Game Over
Just finished Ender's Game, which I picked up on the recommendation of the good doctor and the other good doctor. Well, I should have read the comments to those posts more closely because now I feel a little like Treppenwitz. There's, like, seven of these things that I have to read? I don't have time for this.

In fact, the only way I found time for this one was to get the audiobook from the library and listen to it on my not-so-long commute. It made me hate the Valentine character, because the actress who read the parts where she was the focus (the tape featured several actors instead of just one reader) is insufferable. Her line readings are all the same, breathy and whiny at the same time. I was hoping a baby bugger would burst out of her chest of something.

I'm surprised neither of you guys mentioned the smattering of Jewish mentions in the book. Namely, that Israelis and Jews in general were supposedly considered the best warriors, or maybe just commanders or something. This idea was mentioned but not depicted - in fact, the only identified Jewish character was something of a, well, putz. (By the way, did you know that Orson Scott Card has written at least three novels about the Matriarchs? You know, Sarah, Rebeccah, et al? No word on whether or not they can commune with giant insects.)

The tape ended with an afterword recorded by the author. Apparently he was an early user of some text-only network (I guess they were all text-only until a certain point) - possibly Delphi? So the blogging thing wasn't quite a prophecy. But I'll give you the first-person video games.

Okay, here's the spoiler warning: read no further if you don't want to know about the ending.

And... the ending. But which one? The first ending, where he wins the war... I think it was obvious that he was playing for all the marbles. But I admit I didn't stop to think that all of his post-Mazer-meeting games were the real thing. I thought everything moved a little too fast after that. The war on the secret asteroid or whatever that broke out immediately after the end of the bugger war could have been its own book, probably. Or at least from there to the end of the book.

The part where he finds the cocoon was pretty freaky. But I have to admit, up until that point, where the buggers' feelings were explicitly expressed, I didn't have much sympathy for his reservations. I guess that was the whole point, that he was Mr. Empathy, but until I heard otherwise they were just bugs, for the love o' mike. Okay, fine, it's tragic that they couldn't communicate with the humans. To me, it would have had more resonance if either a.) it wasn't buggers vs. humans but maybe buggers vs. some other evolved human-like animals or b.) there was a twilight-zone twist where what ender was told was the bugger world was really earth, or a competing human race from another galaxy, or whatever. I mean, all he could see on the screen were blips (kind of like those old mattel electronic football games, I imagine). But, of course, that would have been much more of a cliche.

Since current events are always, um, current in my mind, I couldn't help thinking about the war on terror. I mean, there are people who try to humanize the enemy, but it really is get them or they'll get you at this point. Fine, fine, not the entire Arab population but the terrorists themselves. So I didn't love that whole aspect of it.

And, hey, maybe in a later book he hatches the buggers and they freakin' eat his head. And say, "we're baaaaack!" and you can't feed them after midnight. But I doubt it.

Also, and I realize this was kind of the whole point as well, I didn't love that they were all kids. And really little kids, at that. Yes, I realize there are children in armies in the world today. But I don't think they are the commanders, or reading Euclid at age 5. Throw in a little good ol fashioned homoeroticism and you have a bit of a creepy vibe going there.

Oh, yeah, the whole religion thing at the end. Pretty tired.

And yet I was engrossed, and couldn't wait to get back in my car for more, didn't mind being stuck in traffic, and, yes, I've reserved the next book-on-tape in the series at the library. (Sadly the Valentine voice is still the same actress.) (Oh, and if it really is all about the religion then I might have to take a magnet to the tape before I return it.)

Finally, I'd just like to say, Dr. Bean is really my six-year-old sister. - served up by Ralphie @ 10:03 PM