It was a great book! I actually listened to this as a audio book and enjoyed it thoroughly. I'm not saying it wan amazing, breath taking, heart-stopping book. It was just a great story and had brilliant ideas. I decided to listen to the book, after a bit of nagging and pleading. I'd always thought it as average. I didn't even know what it was about but, being me, I stepped into the world of unknown and ventured.
The story began and it had already had me interested. What was this monitor? What experiment? And so I ventured further, hanging on to every word, letting the words fill the silence, letting the time slip by. The story was quick to understand:Defeat the buggers. Yet, like Ender, I didn't how this was possible. How Ender was supposed to be the one to accomplish this. The thing that surprised me was that Ender was 6 at the beginning. I thought he was around 11 but turns out he was 6 when the story started. His thoughts were so grown up and his actions were nothing of a child.
The book wore on with many events and challenges held at the battle school. Personally, I think Ender should have stayed at home, at the moments when he missed home and Valentine. But then again, I knew he had to defeat the buggers. I liked the small conversion of Colonel Graph;however,I hated the way they talked about Ender. Thy were clever, I have to admit. They did certain things so that Ender would think in a certain way. The stages of how Ender progressed through Battle school were interesting, every time he faced a new challenge that was more difficult than the last.
And then Command School. I liked Command School much better because it didn't seem to drag on that much and his friends were with him-not really but still. The plot twist at the end, when he finds out the simulator is real, was , without a doubt, my favourite part of the story. Also, finding out the buggers, who are actually good was a shock.
I also really enjoyed the side story of Locke and Demosthenes- in fact I REALLY REALLY enjoyed these chapters. I loved how no-one knew that they were children and secretly thy were writing all these articles. One thing I hated is how calm Valentine and Ender were on the raft when they met. I was thinking of how Ender would be so glad and they would tell each other everything and they would laugh but that didn't happen- sadly. My favourite character, is Bean because he reminds me of Ender but the mini version who is a bit more... Beany
All in all, the book was good. The next 11 books in the series re going to be a struggle. I'm looking forward to reading them though and I hope you enjoyed!