posted
Okay, I was reading the thread about the Ender's Game movie and didn't want to derail it, but I am curious about something.
In that thread, a discussion has ensued on the "wrong" description of Ender's Game to other people. I find that when I describe the basic plot to people they tune it out immediately, usually as soon as they discover that it is sci-fi. My question is this. How do you describe the book in a (very) brief way so as to get people interested enough to read it?
I'm just curious. Kat
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A gifted child is taken from his parents and enrolled in a special military program. His genius makes him a standout-- and a target. Andrew Wiggin must face persecution, betrayal, loneliness to win "Ender's Game."
That's the Oprah Book Club version...
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A human drama wherein a child genius is manipulated by the military into saving the world from cataclysm. It deals heavily with the moral ambiguity of war, murder and an individual's responsibility to the masses.
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Scott R just did an excellent job of describing the type of viewpoint I would use describing it to someone. It's about Ender, and his conflict, and the manipulation of him, and the ultimate test.
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I would disagree that the Oprah Book Club description would rightfully describe the book's contents. That description could make the entire book consist of matters on Earth, whereas the book is based mostly off of Earth.
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But it describes the the theme of the book perfectly. That's the problem, I think the book is great because of its theme, not its plot. I mean, the idea of threatening aliens was used to bring out Ender's character, to show us who Ender was and how he dealt with one of his life's many challenges. It was not the main focus of the book.
Unfortunately, most people might think it's a book only about war. I felt the book hit close to home for me because I was an outsider with only a few close friends. While I might not be a genius like Ender, I felt like my life was similar to his. I got made fun of a lot as a child, I felt like an outsider. I found myself to be Ender when reading the book. I was a 15-year-old boy at the time.
The book affected different people different ways though. My father and I both had different reasons why we loved the book, but his were far different.
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"Look, if I describe it at all, you won't want to read it. Just go read the book. It's not that long!"
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That's not what I'm saying at all. I'm saying the GREATNESS of the book is its theme, not its plot. It's not like I glaze over the plot when I do explain the book to people.
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My problem is that if I discuss the theme I either give away too much or it comes off sounding very intellectual and, again, no one wants to read it.
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I think I usually end up telling more about the first few chapters (i think the first few chapters) than anything, sort of the set up.
I say how it's in the future and the world is facing an invasion so kids are being monitored. I explain how people are only allowed to have two kids and I tell about why Peter and Valentine weren't picked and how their parents were asked to have another kid. I'm pretty sure I say how they didn't care if they were told to or not, they would have anyway but I'm not sure that's in the first book... Anyway - then I just say it's the story of him going through the training.
I feel the same way as some of you in that I'm hesitant to just classify it as sci-fi (even though it is, it's also a lot more than that) and I also get nervous that my excitement re: talking about it will have me give too much of the 'good' stuff you discover while you're reading it...
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"Read the book, I can't do it justice with a description."
If they demand details, I will only outline unimportant things, such as how battle school works (The battles, teams, etc), and often I'll describe the history before the book (First and Second Formic Wars, maybe the meeting between Ender's Parents, etc).
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Aliens have attacked Earth and we're raising child geniuses to battle them in VIDEO GAMES on a SPACE STATION in OUTER SPACE! Ender is misunderstood, but always prevails in battles even though he is misunderstood. This book is so awesome because of the battles and the aliens. I highly recommend it.
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I used to work at a bookstore and needed to describe the book in a desirable manner a few times.
I usually said something along the lines of "Aliens have attacked earth, and now they are training kids to fight back, the book is about what happens. I know it sounds crazy and scifi, but it honestly seems plausible the whole time you are reading it." And then I'd try to compare to another book, usually Gaimen, to re-enforce the scifi-but-good idea.
And if that didn't work I always just said that he was my favorite author. That usually did the trick Posts: 33 | Registered: Jun 2006
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quote:That description could make the entire book consist of matters on Earth, whereas the book is based mostly off of Earth.
No, Ender faced all those things in space, too.
quote:Andrew Wiggin must face persecution
He had to start walking around with his toon leaders so that Bonzo and some of the other older boys wouldn't have a chance to jump him.
Heck, just say "Bonzo" here.
quote: betrayal,
From a certain point of view (pre-Ender's Shadow) Petra betrayed him. The adults betrayed him by not giving him the whole story. Valentine betrayed him by growing closer to Peter.
Mmmm...yeah, betrayal's stretching it a bit...
quote: loneliness
Definitely experienced this in space, too. Most notably when Ender and the rest of the children are in command school, and the team is joking around, kidding-- and Ender is unable to join them.
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quote:That description could make the entire book consist of matters on Earth, whereas the book is based mostly off of Earth.
No, Ender faced all those things in space, too.
My fault for not being clear. I meant exactly what you just said. "Off of Earth," as in not on Earth, as in space, like you said.
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Imagine you've got a kid who's like, eight or something. He's the end result of a program that was designed to give the military access to a mind that was essentially perfect for their purposes. And the military definitely needs him since there's this war going on against aliens who about damn near killed off the whole race once upon a time. And you read the book from the kid's perspective and the author makes it patently clear that he's just ridiculously intelligent. But the military knows that they've got to continually press and challenge him, because if they relent or make him feel ever like he doesn't need to continually grow and adapt to progressively more and more 'unfair' circumstances, he'll be like most humans when it comes down to the overwhelmingly stacked odds in the war to come, and he'll fold. Or something. So anyway, they send him up to a Spartan-style battle training school in space, where he's got to be the canniest goddamned operator that the universe has ever known in order to stay afloat.
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WOW, bears on a submarine would be the greatest movie ever. I laughed so hard when i thought about it. there would be no where to run <I:D
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I'd say it's set in a world where kids are training to be soldiers by using various games, and it's about one particular kid in training (Ender) and the hardships he endures while training. If it didn't sound interesting to the other person, I'd just say that the characterization is a lot better than he or she might think.
I wouldn't mention how the army is deliberately making things harder for him than for everyone else, because finding that out was one of the shocks I had when reading the story. I also wouldn't use the phrase "video games" since that's not what the battle room is--and because I went into it thinking it would be all about video games and got disappointed when I found out how the battle room worked!
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