A War of Gifts: An Ender Story
by Orson Scott Card
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Book Summary Information
Author: Orson Scott CardEdition: Hardcover
Format: Bargain Price
Published: 2007-10-30
ISBN: N/A
Number of pages: 128
Publisher: Tor Books
Book Reviews of A War of Gifts: An Ender Story
Book Review: A War of Gifts
Summary: 4 Stars
A War of Gifts: An Ender Story, by Orson Scott Card
I hate Mr. Card's books. And yet, I own approximately 31 of them. His writing is so good it's infuriating! It's reminiscent of the old concept of a masterpiece; an apprentice would spend an inordinate amount of time and exercise his skill to the utmost of his ability to produce the greatest piece he could. If this piece was found to be worthy, he would be accepted as a master of his trade, and, though it was only a general truth and not a rule, he would likely never produce another piece as magnificent in his entire lifetime. The reason I bring this up is because each of Mr. Card's books is so far ahead of anything I have ever written that my masterpiece would fall short of his entry work. It discourages me from writing!
All of that being said, this book is definitely not his masterpiece; not surprising since it was written many many years after Ender's Game (the time period in which it is set). It is my experience that authors who revisit their old works typically fall short of those same works. Ender is less because in this book he seems almost omniscient. Dink is less because this book removes much of his mystery and, well, coolness.
The story revolves around Zeck, a boy who was basically raised as a puritan zealot. He was taken from his parents against his will to be trained for the war against the Buggers, but in a school literally named for battle, he is the only declared pacifist; he absolutely refuses to take part in any of the fighting--at least of the physical sort. With verbal weapons, he holds nothing back.
When Dink, who is Dutch, is caught celebrating Sinterklaas Eve against the on-board rules against religion, Zeck reports him; he doesn't care that it was all meant in good fun, he merely wants to cause enough problems that they'll be forced to send him home. Instead, Dink takes it to the next level and declares that Santa Claus is not a religious figure, that everyone should celebrate "Santa Claus Day" on December 25th. Refusing to be outdone, Zeck points out to a Pakistani boy that Pakistan was founded as a Muslim nation, thus his Islamic traditions are both patriotic and religions; they should celebrate the "patriotic" part and leave out the "religious" part. Obviously, this causes problems on-board the station!
The first 2/3 of this book are pretty epic; even I was starting to wonder whether or not some of Zeck's fundamentalist rhetoric was correct--his arguments were just so logical! Unfortunately, many of the scenes with Dink and all of the scenes with Ender bring it down quite a bit; a sad thing considering that Ender is one of my favorite character of all time. There was just not enough balance to his scenes, and so he ended up seeing omniscient--very Deus-Ex-Machina-esque!
Memorable Quote:
(Ender's mother speaking with Ender's brother Peter about Ender):
"You never adapt," she whispered, "to losing a child."
"It's not like he's dead," said Peter.
"It's exactly like he's dead," said Mother. "I'll never see him at age seven or nine or eleven. I'll have no memories of him at those ages, only what I can imagine. That's what the parents of dead children have. So until you actually know something about what you're talking about, Peter--human feelings, for instance--why don't you just shut up?"
"Merry Christmas to you too," said Peter. He left the room.
His own bedroom, when he entered it, felt strange to him. Alien. Bare. There was nothing there that expressed a personality. That had been a conscious decision on his part--anything individual that he put on display would give [his sister] an advantage in their endless dueling. But at this moment, with Mother's accusation of his inhumanity still ringing in his ears, his bedroom looked so sterile that he hated the person who would choose to live in it.
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