On a related note

[james_davis_nicoll]

What should go on a Top Ten "In retrospect, what the hell were we thinking" list of once-popular SF?

Comments

[wintermuted.livejournal.com]

Am I the only one who thought that Ender's Game was rubbish? Even the short story (which is all I read, and which left only the tang of unsuspended belief behind). The only other Card I've ever read was called, I think, "Fat Farm" and again, the central conceit was so stupid I never bothered with him again.

[agharta75.livejournal.com]

No, you're not alone.

Funny, though, when I first read the story I could believe the battle kids, but pseudonomous people on the Internet having political influence? No way.

[derekl1963.livejournal.com]

No, you're not alone. Though I didn't mind the short story version too much, the novel OTOH was dreck.

[le-trombone.livejournal.com]

Hmm, I thought it was lackluster, and I didn't believe the big secret (really, it's kind of pointless). I read the original short in Analog, and didn't bother picking up the book until long after it won its awards. I re-read it a few years ago for a group I'm in. Yeah, still lackluster.

We didn't know about Card's penchant for tortured children at the time of the short story, as we had only the one data point.

[mishalak.livejournal.com]

Far from alone. Even people with radically different world views from mine dislike Ender's Game though of course as a "poor widdle misunderstood teen" I loved it immensely. Rather like the love of a military boffin for Tom Clancy's self insert hero series.