iLoveBooks28

(This review was already posted about a month ago.)

With the movie coming out in November and my friends pushing me to read it, I had high expectations for Ender's Game. It's one of those books that everyone raves about, and I would argue that it has become a sort of modern classic. Whilst reading it at school, I had at least four different people who I don't normally talk to about books tell me how much they love it.

Maybe I was expecting too much from it, or maybe I'm just weird. While I really enjoyed Ender's Game, I didn't love it. 

This could be my fault: I was reading it during AP exam week, and had to put off reading time for study time. It took me over a week to finish this average-sized book (and this is coming from someone who ususally reads 2 books a week). Also because of exams, I wasn't fully focused on the book. I was more worried about passing than finishing the current chapter.

In general, Ender's Game was one of the more slowly paced sci-fi books I've read. Yes, there were battles. Yes, there were actual fights. But only a few fights were actually explained in detail. When Ender gets to Battle School and fights with his team in the battleroom, it's really only explained the first time, so the reader could get a grasp of what the fights actually were. I think it might have been better if all or most of the fights were explained in detail instead of simply saying, "We won the next fight, but [insert number here] were damaged..." and things of the like.

Another thing I disliked was the fact that the only character who is consistently in the book was Ender. I really loved Peter, Valentine, Petra, Bean, Dink and so many more, but each of them were only in the book for a few chapters at a time. As Ender moves from one army to the next, characters from the previous army are sort of left behind until they all reunite in the end. 

I'm making it sound like I really hated this book. I didn't, I promise. I really loved all of the game simulations and the games themselves. They were so realistic and cool, especially since this book was written so long ago. The desks almost resemble today's tablets (iPad, Kindle Fire...). The characters (while they were in the book) were amazing. The setting, in space, was so interesting and cool! It makes me sort of wish I could live in space (although, on second thought, not really). There were so many things about this book that I loved.

Now, I am quite angry with the publisher or whoever it was who wrote the summary on the back of the book. They completely gave away one of the big spoilers in the ending! I'm not going to say what it was, because spoilers, but if you ever see a copy of this book and you haven't read the book yet, do not read the synopsis. It sort of ruined the ending for me. :(

In general, I really liked Ender's Game. I don't know if or when I will read the rest of the series, because I've heard that the first book is so much better, but this one was definitely a great read. Check it out if you haven't already!