Ender's Game...the movie!!!!

Starman · Nov 13, 2006

Ender's Game is one of my favorite books, but I really don't want to see it adapted to film. I just don't believe that they could find enough decent child, young child, actors to play the parts convincingly.

Croesus · Nov 13, 2006

The Grumpy Celt said:
I am just bewildered that so many people liked the book so much and that they are so looking forward to a movie. They must have gotten something very different from the reading than I did.

Orson Scott Card is a bit like Stephen Donaldson in that both authors arouse extreme reactions from their readers, positive and negative. I won't claim to *enjoy* Card's work, but I find his view of humanity rather affirming - he displays human beings at our absolute worst, then (almost always) ends with some inspiring act which shows the heights which we can attain, even if so rarely.

ByteRynn · Nov 14, 2006

While I'd rather see a Tales of Alvin Maker mini-series (History or Sci-fi? Anyone?), I am fairly certain Card won't let this be a horribly shallow version of his works. He has always included in any option contract that he get veto power over story changes (and possibly some casting? not sure) and right now, as I understand it, he is writing a script draft...all decently good signs that it will play true to the novel.

I love the novel, and hope to see it do well as a film.

Joshua Randall · Nov 14, 2006

It's an amusing gimmick book with a preachy message shoe-horned in. It reads as though Card wrote the basic story (the gimmicky part), then at some later date went back and wrote the preachy parts and just pasted them in between other paragraphs.

Like an earlier poster, the preachy message made me never want to read another Card book. But, the gimmick was pretty cool.

(Oh, and at least in the version I read, Card had this really whiny intro about how hard it is to be young and smart when all the cool kids hate you and you're smarter than your teachers and blah blah blah. Yawn. Spare us the geek-angst.)

Meloncov · Nov 14, 2006

Joshua Randall said:
It's an amusing gimmick book with a preachy message shoe-horned in. It reads as though Card wrote the basic story (the gimmicky part), then at some later date went back and wrote the preachy parts and just pasted them in between other paragraphs.

While I disagree with your asessment, Card did originally write the story as a novella, and later expanded it into a full novel.

I've never understood the complaints that it is "preachy." It seems like it had as little preaching as possible while still addressing the moral issues the book centers around. The reader is left to judge the actions of the IF, and I know many people who enjoy the book and agree with the IF's decisions (given the amount of information they knew.)

Umbran · Nov 14, 2006

Meloncov said:
While I disagree with your asessment, Card did originally write the story as a novella, and later expanded it into a full novel.

More specifically, Speaker for the Dead was the book he wanted to write. But he felt he had to discuss Ender's past before he could do that. First as a novella, and then the novel.

Ambrus · Nov 14, 2006

I liked Ender's Game but couldn't get past the first few chapters of Speaker for the Dead. I likewise have some doubts that they can assemble a large cast of talented children to play all the roles convincingly. All in all I think it'll prove to be a tough book to adapt.

Remember; the enemy's gate is down.

Joshua Randall · Nov 14, 2006

Ambrus said:
Remember; the enemy's gate is down.

Heh. Anyone remember the computer games Descent and Descent II? You controlled a spaceship flying around in freeform 3-space, with complete control over your movement in any direction. It could be very disorienting if you didn't apply the wisdom of Ender's Game.