{"id":1790,"date":"2010-03-29T16:17:06","date_gmt":"2010-03-29T20:17:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/?p=1790"},"modified":"2010-03-29T16:25:29","modified_gmt":"2010-03-29T20:25:29","slug":"enders-game-by-orson-scott-card","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/enders-game-by-orson-scott-card\/","title":{"rendered":"Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"“I’ve watched through his eyes, I’ve listened through his ears, and I tell you he’s the one.\u00a0 Or at least as close as we’re goign to get.<\/em><\/p>\n

“That’s what you said about the brother.”<\/em><\/p>\n

“The brother tested out impossible.\u00a0 For other reasons.\u00a0 Nothing to do with his ability.”<\/em><\/p>\n

“Same with the sister.\u00a0 And there are doubts about him.\u00a0 He’s too malleable.\u00a0 Too willing to submerge himself in someone else’s will.”<\/em><\/p>\n

“Not if the other person is his enemy.”<\/em><\/p>\n

“So what do we do?\u00a0 Surround him with enemies all the time?”<\/em><\/p>\n

“If we have to.”<\/em><\/p>\n

“I thought you said you liked this kid.”<\/em><\/p>\n

“If the buggers get him, they’ll make me look like his favorite uncle.”<\/em><\/p>\n

“All right.\u00a0 We’re saving the world, after all.\u00a0 Take him.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Thus begins one of the greatest SF classics of all time, Ender’s Game.<\/em> With such a spectacular beginning, it only keeps getting better.<\/p>\n

I decided to reread Ender’s Game<\/em> because a friend of mine in Washington was reading it.\u00a0 I read this book back in high school in only two sittings–the first twenty pages in the library, and the rest back home, where I finished it wide-eyed at three in the morning.\u00a0 I didn’t regret a single moment of it, then or now.<\/p>\n

One of the most fascinating things to me about this book is the way that Orson Scott Card breaks almost all of the rules of writing.\u00a0 On every page, he “tells” much more than he “shows”–some of the battles he glosses over in only a couple of paragraphs.\u00a0 He gives only minimal setting details, and very few of these are visceral or concrete–it’s very hard to “get into” the world of Ender’s Game<\/em> the way you would with a fantasy novel.\u00a0 Most of the characterization consists of “navel gazing”–Ender thinking to himself about how bad things are, rather than taking action.<\/p>\n

Breaking these rules, however, is exactly the thing that makes this a good book.\u00a0 The story isn’t in the setting, or in the nitty gritty of the battles–it’s in Ender’s mind, how he reacts to the forces around him, and how those forces change him. “Telling” rather than “showing” allows him to keep the pace at a breakneck, thrilling speed while cutting out unnecessary details, and the “navel gazing” allows us to get an intimate picture of Ender’s mind.<\/p>\n

It goes to show that good writing isn’t just about knowing the rules, but knowing how to break them.\u00a0 And when it comes to plot, character, pacing, foreshadowing, thematic elements, and the hero cycle, Orson Scott Card proves his masterful brilliance in this work beyond a doubt.<\/p>\n

One of the most fascinating things about this book is that it hits all eight points of the Campbellian monomyth.\u00a0 This excellent article<\/a> (originally published in Leading Edge<\/em>) explains how.\u00a0 The most incredible thing to me is that the year after Ender’s Game<\/em> came out, Orson Scott Card did it all again–wrote a blockbuster book hitting all eight points of the monomyth–with Speaker for the Dead, <\/em>which I think is a superior book.<\/p>\n

Ender’s Game<\/em> is a true classic of the science fiction genre.\u00a0 Not only is it a highly entertaining story, it is deeply meaningful and insightful as well.\u00a0 It’s one of those books you can reread multiple times, and it only keeps getting better.\u00a0 Whether or not you’re a fan of science fiction, this is a book you will deeply benefit from reading.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“I’ve watched through his eyes, I’ve listened through his ears, and I tell you he’s the one.\u00a0 Or at least as close as we’re goign to get. “That’s what you said about the brother.” “The brother tested out impossible.\u00a0 For other reasons.\u00a0 Nothing to do with his ability.” “Same with the sister.\u00a0 And there are… Continue reading Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[379,112,324,319,166,380,134],"class_list":["post-1790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-beginnings","tag-character","tag-orson-scott-card","tag-pacing","tag-setting","tag-the-heros-journey","tag-writing-advice","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7iXK-sS","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1790","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1790"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1790\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1805,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1790\/revisions\/1805"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}