Reviews with content warning for Murder - Ender's Game

Reviews tagging 'Murder'

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

26 reviews

onyxisalive's review against another edition

dark emotional medium-paced

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

2.5

This book was alright. Some parts of it I liked- I enjoyed the exploration of is it okay to do monstrous things for the sake of survival? That was very interesting. However,

the fact is that they are abusing children, it isn’t older people that are making the choices, you see this young child being forced and manipulated into doing things he wouldn’t have willingly done. The fact that there are no consequences is interesting and sad. It would’ve been nice at the end to see the guilt of the adults and the people that did this instead of nothing. As a result, the theme feels under explored. I don’t have an issue with the lack of consequences, as I think that is pretty unrealistic, but the emotional consequences and the fact that there are characters that could call out (at least internally) how wrong this was, yet didn’t, is a little strange.

The book really lagged in the middle, and the pace was all over the place. Years were skipped in sentences whereas other points really dragged. The book would go from really exploring the emotional impact on Ender, to these action sequences. It felt quite jarring and left the emotional moments feeling really skipped over and under explored.
The action sequences were fine. The writing was fine.
Overall, this was alright. I feel kind of disappointed as the parts of the book I did find interesting, in the end were so under explored it felt really meh. There was so much more to say about those things, and because of the way things are left it kind of comes across like the author is excusing

the things done to Ender rather than exploring the lengths humans will go to for survival (and all the moral complications that come with it).

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tomel's review against another edition

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adventurous dark medium-paced

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

1.5

The best thing I can say about Ender's Game is that it is bad in fascinating ways. There are so many intersections of awful in this book that I will probably never stop thinking about it. But it is an extremely bad book about how

a group of naked racist/misogynist children (plus one tomboy) are trained by the Eugenically Perfect War Messiah to commit a genocide but it's okay because they're going to adopt the new generation of the people they killed and raise them as their own.

Imagine if Paul Atreides was really into laser tag and felt the White Man's Burden and gave himself the occasional n-word pass. I strongly suspect that the book must have been significantly changed since the 1991 edition I read, because there's stuff in here that should be at least as notorious as the scene in the sewer in IT and nobody talks about them.

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katydied's review against another edition

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adventurous dark medium-paced

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

4.75

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fmr37's review against another edition

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fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No

4.5

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shinsreading's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

have reread this book countless of times now, it’s just so good. every time i’m sad or feeling lonely, i find myself gravitating towards Ender’s Game to ground myself

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saskiahill's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No

5.0

Brilliant audiobook, really well performed. The book is clever, engaging and surprising - I'm listening for the first time as I near 30 and it's still relatable and brilliant, by no means just a kids book.

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