Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Ender in Exile

This book is plenty good, but the worst thing about it is just that it isn't on the same level as the others in the story.  The other stories used technical and scientific ideas and terms, yes, but they weren't overused to the point where they cluttered the story.  With all of this, the novel becomes less of an exciting and suspenseful read- it doesn't make me as anxious to get home, flop onto my bed, and read.  While I will say that it was a great book to be reading after I finished each final exam (and it was probably part of the reason that motivated me to focus on them so I could finish faster), there are some sentences that are completely overloaded with futuristic science that we can't possibly understand.  A quote on page 123 states, " 'The inertia supression on this ship is superb.  In fact, we are already accelerating at the rate of two gravities, and yet the only apparent gravity is imparted by the centrifugal force of the spin of the ship.' 'Which is odd,' said Valentine, 'since centrifugal force is alos inertial, and you'd thinkit would also be supressed.' 'The supression is highly directionalized, and affects only the forward movement of the ship.' " What does all that even mean?  Directional suppression of inertia?  Centrifugal movement?  They're spinning?  Don't you have to go through astronaut training for that?  (They didn't.)  It wouldn't be as noticeable if Orson Scott Card took some time to explain all of this, like he did in the previous books where there was less material like this anyway, but he doesn't.  All in all, the tone of the novel is just nore monotonous.  Here is a link to a reader who agrees with me:
http://www.sfrevu.com/php/Review-id.php?id=8063

1 comment:

  1. Great job, Megan! I really love how you used the quote to prove your point that sometimes you don't understand it. I agree I have no idea what they were saying there.

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