Your comments on reddit and this article (and some background Wikipedia) spurred me to reread Ender's Game in a free moment last night ... and it's complete tripe. Not even primarily for the reasons you mentioned (in my opinion). The simple fucking fact is that the man can't write children (very few can), and writing children is the basis of the novel. Does everyone who fell over themselves praising the book when it was adapted miss the fact that no child has ever acted like that or talked like that ever, including the extremely smart ones? Man, it was a rough read. And I even managed to enjoy the sequels (the ones about adults) for the scifi, Card's politics not withstanding. You know who could write children? I may lose you here, but CS Lewis could write children. So could Lloyd Alexander, to a lesser extent and within context. I find Philip Pullman's children bearable. But Orson Scott Card just misses by a damn mile. Rant over.