them again. I wasn't even convinced there was actually a Mazer Rackham who "destroyed" them after the bugger's second attack. I thought it was all some game they were playing, sacrificing these young genius children for their own ulterior motives. Or maybe it had something to do with what was going on in the world - with the Russians and the Warsaw Pact and all. Imagine my SURPRISE when we find out that Ender and his "friends" are not playing games at all on Eros, but fighting the buggers! There's a twist I didn't see coming!
I loved Ender Wiggin - the good, bad, and the ugly. I loved his intelligence, his compassion, his ruthlessness when it counted. I hated Peter Wiggin, so it was interesting that he ended up saving lives while Ender destroyed an entire race. Well, apparently not completely. The buggers will rise again I have no doubt with Ender having the Queen Bee in his pocket. We talk about different books having "complex characters". Well, I think this book certainly takes the prize in that category. But, with that being said, I certainly knew who genuinely cared about Ender, even when Ender didn't.
The precision and discipline and ruthlessness of the military mind is present and accounted for. The war-mongers (Demosthenes) and peace-seekers (Locke) are accounted for. The separation of civilians and the military, and the "right" from the "left" are accounted for. I think it is interesting that this is another story about humans (you can insert "Americans" here too!) always thinking they know what's best. We go into other cultures and instill our beliefs, our habits, our diseases, our way of life - and stomp out theirs, often to their detriment. In this case, they killed an entire species without even understanding them. I liked how the buggers "spoke" to Ender by building the set of the game he played. Fortunately, Ender the genius, knew what they had done. That is one smart boy! :)
I was disappointed that the Wiggin children had aged so much by the end of the book. Thankfully Peter was old enough to die on Earth, but I'm hoping that Valentine and Ender are young enough to "take part" in the next book. I'm assuming Ender will be around since he IS "The Speaker for the Dead", but he is certainly going to be older than I expected.
Wendy's Rating: ****
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