The few folks I've talked to about this book were pretty enthusiastic, so I set out with decent expectations of a nice sci-fi read. I'm sorry to say that more pages I turn, the more it's coming from a sense of duty to finish this book than an interest to see where the storyline goes.
The main thing that I think is supposed to be the "hook" for the story has failed to grab me: that the warriors in this world, and particularly in the main character Ender's case, are children.
Admittedly, I think I was set up to be resistant to the hook by a line - one single, eensey sentence - fairly early in the story when Ender was being recruited. He asked something about whether there were girls in the Battle School. His recruiter said that there were a few, but that females in general had evolution working against their favor in becoming soldiers.
That stopped my reading dead in its tracks. What? There wasn't anything in the setup of this alternative reality thus far indicating that women were especially different. The assertion came completely out of the blue, and as such bore all the significance of an author-ial device that would insert into the narrative an explanation for why the writer didn't include many female characters: because the author, for whatever reason, didn't want to deal with them. The stupidity of that move grinded increasingly into the back of my mind as I've read, because the secondary agents receive effectively zero character development - they could be utterly sex-less (excepting the few cases where someone gets kicked in the balls) as far as the story's concerned. So why not include females? Methinks I detect a hint of sexism, and it isn't stymied by the fact that one of the lead characters is female: Ender's sister, Valentine. But now, 7/8ths of the way through the book, she is a female mainly is all the cliched senses: empathetic, loving, and supportive. She's a bit rebellious, but it all is performed under the devices of being agreeable and submissive.
So anyway, with that irritation flagging away in the back of my consciousness, still I read on. And the tragic note that I think supposed to be sounded in the story - Child Soldiers! - I'm just not getting lured in. There's no clear tension. For all of the behavior and inner experiences that are revealed, the characters could just as well be adults, and the ONLY thing that creates a pause in my mind as I read along is an occasional tag to the effect of a character saying "but I'm only 11 years old," or, "this is a pretty serious political movement we're causing, especially considering we've got only 8 pubic hairs between the two of us."
Without sentences like that, the reader can effortlessly forget that the characters are anywhere from 8 to 16 years old. At best, it's a repackaging of stereotypes - the ineffective leader, the efficient soldier with a conscience, the plucky underdog who rises to the occasion - inserted into different, younger bottles. Yawn.
One might say, my easy acceptance of the story's premise evidences the tragedy, the acceptance of child killers, err, children who are killers. I say: absolutely not. If there is a dramatic tension between childhood innocence (or whatever - honestly, I can't tell what the author thinks is so dramatically at stake) and ruthless behavior, it is the author's job to bring it. And the author needs to bring it by more than a counting of pubic hairs which, as executed, comes across like adults with hormonal problems more than anything else. The reader shouldn't have to supply half of the narrative tension him or herself.
At bottom, the story is a gimmick drawn about a single shiney idea the author had when he was young - this zero-gravity Battle Room and suits that cause their wearers to "freeze" if they get hit during practice fights (sort of like laser tag). (More interesting to me are the "desks" that sound an awful lot like the modern-day iPad.) Most of the book's action deals with the Battle Room. But now, as I've gotten to the place where Ender is about to be trained as a Commander, after reading - what? a couple hundred pages of Battle Room interactions? - I can't help but think: what's the effing point?
Now we're on about Star Cruisers and all the ships they carry in preparation for battling against the enemy (which - to flag another frustration - has been one big McGuffin for the whole book) in a way that looks to be conducted in anything but in-person combat. So, absent of devices like teleporters or whatever to get these characters to fight one-on-one, or troop-on-troop, what the FUCK has been the purpose of all the Battle Room training? Unless the ships carrying soldiers - ships which will have GUNS that can BLOW UP other ships, there is no reason for Battle Room training. Unless we get the ships to approach each other, stop, dispel their troops out into the void of space where then they can proceed to shoot each other. Really? This this where we're going in the story? Gawd, I hope not. Far as I'm concerned, this book is one big "fail."
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