(no subject)
Okay, so I just read Ender's Game. I know, I know. I'm a 25 year old rabid science fiction fan and I just now read one of the hallmarks of the genre. Shut up. It was great. Obviously.
I have one question, and it is this:
How much of the game was real? Did it only become real when Ender was transferred to command school, or were the team battle games in some way real as well? Were these children unknowingly psychically controlling actual soldiers? I find it unlikely and difficult to reconcile that idea, mostly because they were fighting each other, not simulations. It's too bad, because I find that concept profoundly more disturbing than the more obvious conclusion that only the space battles were real. That said, what was the point of the battle games, then? If this was entirely an air (okay, space) war, why train anybody in "ground" tactics at all?
Also, is it worth it to read the rest of the books in the series? I've heard it's good to switch back and forth between the Ender books and the Shadow books, but I'd rather read them as they were written. Thoughts?
I have one question, and it is this:
How much of the game was real? Did it only become real when Ender was transferred to command school, or were the team battle games in some way real as well? Were these children unknowingly psychically controlling actual soldiers? I find it unlikely and difficult to reconcile that idea, mostly because they were fighting each other, not simulations. It's too bad, because I find that concept profoundly more disturbing than the more obvious conclusion that only the space battles were real. That said, what was the point of the battle games, then? If this was entirely an air (okay, space) war, why train anybody in "ground" tactics at all?
Also, is it worth it to read the rest of the books in the series? I've heard it's good to switch back and forth between the Ender books and the Shadow books, but I'd rather read them as they were written. Thoughts?