It's the End...

[ElephantGuts]

Thank you for making this review, though you were a little late. I had to read this book for school over the summer, and just last month I wrote a review for it. Of course it was horrible, since it's for school. But if you wrote this then I would've paid you to use it. Not that I would expect you to let me.

But besides that little dissapointment, it was a great review. I really focused on the faults regarding the characters as well, and said a lot of similar things to you, so the best part of this review is reassuring me that I'm not crazy.

In fact, you said just aobut everything I did, just a lot better worded and...overall better. I wish I could've written this. Great review though.

 

[Dr Spaceman]

Maybe it's just that I disagree with you on this book, but I just don't feel like you provided really much of any evidence to support most of your claims. While I'll agree that the administration's actions throughout the book were a bit contrived and served only to "advance the plot," there was really little to no specific discussion of the characters. Writing a detailed review, as I believe you are doing, totally justifies taking up a paragraph or two to discuss Bean, Ender's siblings, and other characters at the Battle School in order to more clearly make your point.

I guess my point is that my perspective on the novel has not really changed or even really been challenged for the most part. With a little more depth, I really do think that a better argument could be made. Please note, I am really trying to only offer some constructive criticism here, and I think it's pretty brave to post something like this for people to dissect on the Internet.

 

[milskidasith]

In fact, you said just aobut everything I did, just a lot better worded and...overall better. I wish I could've written this. Great review though.

Thanks for the compliment.

Maybe it's just that I disagree with you on this book, but I just don't feel like you provided really much of any evidence to support most of your claims. While I'll agree that the administration's actions throughout the book were a bit contrived and served only to "advance the plot," there was really little to no specific discussion of the characters. Writing a detailed review, as I believe you are doing, totally justifies taking up a paragraph or two to discuss Bean, Ender's siblings, and other characters at the Battle School in order to more clearly make your point.

That's just the thing, Spaceman. If I used two paragraphs to describe the characters, I'd literally be giving them more personality than Card did in his entire book (Ender's Shadow series excluded, which raises a few plotholes on Bean's personality... and then handwaves them in the epilogue saying that any errors were just the (third person) narator recalling differently in each book.

But if you really want my prognosis on the characters for Enders game:

Valentine: Self doubting Mary Sue genius who doesn't like violence. IE, Ender after killing somebody.

Peter: Supremely confident Mary Sue genius who likes violence, power, and control, IE Ender whenever he is threatened.

Bean: Take any generic soldier, make him shorter and younger than Ender, and have him feel like he deserves leadership and you have Bean in a legume shell.