Ender's Game
This was my second time through Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game , and the first since I've learned how bigoted and awful that man is. I actually didn't expect the book to hold up as well as I remembered it, and I probably wouldn't have ever read it again if not for a book club I'm actually enjoying. But I ended up liking it just as much, if not more, this time through. I guess it just goes to show that you don't have to be a good person to make good art. The first time I read it, I remember being struck be an overwhelming sense of despair. Ender is so thoroughly manipulated by the military higher ups (and, ultimately, the buggers) that he seems to have no free will at all. He does exactly what everyone else wants him to do. Even when he looks in the mirror and sees a monster, he can't get off the path he doesn't want to be on. When I expressed this to a friend, she said that she'd had the opposite reaction. Ender's Game was ...