Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card

From The New York Times Book Review, Gerald Jonas
. . . an affecting novel full of surprises that seem inevitable once they are explained. The key, of course, is Ender Wiggin himself. Mr. Card never makes the mistake of patronizing or sentimentalizing his hero. Alternately likable and insufferable, his is a convincing little Napoleon in short pants.

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No, Mr. Card certainly never patronizes or sentimentalizes Ender. And that's what makes the book so weird. As a sci-fi novel, it's perfectly cool; the dialogue is what you'd expect, the writing is so-so, the imaginative qualities are excellent, but the main characters are little kids. Preternaturally brilliant little kids, grant you, but kids just the same. And honestly, it's hard to remember that. So it gives the book a rather unusual dynamic. Beyond that, though, it's a pretty good read. The descriptions of all the War Games sound awfully fun...can't wait for anti-grav laser tag. On the more literary side, though, Card actually does an admirable job of probing the inner workings of humanity. Surrounding the brilliant little boy is a big problem ... that's been dealt with in a tragically thoughtless fashion. I greatly enjoyed (well, sort of) Ender's struggles within himself to reconcile the part of him that is "human" with the part of him that is "monster". (Working hard for no spoilers, here.) The climax (as opposed to the ending) is sad on multiple levels, most of which have to do with humanity's stupidity. Actually, I suppose that "stupidity" could also be interpreted as "survival instinct," in which case it's hard to place blame in such a fashion.

...In thinking about it, I have an argument for it merely being stupidity. But to post that here would be necessarily spoiler-rich, so I won't.

Again, I'll recommend, but more for the sci-fi lover than for anyone with general literary interests. Science fiction writers so seldom have a way with the language. It's not so ridiculously sci-fi as to be utterly avoided if you've an aversion to such things, however. Somewhere in between Stranger in a Strange Land and Snowcrash on the geek scale, I'd say.