That shit ain't vintage, yo, it's still clogging up my inbox!
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.
I haven't read it since I was fifteen, I think. I had read the short story in this amazing tome when I was in 5th grade and found it amazing; I read the novel and was annoyed that the basic "here is a troubled kid that is getting the shit kicked out of him who retaliates by flipping over the card table" motif had been replaced by this messianic diversion involving brothers and eugenics and world politics and proteges and other off-the-spine bullshit that didn't serve much purpose. I then read Speaker for the Dead (because that's what you do) and found it to be a good, if forgettable read. I plowed through Xenocide and could not give a shit about the teddy bear trees, particularly as they're flagrant rip-offs of H Beam Piper's Fuzzies twisted through an OSC-colored lens. Ewoks, at least, are endearing. You might enjoy this link. it was, in my opinion, the highlight of that entire OSC discussion. It appears no one else has the patience for it; I found that although I haven't read Ender's Game in 20 years, I found myself saying "Oh yeah!" a lot. Friend of mine turned down storyboarding the Ender's Game movie (he went with Joseph Kosinski's Oblivion instead). He hadn't read the book. It was pitched to the crew as "Harry Potter in Space."
Will read that article. It was pitched to the crew as "Harry Potter in Space." Awful, awful, he made the right -- the only -- decision. Awful.Friend of mine turned down storyboarding the Ender's Game movie (he went with Joseph Kosinski's Oblivion instead). He hadn't read the book.