Thursday, July 12, 2012

Ender's Game

Yesterday was crazy busy and I ended up not being able to finish my post. Sorry. :( Here it is though!

The week before last I talked about a book I was starting called Barnaby Grimes: Return of the Emerald Skull. As it turns out the target audience was a little younger than I had first realized, but it was still enjoyable. It was interesting because it was kind of a "thriller/horror" for young people, so it was somewhat creepy. Had I been the age it was intended for it would have been pretty intense. As it is, I've already seen Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, which is kind of the adult version of this book.

So, now that I've finished I can move onto the next book. I had a book waiting but I've decided to bump it back and read Ender's Game. That's right. I have never read Ender's Game. I don't know how a huge Sci-Fi fan like myself has gotten this far in life without reading it, but I've decided it's past time and needs to be done.

Ooooo it's the Author's Definitive Edition
Part of my decision to finally read it is based on it basically being required reading in the sci-fi world, while the other part is preparation for next year's scheduled movie version of the classic. I guess I won't ever have the fondness for the book that long time fans have, but I want to have an opinion already in place when the movie comes out. With some movies I don't feel it's always necessary to read the book. I've seen lots of movies that were originally books and never read the book, but in this instance I feel like it's more important. I want to like this story. I want to see what people see in it. I don't want my first impression of the story to be a poorly done movie. Or a story that's not as deep. Or a movie where the depth of emotion that might be present in the book is left unreached.

Don't get me wrong. I want the movie to be good. I like things I've heard about it. I'm excited about the people involved in it. Check out the Internet Movie Database page. It's got Han Solo, er, Harrison Ford. Oddly enough it also has Han Soto. That's right. Harrison Ford is acting in a movie with Han Soto. Anyway, my point being I don't want to get attached to something I think is cool and then when I read the original work that is actually much better I can't appreciate it because I'm too attached to a poor reflection.

I don't know if I'll read any of the other ones or just leave it at the first one. I guess it depends on whether it leaves me with a need for more.

Is anyone else excited for the movie? Is anyone a big fan of the book? Does anyone know why blog questions at the end of posts are always in italics?

2 comments:

  1. Sup, I'm commenting on your blog posts...yeah...that just happened.

    What that means is that I'll be expecting you to comment on my blog posts, whenever I choose to actually start making them that is. Also, we'll see how long it takes for you to actually realize that I commented on this since it wasn't your most recent one. Like do you get notifications, or do you just have to realize it?

    Anyway, I never read this book either, and I feel like I should. In fact it's been a long time since I've read a book at all, and I've bought books recently too. Orson Scott Card wrote the story to the Xbox game Advent Rising, and it was essentially unfinished because there were supposed to be two more games, but it didn't sell well. That's too bad because the story was kinda awesome.

    I never pictured you (or myself) as being all about Blog Life (if I had photoshop I would totally link to an image of Tupac that said "Thug Life" but with "Thug" replaced with "Blog.") But there has been a sort of explosion recently whereupon everyone is blogging all the time. I'm sorta scared, like, if I don't start doing it I'm gonna get left behind or something. I do have a blog I just never put anything on it. Anyway, now who's rambling? Oh snap!

    Let me know if this book is good though I should read it too. Also I'm pretty sure "author's definitive edition" just means he added a bunch of bad 90's CGI which didn't really improve on anything except toy sales. Just sayin'.

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  2. Sorry to burst your bubble but yes, it does notify me. On the bright side you don't have to wait weeks or longer for a reply!

    I would definitely recommend reading it. I don't really like giving resounding praise of books I really enjoy, because I find that I am really good at overhyping things. Suffice it to say I really enjoyed it. Most of the book seems to be spent inside Ender's brain and I really enjoyed the... social strategy (?) that he used. I might have connected with the way he thought a bit too much. I'll probably go into more depth about why I liked it in some future post.

    I'm confused now. I was going to go check your blog to make sure you hadn't posted anything recently that I had somehow missed, but it's disappeared from my subscription list. Then I tried to search for it, but couldn't find it. Post the link? The idea of us as bloggers is kind of funny. I definitely think you should get to work on your blog, though I suppose it's good to remember that sometimes people are left behind because they didn't jump off the bridge with the rest of their friends.

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