Ender's Game

The movie, Ender's Game, is scheduled to hit cinemas and Imax next month.  Harrison Ford and Ben Kingsley have lead roles; Gavin Hood (X Men) is the director and screenplay author.  It's a sci fi story based on the book of the same name by prolific author Orson Scott Card.  I stumbled onto Card a couple years ago while browsing the new fiction shelves at the local library.  One book and I was hooked, loved the writing, have read 6 now and looking forward to several more.

My favorite all-time sci fi author was Issac Asimov; the guy was a genius.  The genre itself isn't my favorite, but still I've read a lot of it, starting with H G Wells and Jules Verne way back when.  So, when I say Card ranks right up there with Asimov, it's high praise indeed.  Like Asimov, Card's main characters are human, and that appeals to me more than stories that involve only aliens.  Yes, Card uses aliens too, gotta have a few formidable antagonists in the mix.  Card delves deeply into emotions, motivations, loyalties and morality - and mixes in generous helpings of military and political strategy.  Thoughtful and thought-provoking stuff.

Star Wars (1977) was the most innovative and creative movie I've ever seen.  It blew me away.  The many groundbreaking special effects and techniques used in the Star Wars series, many of them computer-generated, are now ho-hum, passe', ancient history.  It'll be interesting to see if Ender's Game can break away from the pack of also-ran sci fi flicks of recent years.  I'm hoping it does.  I'm also hoping that it's the first of many Card movies.

If you like sci fi, I urge you to read the book before you see the movie.  The scope and depth of the writing can't be packed into 114 minutes of film no matter how clever the screenwriter.  If you do read it, let me know if you like Card's writing as much as I do.