Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game is in theaters now, a sterile big budget adaption that kills lots of aliens while generating a ton of controversy over whether Card’s outspoken views should influence your choice to attend this movie. it’s a personal decision, and each person needs to do what feels right to them: skip th emovie, balance seeing the movie with a donation to an appropriate cause, etc. The political hot potato and projected sales make a sequel unlikely to follow soon.

Ender’s Game effectively creates a disturbing future, full of hard choices. The cast is mostly effective in their roles, the sets are extraordinary, and it’s easy to believe sequences are happening in space. What was missing seemed to be the introspection from the book–it’s not one I’ve read, and I felt there was something missing. My full review is at buzzymag.

An excerpt:
The world’s smartest children have been recruited to fight the war, raised on war games, their quick minds more able to adapt to the possible strategies needed to defeat the enemy. Ender Wiggins is one of these children–intelligent, athletic, well-trained.

This is his story.