Ender's Shadow Reading Schedule At Last!

Hey guys, sorry it took me so long to get this post up, I've had a really crazy couple of weeks and am still in the midst of another one. However, with no more ado, here we go.

I figure we can take Ender's Shadow in sections and compare each section with the relative one in Ender's Game, since Ender's Shadow, for those who don't know, is a parallel novel with Bean, one of the boys in Ender's Dragon Army, as the central character. There are six sections to the book, and each one seems to run anywhere between 40 and 70 pages. What I'm proposing is a section a week (or every two weeks, if people prefer) with discussion posts to be made on Friday evenings. So if that works for everyone, we can start on the first section this week, and maybe be close to ready to get initial discussion happening by this Friday, April 2nd, since the first section is one of the shorter ones. Let me know if this works, and if not I'll assume that discussion will go on as scheduled. On to section 1: Urchin.

Ender's Game Final Discussion

We've come to the end of Ender's Game (that is, if you've stuck with me despite the lack of posting discussions, etc), and in this final discussion, anything goes.

One of the things I wanted to discuss was the relationship between Ender and Peter. All throughout the novel, Ender is so afraid of becoming like Peter. And, ironically, Ender is the catalyst for the destruction of an entire race, whereas Peter brings peace to the human race. Do you think Ender becomes what he most fears throughout the novel? Angela brought up the theme of life and death in the last discussion, so we can expand on that here as we discuss the death of the Buggers.

A friend of mine intensely disliked this novel because it involved young children who were controlled, manipulated, and at times abused. I've thought a lot about these things, and it's true that they are disturbing elements in the book. Yet, without them, the book would not be as intense or as captivating as it is. It's because the hope for mankind is found in young children that makes the story so compelling. That the odds are often pitted against them ups the ante even more. But, there are valid points about when is it too far. Is it okay to break a person to save everyone else? What they did to Ender - was that okay? What are your thoughts on the methods used to train Ender, including tricking him into destroying the Buggers? Does the end ever justify the means?

Finally, was what humanity did okay? Was it okay to wipe the Buggers out. Of course, hind sight is 20/20, but did any of you ever question the morality of the decision to strike back when you were reading this novel for the first time? What are your thoughts about the Giant's Drink on the Bugger world and Ender finding the cocoon queen?

If you have any other topics that you wanted to discuss, feel free to add them in the comments section. I've enjoyed reading this book with you and look forward to reading Ender's Shadow next. Angela will be leading that discussion and posting a reading schedule/introduction/something about it in a few days. Thanks, again, for putting up with me. I would never have volunteered to lead the discussion if I had known I would have had such health problems. So, thank you for your patience!

Ender's Game Discussion #4

Hey Everyone!

I am so sorry to be out of action for so many weeks. I've been pretty sick for the past month, but I'm starting to feel better and get back to life.

Because of the length of time since we first started this book, let's go ahead and hold our final discussion for this novel this weekend. I'll put up a final discussion post on Friday and we can wrap up Ender's Game and start up Ender's Shadow.

Thanks for your patience ~

Kate