Ender's Game is one of those classic SFF novels that I've been familiar with since I was a kid, but it was never one that I had ever prioritized or made a point to seek out. A couple years ago, I found a copy at a used book sale for a dollar and went, "why not?" and it went unread until now.

Funnily, my copy (as I'm sure most copies have) begins with a blurb review from none other than Gene Wolfe, who offers nothing but praise for it. (I guess a genius can be wrong every now and then, haha)

My main points of criticism come from three things:

1. Card's writing style
2. Ender as a character
3. The theming and conceit of the novel/narrative

Card has absolutely nothing going for him in terms of his prose and style. It's not even something where I can compare it to the technical dryness of an Asimov or Clarke, but it's simply just clunky and mediocre writing. Easy to unpack, yes, but genuinely not well written. It moves along at a quick enough pace at the onset, but turns into a slog that gets repetitive until it then tries to do too much with the comparatively short remainder of the novel.

Ender is boring. A child-prodigy who is good at everything and is never in the wrong, despite having a tendency to violence (more on that in point 3). Uncompelling characterization when all of his actions are reactive rather than proactive -- Card sets him up to be instantly "relatable" by having him the subject of constant bullying. Poor Ender.

Finally, I can't really surmise what message the book is trying to present. Is it functioning as a criticism of Military culture? That the army has an uncanny knack of dehumanizing young men and shaping them into killers? Might be, but every time Ender is cornered by a cartoonishly psychopathic child (something else I can't quite get behind is just how goofy it all is when the characters are literal children) his reaction is to be just as violent -- resulting in two dead kids at his hands, more or less, "justifiably" so. Is it celebrating or criticizing Lone Wolf behavior? The fact that the book has been required reading for marines around the country says a lot.

The book tries to cement the alien "buggers" as an apocalyptic threat, but their presence is never felt. By the novel's end, Card attempts to pull the rug out from underneath the reader by framing their plight as a genocide, with Ender advocating on their behalf-- this is completely unearned as the buggers are virtually absent for the majority of the story.

All in all, I have a lot to criticize, but it's not the worst thing I've read-- it's just painfully average and its status as a classic (and a well-rewarded one at that) just feels odd to me. What am I missing?