Ender's Game

This book is garbage. There is no plot it is more or less, the kid goes to school then just several pages of psychological torture porn. Ender just keeps leveling up it is not compelling in the least. It is like watching someone learn how to play the harmonica. All the characters are unlikable and only then ender siblings have a character, everyone else is just a good person or a bad person. No one ever changes throughout the book they are all just Gary Sues who are instantly gifted at the start of the book they either don't have problems or constantly have problems and never find a solution to it so it and run away at the end. The characters just get whisked around by the plot ender just suffers torture until they don't care about him anymore. Valentine just keeps following peter's directions until he controls the world and doesn't need her anymore. The only act of agency render gets is murdering a child which he solves as soon as it comes up and even that is a plan by graff. Ender just gets whisked around by the plot with no agency till people don't care about him anymore.

The twist at the end just seems like being a twist for the sake of being a twist. Nothing changes it just serves as more torture porn. If the book had made us believe in the cause it might have been surprising but everyone in power is a dick so when you find ou you are just like yeah sure they are dicks to their soldiers why wouldn't the war be pointless. Ender never especially believed in the cause, his motivation was just to excel through battle school so it has no bearing on the plot. The story is written like garbage, his prose is bland and uninteresting and the story is supposed to be about how ender's compassion is what truly makes him special. I will quote from spark notes “Compassion is the theme that runs through Ender's life. It is the defining feature of his existence. The reason that he plays the games so well is his ability to understand the enemy and to inspire loyalty. More than that, it is compassion that saves Ender”

Ender brutally murders two of his classmates. And his brother who is legit ender but psychopath does great, he ends up ruling the world, so clearly not having compassion wasn't that big a roadblock. Your themes clash with each other compassion and ruthlessness ARE OPPOSING THEMES. Also, peter rules the world through the power of blogging which is the stupidest thing I have ever heard.

Orson also rambles on about the kids being naked which makes me wonder if he is a priest. In the book, the ender is just good at stuff. It is the whole chosen one BS but the chosen one doesn't do anything except be awesome and sad. His intellect will solve stuff, no need for work or passages discussing how he comes across these things, just bask in this power fantasy.

Also, the author is a huge homophobe but as far as I know, he doesn't get that till later books so it isn't very prevalent in this book.