Normally I keep my opinions on books to Goodreads. However, I've had a bit of a problem recently: Goodreads is linked to my Facebook and for some reason, I cannot get things that connect through Facebook to, well, connect.
So Ender's Game came out recently. I decided to reread the book as a precursor to actually continuing the series and before watching the movie. Ender's Game, if you missed it, is a sci-fi book by Orson Scott Card, who is an excellent author. Ender's Game is the story of a young boy (six, when the book starts) who get accepted into battle school to prepare the smartest kids of the next generation to defend the world against a threat that has attacked twice in the past: the Formics, better known as "buggers." Ender is their best hope for the next commander of their forces, but to be able to get him to the point of leadership, they feel the need to manipulate his training and force him to understand he stands alone.
So we watched Ender's Game, the movie. And the idea behind the climax, the game, was the same. But I just read the book, and so I noticed everything different.
Some changes I don't mind, some I understand. Ender was six when he first went to battle school, but the actor who was playing him already had his voice starting to change. I think it loses some of it's impact. It's not just a pre-teen or teenager we're talking about, it's a six-year-old. However, the book spans years. It's a bit harder to do that in a movie. Anderson, one of the teachers who discusses Ender frequently with Graff, was changed to being female. And black, but I guess I never really knew Anderson wasn't. What bugs me more is that Dap, who calls himself the kids' "mom" in the is rude and mean. And Bonzo, who is supposed to be almost beautiful for a boy, a boy Ender looks at and thinks, "I can follow that face..." Bonzo is SHORT. Like half Ender's height. That also bugs me.
The movie was too rushed, I think. You don't get the sense of development, manipulation, psychological growth, and so on. David pointed out it would be better as a mini-series.
And then I read Ender's Shadow, which is about Bean. In Ender's Game, Bean is another smart kid who is small, just like Ender, but some time later, and he has more of an attitude. In Ender's Shadow, it's almost like a fan-fiction rewriting, even though it was Orson Scott Card who did it. What I mean by that is that it's taking the story from the first book, and trying to fit a different story in, one that didn't exist prior. I think Bean was just a normal, albeit smart, kid in the first book. And this book turned him into something else. Some of his dialogue was already written, and the second book added slants. Something like "Nobody goes to Command school until they're sixteen!" he said, grabbing hold of Colonel Graff's hand. Graff shook him off. In Ender's Shadow, it adds something along the lines of how he wasn't sure if Graff caught his sarcasm. I'm still trying to figure out how that motion and phrase can be sarcastic. It undermines Ender. It says they try to transfer command to Bean in the end, thinking Ender had frozen.
And on the other hand, it builds Ender up. Bean still follows him, even though he might be smarter. Bean respects him.
But it's still one of those things I think about at night when I'm trying to sleep and I think, "That's not how it was originally!"
No comments:
Post a Comment