Welcome to 2014!

First book of 2014 is Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. Yes, I will get to that controversy, but not immediately.

Y`know how, in the training of seeing eye-dogs or helper dogs in general, that, in order to be a help, much of the dog`s natural personality is completely trained out of it so that their training is the only thing left? That is exactly how I felt about Ender Wiggins.

This poor kid is so thoroughly trained that he is left with no personality. Is that a conscious decision on Card's part? Or is that just my interpretation? I don't know. But all I felt that I'm left with is a kid who, no matter how badly he wants to run off and be a normal kid (although he's not normal to begin with, he's a super, tactical genius), he can't because he's shown too much aptitude for this one thing that the world NEEDS, so he's manipulated and trained and bullied and until yes, he saves the world.

I dunno. I found this book as depressing as all get out. To the point where I did want Ender to rebel and say 'fuck you all, I'm not saving Earth, it doesn't deserve it'. I'm glad there was a little hope at the end. Except for the fact that Ender's sociopathic older brother is now one of those in power back on Earth. That sounds grand...

And basically, I didn't feel that there were any real narrative surprises along the way. I could see what was coming, which, given that I'm not a tactical genius, I felt it was rather unfortunate that I saw through the charade but Ender didn't. Perhaps the only thing that was a bit of  a surprise was the very end where Ender does make an important discovery.

(Ok, now for the controversial part. I did not buy a copy of this book, I read a pirated version of it, sent by a friend (thank you Y!). I feel ok about that. So... knowing what I know of Card's homophobia, did I see much of it in the book, or did I carry that with me as I read? Surprisingly not that much. Yes, there is some taunting that is homophobic, but I really didn't see it as much more than rotten little boys being rotten to one another in a Lord of the Flies kinda way. But otherwise, the only thing that stood out to me was the choice of the epithet 'buggers' to refer to the alien enemy. I either missed it at the beginning or it truly isn't explained until towards the end, that the aliens are an insectoid race. I mean, I had hoped they were and that Card was going with the 'bug' slang and wasn't just being homophobic, but I unfortunately couldn't be sure. Overall, I think I actually found this book slightly misogynist than anything else. I also doubt I will be going on to read any more of his books. For so many reasons, these are just not my cup of tea.)