Ender's Game and Speaker For the Dead - Orson Scott Card

Summary Scores:

Enjoyable to Read: A

Impact on the World: F

Increased My Understanding of the World/People: C

Made Me Think: B

I don't consider myself an avid reader of science fiction, but I consider myself a big fan nonetheless. I think it is because science fiction is the ultimate playground for crazy ideas. Authors have the freedom to imagine any set of circumstances or constraints.

I'll start with Ender's Game. The story is about Andrew "Ender" Wiggins, who is the third child at a time when families were not supposed to have more than two. The International Fleet is looking for the brightest kids to send up to their orbital Battle School. Ender's older siblings showed a huge amount of potential, but where both disqualified for personality reasons. The International Fleet sanctioned the third child in hopes that Ender might be the person they had been looking for. The International Fleet is looking for a brilliant mind to lead IF starships when they finally arrive at the Bugger's home worlds. Seventy years earlier, humanity was almost wiped out by the invading Buggers and the IF has launched a counter attack, but they don't have a general.

The story follows Ender through Battle School, then on to Command School. The battle scenarios are excellent. The story of Ender though is also about his own internal tensions with who he is becoming and who he wants to be. Ender is brilliant, which makes him very dangerous, but more than anything he fears turning into his sadistic older brother. Ender wants to be good, but he is being trained to be a killer.

I don't want to risk much more, because this book has some great surprises. And I really can't even review Speaker For the Dead because I'm not sure how to do so without spoiling Ender's Game. If you enjoy sci fi, these two books are excellent. I haven't read the rest of the series, but I will.

Getting back to my initial comment about science fiction being a playground for ideas, Speaker For the Dead is the more philosophical and idea driven of the two, but it has plenty of plot to make it a very fun read.

I wanted to have a few sci fi and fantasy novels on the Cultured 100 list, but I think I'll leave Dune on for now and leave this one off. I enjoyed them both equally, but I think Dune has had a broader influence and seems more applicable to the world we live in.

Watership Down - Richard Adams

Summary Scores:

Enjoyable to Read: B

Impact on the World: F

Increased My Understanding of the World/People: F

Made Me Think: D

I first heard about this book in The Devil's Casino, which is a book about Lehman Brothers. Some of the main characters owned a bar together and had a picture of Fiver on the wall. I had never heard of Watership Down, but I looked it up and realized it was regarded as a classic by some. There are plenty of so called classics I have never read or will read, so why this one? I guess it was a bit of a whim really. It was easy to gather that this was a story about a group of rabbits that leave their home in search of a new one and have many adventures along the way. How could a book starring rabbits be considered a classic unless it was simply great storytelling. And since I'm a lover of good stories, I decided to give it a shot.

The non-spoiler summary is that Hazel and Fiver are brothers. Hazel is a natural leader and Fiver has a sixth sense about looming danger. Fiver is frantic that all the rabbits need to leave, but only a handful join them. They don't really know where they are going and stumble into several adventures along the way. And even when they find their new home, the adventures continue. I thought Richard Adams did a great job of making them intelligent like humans, but not human. Of course, there are many ways to blend rabbits and humans into characters, but I thought this version was especially good. About the time you start to think of Hazel as a person, he does something very rabbit, and vise versa.

The characters are interesting, but at its core this is an adventure story. Richard Adams points out in the introduction that this is not an allegory, it is simply a story he made up for his kids on a long trip in the car. As someone who tries to make up stories for my kids, I have great admiration for this story. It has all the trappings of a good adventure tale. I enjoyed the rabbit legends almost as much as the actual story. There are several places throughout the book where the rabbits tell stories. Basically, these are the equivalent of Greek mythology to the ancient Greeks. The stories were brilliant and funny.

The scores at the beginning are designed to help me find books for my Cultured 100 list, and as such this book scored poorly on those metrics, but that does not make it a bad book. Quite the opposite. I thought this was an wonderful story and I will read it again to my kids someday when they are older; the way my Dad used to read stories to my sister, brother and me.

Things Fall Apart - Chinua Achebe

Summary Scores:

Enjoyable to Read: A

Impact on the World: D

Increased My Understanding of the World/People: A

Made Me Think: A

Things Fall Apart is one of the best novels I've ever read. I should leave it at that, but I can't help myself. I often read while I'm on the bus from the train station to my office, but on the occasional day when I have to stand because the bus is crowded, I almost never try to read standing in the aisle. Things Fall Apart was the exception to that general rule. I want to be careful not to ruin the experience for you, so I'll purposefully keep this review high level.

I don't remember a year ever being mentioned, but the story takes place in an African village during the time when the British were first moving into the area. The central character is Okonkwo, who is a prominent man in both his own village and the surrounding villages. In his youth he had beaten the long-standing wrestling champion at the tournament and his bravery and toughness were unquestioned. Okonkwo has to confront the British on many levels and the world is changing all around him. As the title suggests, this book is about Okonkwo as things fall apart.

I really don't want to delve into the story line much more, just because I really hope you read it for yourself. But I will say that this novel really shines on two fronts; Okonkwo's character and the glimpses into tribal Africa.

Regarding Okonkwo, I found myself admiring his strength and despising his weakness. I hoped for him and was repulsed by him. Even now as I write this, I struggle to pin him down, but rather than assuming that it is because he is a poorly crafted character, I assume it is because he is a real and complex person. After reading some novels, it is the intriguing premise, places or plot twists that run through your mind. After reading Things Fall Apart, it was Okonkwo himself that lingers. Was I misunderstanding him? What was really driving him? Was he flawed or principled? How would I handle things falling apart?

The second part of the story that I loved was the glimpse into their life, just because it is so different than my own experience. The social structure, the routines of the seasons, the dynamics between men and women, and maybe most interesting, the myths and stories that they told each other. It is hard to imagine a way of life and thought more different that my own and I enjoyed getting this glimpse.

This is an incredibly well written novel and it definitely belongs on my Cultured 100 List.