“Fiddle-de-dee’s not English.”

Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
ATOM 2002
336 pages

I’ve never read this book before. Yeah, how a self-respecting SF/F fan can go about never reading Ender’s Game must be beyond comprehension. Somehow or other I managed to not read this book before; each time I was about to pick it off the shelf, something else distracted me. Sorry, Ender.

I think the most surprising thing about Ender’s Game is I found that I liked the book as much as I thought I would. It was one of those books that kept being shoved at me and I kept backing away in alarm — partly because I think I was being predisposed to like it. Dune had been another of those books. Don’t get me wrong — me and the Dune books, we get along, gigantic worms ruling the universe notwithstanding. I had expected the later books to be better, but they got worse in the end, yet I survived. It always makes me sad when I end up not liking a book as much as I wanted to.

I liked the most of the characters. I liked Peter and Valentine’s plotting, despite some of their discussions going over my head at times. I liked Bean — to which someone immediately replied I should read Ender’s Shadow. The battles — the games — that were staged at battle school made the first half of the book made me go on reading until late at night, at what happens after hooked me to go on reading until I finished the book. It was a surprisingly fast read. It took me one night, I think. One sleepless night. Starting books on weeknights is slowly becoming a bad habit.

I wish the writing was a bit better in some spots, though. Ender and Valentine’s relationship seemed a bit too forced — he loves her, but if Card hadn’t told us that, I wouldn’t have guessed. I don’t think it’s just because Ender’s just hiding his feelings (insert for whatever reasons here), because some of the other stuff makes me so sad, like how Ender is completely convinced he’s alone, and how sorry he is at the end, but his relationship with his siblings are just so . . . strange? I don’t know how to describe it. Card tells us Ender loves Val and Ender doesn’t want to turn into Peter, but I get nothing of that from Ender himself. I have curious hang-ups with sibling relationships, I know. It comes from being the eldest of six, I suspect.

Some of the dialogue made me wince. Partly it was the slang the kids used at the battle school; it sounded strange and forced. Some of the insults the kids used left me shaking my head — those made the dialogue seem even more strange.

There were other things I wanted to say about this book, but right now it slips my mind. (New resolution: write these things immediately. Seriously. Never mind the gaps. They won’t kill you, oh no.)

Now I have Speaker for the Dead and Ender’s Shadow on my to-read list. That list never grows shorter, does it?

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Note to self: it’s Speaker for the Dead. For, not of. Geez, you’d think you’d get that right after the ending and all. :p

X/1999 Volume 1: Prelude by CLAMP
Viz Communications Inc (2002)
200 pages

Eh, this manga. I don’t know why I’m even bothering writing something about it. When I started this book blog, I said to myself, “I’ll blog about each book I finish, even the cookbooks!”, and that is why we find ourselves here.

But who doesn’t know what X is about? The world is ending, choose your sides. That’s basically it.

Except not.

(OK, notes: Names are in the “given-name family-name” form, spellings are romanised as translated by Viz. Yes, I still do a double take at “Fuma” — I did start with the scanlations and I’m more attached to those, but I’m one of those people who stick to the rule that if you quote from a source, quote it directly, warts and all, and since this is based on the bound volume I have, so. I immediately switch to scanlation spellings and honorifics once I get to fanfics, though. I never claimed I was consistent, haha.)

The story starts with young Kamui Shiro, who is returning to Tokyo after being away for six years to face his destiny. Kamui has superpowers. Really. His childhood friends, Kotori and Fuma Monou are surprised when Kamui is so stand-offish towards them when he returns, insisting that they keep away from him. We have people chasing after Kamui, and we see him use his awesome powers. We have no idea why any of this is going on.

That, friends, neighbours and minions, was a terribly sucky summary.

The artwork is pretty — that’s a definitely plus. The characters are pretty. The story is dark — they don’t try to mask it as something cheery even this early in the series. The plot isn’t really coherent at this point, though it does get more interesting later. I refrain from saying that it’ll get more coherent later — I’m not sure that is the truth. (I’m writing this with the knowledge of what comes 17 volumes after. This whole commentary is not written without bias.)

Kamui is such an arrogant kid. I’m not saying that I never noticed this before, but upon reread he seems almost unbearably so. Kotori is really sweet — I wonder what fandom has against her, really. Fuma, Kamui and Kotori were cute as young children. And they got along so splendidly too. Oh well.

Sorata makes an appearance at the end! ♥ Sorata is my favourite character. Which probably means that he is doomed, but we’ll just have to see, since the series’ end is nowhere in sight.

Oh, did I say this is a work-in-progress, currently on hold? Yeah, so now you know.

Also, award for most random sound effect goes to “ZLOSH!” I think that was the wind slashing at something, hmm.

I have mixed feelings about The Keys to the Kingdom series. I want to know how it goes, but mostly I just want to be able to empathise with Arthur more.

It’s not quite working, oh noes.

Here’s my problem with Arthur — things happen to him, but he doesn’t really do anything. There’s nothing wrong with him — he’s a nice, sensible, responsible kid who really doesn’t want to be the heir to the Architect. Things get forced upon him and he acts, but even then it’s not really because he’s being resourceful — chances are just presented to him and he uses them to his advantage.

Story-wise, in Sir Thursday, it actually gets better. Arthur tries to return to earth after he defeats Drowned Wednesday, but is unable to, thanks to an impostor taking his place at home. He’s stuck in the House and is tricked into joining the army, despite being Lord Arthur, Duke of the Border Sea, Lord of the Far Reaches, and Master of the Lower House (and possibly a whole lot of other things as well). He now has to serve in the Glorious Army of the Architect for a hundred years — which is commanded by Sir Thursday. I was honestly amused by the whole thing at this point, especially with Arthur’s confusion and the recruiter’s insistence to add a few zeroes to Arthur’s precedence in the House, which currently stands at six. I wonder who are the other five above him?

So Arthur goes off to war this time, with a whole set of new misadventures. He’s basically just a pawn on a (literal) gigantic chessboard, and his enemies are New Nithlings, led by a familiar figure.

Leaf gets more screen time as well as she goes back to earth and try to rid the doppelgänger taking over Arthur’s place. She’s quite an interesting character, though she’s developing the same syndrome of “here’s someone who wants to help you and here’s a chance — use it!” that Nix has been inflicting on Arthur.

This book is darker than the previous ones, and ends with a cliffhanger. On to the rest of the week, I say!