Reviews tagging 'Racism'

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

10 reviews

aylasultana's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I used to read this book all the time as a kid. I spent a lot of time playing science fiction role play games with my friends online, and the parts of this story that focused on the game and on the null-G battle room fueled a lot of young-me's imagination and storytelling at the time. It wasn't until I was an adult that I better understood the philosophical and religious references that Card bleeds into his prose, but rereading it now didn't bother me too much.  What did bother me was how long it took me to notice that there is racist language and a casual slur-drop in this book.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Racism and Racial slurs

miastr's review against another edition

adventurous dark sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Animal death, War, and Racial slurs

Moderate: Death, Sexism, Child death, Racism, and Violence

directorpurry's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

1.0

Perpetuates antisemitic conspiracy theories. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Xenophobia, Child abuse, Antisemitism, War, Violence, and Genocide

Moderate: Racism and Homophobia

janang3l's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Religious bigotry, Racism, Bullying, and Violence

cmccoy13's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I really really love this book, it’s definitely one of my favorites. But it’s low score is due to the anti-semitism, misogyny and so on. But otherwise, it’s a beautiful book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Animal death, Child abuse, Medical trauma, War, Ableism, Antisemitism, Blood, Bullying, Child death, Colonisation, Death, Genocide, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Racial slurs, Racism, Violence, Emotional abuse, Grief, and Torture

megantall's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexism, Antisemitism, and Racism

shieldbearer's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Ender's Game is a classic for a reason. While one or two moments are cringy by today's standards, Ender's Game is definitely one of those novels that everyone should read at least once. Exploring such themes as culpability, communication and manipulation, Ender's Game really reads like it was plucked from the minds of its characters.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Bullying, and Child abuse

Moderate: Child death, Confinement, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Genocide, Racial slurs, Colonisation, Racism, Violence, and Xenophobia

Bullying- happens very often in the text Child abuse- the premise of the entire book is Ender's emotional abuse at the hands of the government War- while combat itself isnt' described, it's a topic of frequent discussion Child death-

Bonzo and Stilson

both die over the course of the book. Violence- bully encounters and conflict erupt into violence a few times Genocide-

the entire Bugger race is wiped out, or nearly so

Xenophobia- alien Buggers are hated by humans racism/racial slurs- earlier editions of the novel have the N-slur and the K-slur, but it has been edited out of later editions. Confinement-

Ender is unable to leave Eros after winning the war

Animal cruelty/Animal death-

Peter takes to torturing and killing squirrels

taelights's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No

2.5

The book was pretty interesting and had so many cool twists, some of which I didn't expect at all. It's slow at times and took me a bit to get into but I ended up really enjoying listening to this audiobook.

The author is a piece of shit which takes away some enjoyment from the book. I probably would have rated it a slightly higher star (3 or 3.5?) than what I did if it wasn't for the author of the series wasn't a homophobic mormon asshole.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Forced institutionalization, Genocide, Murder, Racial slurs, Racism, Torture, Violence, and War

alexander_'s review against another edition

adventurous funny mysterious relaxing fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Violence, and Bullying

Moderate: Blood, War, Vomit, Torture, Sexual violence, Sexual content, Racial slurs, Racism, Injury/Injury detail, and Body shaming

Minor: Pedophilia

poetskings's review

adventurous emotional hopeful reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

“Humanity does not ask us to be happy. It merely asks us to be brilliant on its behalf.” 

 

Ender’s Game will always be one of my favourite books. It resonates with me in a way that few other books do, and Scott Card creates a world that is both easy to fall into and wholly believable. These are twelve year olds who are being forced into committing atrocities because the human race can’t believe for even a moment that any other species might be interested in peace. 

 

While yes, I know that Orson Scott Card is kind of an awful person, and some of his less savoury views come across clearly in this book (misogyny is basically coded into every character from the get-go and reading a six year old say the n-word with a hard -er is incredibly jarring to say the least), I can’t help but believe in and root for these characters as the adults increasingly become the enemy. 

 

I don’t think I’ll ever read the rest of the series, but Ender’s Game is a classic, and that’s a label it deserves.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Gore, and Violence

Moderate: Murder, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, and Racism

Minor: Sexism