For the past three weeks, I've incredibly negligent of my online hobbies (mainly Facebook and webcomics). What have I been up to?
I've been deeply engaged in Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game series. More specifically, the Bean books, I think they are called the Shadow saga or something like that.
I finally finished Ender in Exile on Saturday, so I can now say that I've read all the books in the Ender series - of course, Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, and Children of the Mind in high school, so my memory is quite faint on those, and I don't have any desire or intention to reread them. In fact I'm quite upset with how the Bean books turned out, so I don't think I'll have any patience for Novinha, who I recall being incredibly annoying. (Speaking of annoying, oh how I'd love to see a match up between Novinha and Virlomi for most annoying character... but I'm getting ahead of myself here).
SPOILER ALERT!!! Warning, the rest of this post will be a SPOILER.
Shadow of the Hegemon
This was my second time picking up this book, and I have to say that I remembered pretty much none of it. Before I started rereading it, all I remembered was Petra getting re-kidnapped by Achilles (the gorey scene in the bread van). Although it did start coming back to me as I read.
When I got to Sister Carlotta's death, I was really pissed. It seemed so sudden and I was sure it was going to be one of those 'tricked ya, Carlotta wasn't on that flight!' but alas, no, that was not the case. And that just made me angrier. Apparently, as will be seen, instead of getting upset, I get angry when things happen in this series that I don't like. But more on that with Shadow of the Giant.
I really don't have much to say about Shadow of the Hegemon, it was interesting and Achilles is seriously messed up. But it was pretty much a "okay that was interesting give me the next book" kind of reaction at the end.
Shadow Puppets
Something seemed a little off with this one. While I am always a sucker for romance, the balance of romance to actual plot seemed a little off, and even somehow there wasn't quite ENOUGH romance. Which seems like a contradiction, I know.
So, much of the plot focuses on Bean and Petra's attempt to have children and then the subsequent kidnapping of said children ... erm, embryos. So this is sort of like focusing on romance, except that there are few tender scenes between Bean and Petra. Yes, there's the first kiss scene, that's kind of cute. Then their wedding & honeymoon is completely glossed over in a very much TOLD way (apparently forgot the number one rule of writing, show not tell). Then I THINK there's a scene when Bean first arrives in Damascus.
Oh yeah, and get we discuss the fact that these characters are less than 20 years old? And yet they have no fears or stress or concerns about having children? It pretty much goes like this:
Bean: No, I will not have children!
Petra: Aw, come on, why not?
Bean: Because I am too selfish and I don't want my kids to have my disease.
Anton: What was that? Doesn't sound selfish to me. Besides, you know the whole purpose to life is to be a part of the network and have kids! Or adopt! Or at least love another person.
Bean: Oh, I guess you're right, I have wanted kids all this time.
(Okay, so I totally understand Bean's desire to have kids and especially to ... rush to it, considering he doesn't have much time on his hands. BUT I'm just saying the WAY it happened seemed a little too rushed).
Bean: Hmm, you know, I'm still not quite sure I want to do this. But I must love Petra since I'm doing it. Yeah, I must love her.
You know, it's nice to have some internal thought about how Bean feels about Petra - it's definitely important for the development of his character, since to go from not having emotions at all (I'm thinking of that scene in Ender's Shadow when Bean says goodbye to Carlotta before going to Battle School) to becoming a father certainly should count as character development.
HOWEVER, we could have been shown Bean's love for Petra in additional ways, rather than in one scene. Since I've been on some forums and apparently there WAS doubt about his love for Petra, although I felt it was quite clear.
Anyways, then we jump to:
Bean and Petra: Yay we're having kids and for some insane reason trusting the evil doctor Volescu!!
And then Petra is pregnant. And there is never a scene about them worrying, how are we going to take care of kids when the world is how it is? How are we going to raise kids when we are at the center of all this worldy drama? How are we going to take care of kids when we're still kids ourselves?!! Once they decide to have kids, the attitude seems to be 'nuff said, let's focus on the battles again. And I would have liked to see Bean worrying about being a father, considering that he's never had a father, how does he know what a father should be like? etc etc etc
Shadow of the Giant
My problems with Shadow Puppets are just exacerbated to the extreme with this book. Very few Bean/Petra scenes that I felt are necessary considering the incredibly frustrating ending. Seriously, if you are going to rip these two characters apart, at least let us see their happy times together! How can we really feel Petra's sadness when we never feel her happiness when she is with him?
Going back to my character development point. Bean goes from emotionless street orphan to ... loving father??? Where's the loving? The only interaction I recall of Bean with his children are two scenes:
When he's changing little Ender's diaper (and this gets sidetracked to a different scene about Ender's pension)
When he's holding up little Ender showing him Armenia -- that was the ONLY endearing scene between Bean and children.
And I guess SORT of when he says good bye to Ramon. Sort of.
Soo... where were these scenes? Would have been much more interesting than the Virlomi-goes-crazy-and-thinks-she's-a-goddess scenes.
And don't even get me started on that ending.
Okay I got myself started, sorry but... I still do not understand why Petra had to stay on Earth (other than that the 9th baby wasn't found, and regarding THAT subplot, see Ender in Exile rant). If stasis exists, then why can't the whole family go into stasis until the cure is found? Then we have one big happy family. Happy ending. Yay. Nothing wrong with happy endings.
Ender in Exile
As much as I hated the ending to SotG, Ender in Exile probably wins least favorite book.I wasn't much of a fan, to be honest. I don't think Ender in Exile lives up to the books at the beginning of the series. Ender in Exile takes place between Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead, so it mainly spans Ender's voyage to the colony Shakespeare, of which he is governor. The book chronicles the power struggle between Ender and the ship's captain as well as following the romantic aspirations of two new characters, Dorabella and her daughter Alessandra. Dorabella wants her daughter to seduce Ender, winning them powerful position in the new colony.
It felt strange reading it after the Bean books, which focus primarily on Peter's attempt to unify the world. I can't even imagine what it would be like reading it directly after Ender's Game, the books read so differently.
And the 9th baby subplot. First of all, "Arkanian" should have figured out that he was not his mother's son. This is supposed to be Bean and Petra's child, after all, so he not only has to be smart, but he's got Anton's Key! So let's see, he looks nothing like Randi, Randi is clearly crazy, and he looks nothing like Achilles, but OH WAIT he looks JUST LIKE that Julian Delphiki guy. How. Odd.
It was really nice that Ender gets to meet Bean and Petra's son, and I thought that that was an interesting story to pursue. Except that the whole story probably takes about 20 or 30 pages out of a 300ish page book. It barely matters to the story and feels like an after thought.
I just wanted more. And something a little different.
Anyway, that's the end of my rant.
Oh, and sorry about forgetting to post the summary for Sir Apropos of Nothing. That ending also made me mad so I guess it didn't even occur to me to write about it.
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