SK

Just awful. Like Final season of Game of Thrones awful. Except less happens.

I've read maybe a handful of books twice. And only one or two 3 times. I have read Ender's Game more than a dozen times (I've listened to the audiobook 2 or 3 times through). It is most definitely my favorite book of all time.

Update after 2023 re-read: This re-read was the first time that I felt the book wasn't a perfect 10/10. The book just doesn't hit the same way at 40 years old as it did when I was 10 or 20. It was still a very enjoyable book. Nobody writes characters quite like Card. He conveys and internal emotional life that maybe only Robert Charles Wilson and Robin Hobb can match.

I really loved this book with some major reservations. Overall, the story was thoroughly engaging. I have always enjoyed Niven's somewhat dry style. The Earth is struck by an almost world ending meteor. We see the lead up to the strike and then the slow recovery of civilization in one small area (Southern California). The major flaw is that the only group of black characters in the book just happen to become a roving band of cannibals. It's not unreasonable to think that some people might resort to cannibalism, but to make the only black characters the only cannibals... If you simply make this group a mixed group it in no way changes the overall story but makes it far less racist.

On some days I think this book is the best of the series and on other days I think it's Ender's Game. This book explores some philosophical ideas in ways that Ender's Game never does. The speech Ender gives as Speaker for Marcao still brings me to tears every time. However, Ender is a bit too perfect. He just walks into a room and instantly analyzes every person perfectly and immediately says the exact right words to changes the hearts and minds of those around him. I still love this book, but just like its predecessor, Ender's Game, I no longer hold with quite the same level of reverence.

The perfect 5. No flaws that make this book particularly bad. But nothing stands out that makes it particularly good either. Its like a Star Trek episode that I might skip on a re-watch. Or not. Depending on my mood.