Ender's Game

If you're at all into science fiction, you will no doubt recognize this as a classic. Orson Scott Card made his name with this novel, an insightful study in to human nature combined with great storytelling, a cool plot, and a great twist at the end. The sequel also got heaps of praise, but to be honest I was not nearly as impressed with it. However there is a parallel book that he wrote years later called "Ender's Shadow" which I also recommend as a companion volume. It fleshes out the original without compromising it or introducing any contradictions in plot.

I have decided to post about the books I read (quite obviously) -- I think it'll help me think critically about them, and hopefully it'll give you something interesting to read. Perhaps you'll even pick up a book or two and read it.

I decided of course to start this out with a less common genre than the fiction novels or historical studies that I'll probably post more steadily on. Science fiction has been one of my standbys for a long long time......a good sci-fi novel is a brilliant work of creation, and I take umbrage with those who don't classify good sci-fi writing as 'real literature'. I like them in particular because I can read them over and over and over and still not get tired of them (the good ones at least). They have been my escape world for many a year now, and I really do enjoy them immensly, although they do sometimes leave me a little wanting for subtelty of plot or complexity of storyline.

All that being said, read Ender's Game if you have never done so. Or if you want to get a little meatier, I can recommend many others. One of my favorite authors is Asimov (no surprises there). Read the Foundation Series.....that's really brilliant stuff. Even decades after it was written.