Beckee's random thoughts on Ender's Game

Well, a few things about Ender's Game. First, SOOO glad it was recommended for book club so I re-read it after many, many years. Re-reading it made it very clear how poor my memory is, or maybe how much age changes your perspective on a book. I still really enjoyed it, but could not help but think of this world where they are sending a 6-year-old Ender to Battle school where he is training for the wars. My own Ender is 6 now...different viewpoint as a parent. As a younger kid/tween/teen reading this, it was an awesome book where I cast my friends and myself as these kids off saving the world. As a mom I found myself constantly reminded that these are babies, and realistically, and government that wanted to use kids this way would be nuts. I would not trust the fate of the human race to children.

That being said, I really do enjoy this book. I love reading from Ender's POV about what is going on. He's a genius, but he never suspects this is the real thing at all. He just thinks the grown ups are stacking the cards against him to unfairly beat him. I love that he is so childlike in that part of his thinking. Those kinds of things made me smile.

I love that other characters are developed as well. I love the collection of trusted friends he makes throughout the book, and my favorite moment of the whole book is when he realized that those trusted friends are his squadron leaders! LOVE that!

I always dislike Peter, and I am never really convinced that I like Valentine. I do remember that in later books when it is more from Peter's view that I liked him better. I will be re-reading all these books.

Here is a thought I kept having though. Why do you think in the "Ender's Shadow" series did Card choose to write about Bean? Why not Alai, for example? Just a thought...I love Bean and love that group of books, but as I read this one as it's own book, I wondered a lot why Alai was not the one in "Ender's Shadow."

Did anyone read this book for the first time this month? If so, I would love to hear your thoughts on it...