The book was apparently a huge hit with my boys. At least two out of three, anyway. So when I heard it was coming out as a movie, I thought I'd download it to my Kindle Fire and check it out.
The book is about a genius child who gets tabbed for military leadership training in some future society. I don't relate to the story or the main character much at all. In fact, I find the story more than a little disturbing.
Ender's a genius whose life before and after military school is full of bullying and loneliness and isolation. The only part of all that to which I can relate is the loneliness and isolation, which I admit to experiencing as a child. But in my case it wasn't because I was a geek, but because I was painfully and hopelessly shy and lacking in self-confidence.
The book is way ahead of its time, with its focus on computers and gaming. Orson Scott Card seemed to foresee much of the technology that has become today's reality back in the 70's when he wrote the first iteration of this story.
So I need to find out from my sons what they found so compellingly relatable about Ender's Game. Was it the gaming and computers? Was it the way geeky child geniuses are shunned by their peers? Is it because they feel they can't talk to anyone else about serious things, because they think everyone else is an idiot unable to understand their depth of intelligence?
Perhaps I'll go ahead and catch the movie when its released, but unfortunately not because I'm a member of the Ender's Game Fan Club.
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