Book Review: Ender’s Game

*I also posted this on my tumblr blog – it was just too good a book to just mention there

I just finished ENDER’S GAME, by Orson Scott Card, and I was honestly
blown away. What a great read! While it is true I have been reading
more mundane, down-to-Earth literature of late [MAINSTREET, KIM, THE
RAINBOW], I found this novel to be so well written and well-paced – not
to mention downright fun to read – I found myself halfway through it
after the first day and finished with it in another day and a half.

The pacing reminds me of many of John Grisham novels, where some invisible
rope seems to pull the reader through the book. Part of that is the
cool-factor. The kind of cool found only in good science fiction – born
out of an interesting premise, laced with new ideas along the way, and
topped off with something of a twist at the end. This is the kind of
book that makes one sad to be through with – my only consolation is
that I also bought the sequel to ENDER’S GAME, SPEAKER FOR THE DEAD.
[From what I’ve read, this one is good too, but entirely different]

I’m not going to go into what this book is about – there are many themes
and interesting aspects to it, but suffice it to say that this is a
MUST for any sci-fi fan and a strong recommendation for everyone else
(but be warned, this might get a person hooked on sci-fi).

My score: 5 out of 5

Book Review: Starship Troopers

There was nothing wrong with this book. It was fine. Really. It’s just.
Well. (I didn’t want to get into this but here goes) It was kinda
boring.

Yeah. To me, this book felt like a war documentary – I think it was the
lack of exciting plot, more than anything – Heinlein was masterful in
skewing the world we know into a believable futuristic world, a
realistic world, full of cool ideas and concepts, but it was just a
little too dull.

Allow me to summarize: a youngster joins up with the “Mobile Infantry”,
is sent through boot camp, war breaks out against bug-like aliens,
youngster rises slowly through the ranks . . . and . . . that’s it. No
twist. No big finish.

Seriously, the first few chapters I was smiling to myself. “This is
gonna be great,” I thought. And it was, but again, the exciting plot
failed to show itself. So, my verdict: if you’re a hard-core Sci-fi
fan, you’ll be reading this anyway, but if not, don’t bother with this
one (though it is a quick read at around 208 pages).

My score: 3 out of 5