| Title | : | Ender's Game Ultimate Collection |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0785163379 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780785163374 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 256 |
| Publication | : | First published March 10, 2010 |
COLLECTING:
ENDER'S GAME: BATTLE SCHOOL 1-5; ENDER'S GAME: COMMAND SCHOOL 1-5
Ender's Game Ultimate Collection Reviews
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I should really read Ender's Game. The actual book, I mean.
But.
The reviews look iffy, and it's old sci-fi.
So.
Ta-Da!
Problem solved...I read the graphic novel adaptation.
Alright, I (obviously) have no idea how well this thing follows the book, but it hit enough major points for me to follow along.
Ender is a teeny-tiny little kid (like 6), and he's basically being groomed to save the world.
From what I could gather, the government requested that his parents try one more time to get it right.
Big Brother=Too Evil
Big Sister=Too Nice
Oh well, third time's a charm?
Yep!
Ender is juuuuust right.
The guy in charge of overseeing his 'development' gets these bouts of conscience, but he continually mind-fucks the poor kid anyway. It was weird. I mean, I understood it. I just thought it was odd that they were pinning the fate of the earth on such a small child.
However, it made me feel that I'd made the right decision to skip the real thing and go for the comic book version.
Even with a somewhat unbelievable premise, I still really enjoyed this. And it was relatively thick, which made me feel like I was getting a more complete story.
Whether that's true or not... No idea.
I also thought it was much better than the majority of the crap novelizations I've read in the past. While I'm sure I missed a lot of the nuances and side stories, I still feel like I have a decent grasp of the overall story.
Recommended to all the Lazy Readers out there! -
Graphic novel adaptations of a novel are really hard to do well. Since a tremendous amount of work goes into making one, they can only afford to do this for really popular and detailed novels. And the biggest problem is that there are many important scenes throughout the novel that maybe take up like 2 or 3 pages, but if you wish to do it justice in a graphic novel adaptation it will take 3-5 pages or so depending on that scene. Also, the graphic novel has an extremely limited amount of space available to tell their story, which is usually less than half as thick as the original novel. So obviously, there are a lot of cuts made, and because of this, graphic novel adaptations are never nearly as good as the original novel itself (although it usually is more aesthetically appealing). Which brings me to my review of this Ender's Game graphic novel adaptation.
-For people attempting to read the graphic novel first
Don't. You will simply not be able to follow it or be able to appreciate it at all. People who attempt to read this first will be struggling to figure out who the different characters are, not understand what is going on or how games are played, get lost, not understand the significance of many things and thus be unimpressed with the story. This is because the author needed to cut many things to fit everything in and thus cut game explanations, cut layouts, cut transitions, and even worse all the characters look alike since they all share the same stoic expressions, hair, and skin color in dim lighting. I highly recommend, since you were motivated enough to look up the graphic novel and read this review, to read the original Ender's Game novel first. It's a page turner and you will not regret it.
-For people who have already read Ender's Game and wish to read the graphic novel
The book is split in half to represent two parts: Battle School and Command School. Since Battle School took up most of the original book, and Command School took a fraction...it's easy to assume that the Battle School half of the book could not do the the novel justice due to the extensive amount of cuts, and that the Command School half would be better since they could focus more on transitions and details (something the previous half could only dream of doing).
Because of all the necessary cuts in the battle school half, many of the scenes we're very jumpy and hard to follow, many of the characters we're not given proper introductions (if at all), and the entire Peter and Valentine scenes were cut. I understand that scenes needed to be cut to be able to fit the story in 120 pages, but I could not believe that they didn't explain the rules to the battle room. Arguably the most important game in the book where about half of the book's settings takes place in, they do not bother to explain what it is or how to play it. They simply did not take the time to explain anything except that you wear suits in an anti-gravity chamber and shoot people (not taking the time to elaborate what shooting people actually does or how if affects the game). This book would otherwise be incomprehensible if you had not actually read the original novel.
I liked the Command School half a lot more. They were able to explain and elaborate on many things and I quite enjoyed myself. The only complaint I have is that there really wasn't any falling action. Ender kills the Formacs, feels bad, and his friends come and they all jokingly plan on going to school. What about his guilt? What about the egg? The promise to help it hatch? I felt that this was a significant part of the book, and could hardly believe that they cut it.
-The Art
There is no denying that Pasqual Ferry and Frank D'armata are talented artists. Flipping through the book, you will see amazing color tones, effects and details that went into the making of this graphic novel. There is doubt in my mind that the artwork is a treasure to look upon...and yet I can not give it full marks. I can't tell you if it was the colorists fault or the artists...but the characters are hard to differentiate. Everyone looks the same! Due to some of the dark lighting, everyone's hair and skin color looks the same, their faces look the same, and you can barely differentiate one another by haircut. I even, at times, have a hard time differentiating Petra, and she's the only female student in the book! And to add further confusion, there was a scene where Dink introduces himself and then Bernard's gang bullies Ender. Then Bernard (who has the same haircut as Dink) comes in, and Dink completely disappears (If I hadn't known the story, I would have thought Dink was Bernard)! You don't see Dink again for a while, and he looks completely different from when he was introduced since he has a different haircut! Also, its hard to blame them for this, but when everyone is in their suits they are impossible to differentiate between.
I also felt that the characters themselves, especially in the beginning, were very stiff. They all had emotionless expressions, and were all very shiny. The artists likes working in dim lighting with the light shining upon the characters' faces to make it look 3Dish, but it simply was not my cup of tea.
The final inconsistency was the sizes. Ender is known for being the youngest and shortest launchie in the book, but he stands taller than Alai and Shen, and is barely any shorter than his Salamander teammates. Bean is known for being especially small, but there are scenes where he is standing next to a teammate who is just as tall as him. Minor problems, but important.
Overall, this book is just as good as what you can expect from a graphic novel adaptation of a popular book- not much. But for me who has read the original Ender's Game, it was an OK way to recall the events that happened in the book. But not something I would recommend. -
Let me start off by saying that Ender's Game is one of my favorite books of all time, so I knew that the story of this graphic novel interpretation would be good. Overall, the whole thing was exactly what I'd come to expect.
Two issues though: 1) The art. While it is cool to see a different imagining of the story, the biggest problem I had was with the faces. The kids look too similar and are hard to tell apart.
2) The end. I won't ruin it here, since I think the Final Exam is an amazing part, but they left out the scene with Ender and the Queen... I'll say no more. I've always thought that scene was very important to showing the "peace-loving" side of Ender.
Overall good read and I recommend, but read the book if you like this graphic novel. -
Very interesting read. Six year old kids being trained to save the world...
It felt somewhat rushed and like some stuff was likely skipped over, but if nothing else it made me more interested in reading the original book. I think (without having read the original before) that this would be a good introduction to the story (and the sci-fi genre as a whole) for reluctant younger readers. Action packed, bullied kid standing up for the little guy and making something legendary of himself... good stuff. -
Ender's Game is the third best piece of sci-fi/fantasy ever written according to NPR's Top 100 Survey that had 60,000 people voting. I freakin' loved this book. I'm a sucker for child soldiers. Ender's Shadow was sweet (It's about Bean) and Speaker for the Dead was pretty good too.
Child soldiers...it's what we're training kids for with video games anyhow. Who needs robots if you have remote controlled drones? -
I still remember the day back in 1992 that a fellow student in middle school handed me a copy of Ender's Game and recommended it. It was a thrilling and wonderful experience; I loved the combination of psychological depth with the exploration of three-dimensional, null-gravity war games. The characters of Peter, Val, and Ender became permanent residents of my mind.
I found this graphic novel the other day at the library and read it with interest. I think it shows the challenge of depicting either of those elements in a visual medium. It is not easy to depict psychological depth in a comic format; to do it, you need a slow developing, brooding style, with a lot of boxes containing the narrator's or main character's thought process. And it is very hard to depict the complexity of a three dimensional wargame on a flat page. Unfortunately, I think that this graphic novel failed at these two essential tasks.
In my opinion, if I hadn't read the novel first, I would have found much of the graphic novel impossible to understand. Much of what it did to tackle these two essential elements of the story was in the style of a visual reminder that could help someone remember what the novel said, but for the most part, it read like a summary of Ender's Game, not an adaptation of it. It needed to be twice as long. We needed more of Ender's inner life and we really, really needed more space to depict those war games in a way, and at a pace, that was comprehensible.
Finally, I think it lost something without having more of the "before" and the "after." It was hard to understand the story without more being said at the very beginning about the Formic invasion and it lacked resolution without Ender finding the egg at the end. And honestly I missed seeing Peter and Val and their political scheming -- maybe I'm the only one, but it added depth.
All in all, it is a good read for someone who has read the novel, but I wouldn't recommend it for someone who isn't familiar with it. -
I really did not like the art for these. It was hard to tell the kids apart, the weird glow and -- as another reviewer put it -- "bad CG" feel to it. This felt like a rushed mess. Like they just copy and pasted from different parts of a larger work and didn't care that it didn't make as much sense anymore. Certainly there were parts that if I hadn't read the book I would have been lost. I'm reading the rest of the comics in the Ender's Game world only because I'm a completionist and at this point, it's just a few of the special issues and side stories -- ones which are new or are telling short stories I never read, so they're new to me. I much preferred the Formic Wars series to this poor retelling of the book, though.
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Can't beat the original novel, but that said, they did a great job with the graphic novel. The storyline is intact (pretty much word-for-word as far as I could tell) and the illustrations were incredible and really helped encapsulate the world, which allows for a lot of condensation of writing. My big complaint was that they didn't see it through to the actual end of the novel, choosing instead the "happy" ending with all of Ender's angst seemingly disappearing instantaneously. Overall, though, I enjoyed it, but will stick to the original from here on out.
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Graphic novel adaptations are strange. I enjoyed jumping through the story in only a few hours with art to guide me, but the introspective aspects of the source book that make it wonderful are largely lost. Would 10/10 recommend to someone who loves Ender's Game, but probably not to anyone else.
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Nice adaptatiojn, but the reveal somehow not as powerful on the comic page
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Unfortunately, it does not really capture the novel.
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A very good graphic novel. The illustrations are a great addition. It stays true to the book. I will definitely give this to my ELL students during our book clubs unit!
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So this book will hook you into following a long list of books that follow this.
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This story is similar to Starship Troopers, in many ways. A future Earth's hegemonic government reacts to an existential threat, by a distant race of interstellar arthropods, by conscription or "encouraging" young people to defend their species against this menace. In both cases, we see a possible future for humanity. But this is as far as I can see the similarities. Starship Troopers, the novel, is entirely different from the film while still just barely following the general outline. Having not read the novel Ender's Game, I'm at a loss to compare this book to the film or comic.
A recurring issue with turning a novel into a graphic novel or a film is that the original author's tone can be lost in a new medium and important pieces of backstory are often omitted.
I already knew the big ending, as I saw the movie years prior, but getting there was still a thrill. -
Great graphic novel adaption! It felt a bit rushed at the end. The final command school section seemed like it needed to be a larger se tion. Hence the 4 star.
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Do you like a book that really gets you gears turning, or maybe you like a book that twists your heart at times? If yes, this is a great book for you. Ender's Game by Orson Scott and Christopher Yost is a great sci-fi book that addresses key political and controversial issues.
This book follows a boy named Ender Wiggins and his fight to be the best in a military battle school filled to the brim with the smartest and brightest. Ender wants to make something of his life. Along with Ender's point of view, the author also incorporates the political troubles of the futuristic society in Ender's sibling's point of view as they try to become anonymous political figures. With both storylines facing very controversial troubles, this book makes for excellent conversations. With questions like: "how does age determine ability?" and, "where's the line between corrupt genocide and fighting for your life? this story will make you stop and think about how our world today can and will react if circumstances were the same.
Along with a really good plot, Orson also shapes his characters and personalities with expert craftsmanship. Being able to understand Ender's thoughts to a way where you're intrigued as to his thought process, Ender becomes a part of the book in a way that other books have a hard time achieving. In this book, Ender examines his acquaintances with a careful eye and really puts himself in their shoes. This helps the reader to really dig in deep and fall in love with not only the main characters, but the villains nad other characters too. And all of this is first person. Very good Mr. Orson.
Although this is a good book, I didn't rate it 100%. The reason for this is that it isn't the most fascinating book of all time. There are many times where the book is slow and kinda drags. Although there is action, I wouldn't call this an action book. Therefore, if you don't like phycological books or themes, I wouldn't recommend this book. But if you like to think and you like a deep plot with amazing sci-fi ideas, give this book a read.
Jael Hudson -
A classic of science fiction presented in graphic novel format. While this will never be a classic in its own right, it is one of the finer examples of an adaption, making it a worthwhile read. Ender is a boy born to end a war against a barely understood enemy, and while this is the ultimate goal, the focus is spent on his time at school, what he learns, and the impact it has on him personally.
The setting is Earth's own future, which is well portrayed by the palette of colours that was chosen. Plenty of reds and blues create visual opposition, while a futuristic lighting contrasts against rather dark backgrounds to show how unnatural the environment is. Both paneling and pacing remain consistent, and any scene changes occur at the beginning of a new page. In this sense, it is easy to follow the story, however with so much introduced, and indistinct minor character designs, feeling slightly lost is not uncommon.
Overall the plot is less important than the themes it presents. The struggles of these children in such a harsh system, paint humanity as logical, but morally ambiguous. Forcing children to become adults by pitting them against one another, isolating them, and disregarding their emotions is a cruel reality. Ender's mental stability is the window through which this is viewed. He changes slowly, and as he breaks down there are more opportunities to see into his true self.
The consequences of ones actions is a main topic throughout, yet for such an important theme, it is only hinted at, for the constraints of the graphic novel leave little room to explore this in any significant detail. It takes three quarters of the book before the "enemy" appears, and it turns out this "game" had larger stakes than even Ender thought. All hopes are placed on the next generation, but it is they that are the most manipulated. The future of humanity is left in their hands, but its fate is not determined by their own will. The moral implications of all this are only glanced over, leaving for a rather unsatisfactory ending. -
February 4- * review of the graphic novel, not the original text *
>I love Ender's Game. Like, truly, wholeheartedly love it. I saw this at the library and grabbed it simply based on the fact that it was an adaptation of Ender's Game, expecting to love it and fall in love with the story in a whole new way. Unfortunately, I waded through 75% of it and didn't enjoy a single page. I tried to love it, but I couldn't even finish it because it was making me so upset. I'm so sad I didn't like this because I feel like it had so much potential. It just read like an adaptation of the movie rather than the *novel,* which is the opposite of what I expected (reasonably, yeah? one would assume it was based on the text, right? tell me I'm not expecting too much). It left out so much of what I loved in the novel and of what I loved of the movie. It was a boring, watered-down, disjointed comic that was just plain and unextraordinary.
>The art was... weird. It fit the story stylistically, but the characters all looked the same. The kids all had the same faces, the same hair styles, and (worst of all, imo) pretty much the same skin colors. I appreciate the artist adding in more femme-presenting characters than what the original novel had, but I wish they had actually had kids from around the world (like they actually are...).
>The part that angers me most is the fact that this book left out the scene between Ender + the Queen. It's so central to Ender's ultimate character development and the cliffie that makes you want to read the next book/s. WHY LEAVE THIS OUT. IT IS DRIVING ME NUTS. WHY.
>I just want a graphic novel that marries the best of the movie and the best of the book and is a decent length. Just let me have that. Please. I'm begging. -
Ender's Game is a captivating novel with an intriguing storyline. It's a book of adventure and breathtaking surprises that make it really come alive. If you like action-packed stories, then read Ender's Game.
The main character of Ender's Game is Andrew (he calls himself Ender), a young boy with powerful intelligence. He is third born in his family and is treated with disrespect because of that. His worst fear is that he will become like his brother, Peter. Peter has a heart of stone and picks on everyone, especially Ender. He can always see a persons' worst fears, unlike his sister, Valentine, who is the opposite of Peter and sees the best of people. She aids Ender through his childhood and Ender always has her in mind.
Ender's Game is written in third person. I believe third person is the best context because you know some things that Ender doesn't know. The author of this book made a good choice.
In Ender's Game, 6-year-old Ender is asked to go to battle school, a place where he is to be taught how to be a commander. However, Ender is forced to go through many challenges to test his abilities. He is loathed by all his fellow launchies, especially when he gets moved up a grade before everyone else, even though he's the youngest.
Ender's Game is a truly touching tale. It is one of my top ten books at the moment and has even been made into a movie. I highly suggest that you read it today. -
Orson Scott Card's novel Ender's Game has been adapted into two consecutive miniseries, both of which are collected in this volume.
I tend to like books written by Christopher Yost and I always liked books pencilled by Pasqual Ferry.
Ferry's art, while good, is too undifferentiated here. The children in this book, regardless of their respective age, all look more or less the same.
Even with different hairstyles and colours it is very difficult to tell who is who. Uniforms and full-body battlesuits do not exactly help the matter.
Of the two 5-issue miniseries collected here the first reads too fast and too superficial. The characters, even Ender himself, do not get developed to any degree of depth and most characters, even those important in the novel, are simply incidental.
The second half is more engaging, but even the story's climax and all that entails leaves little to no emotional resonance. The whole thing falls flat and very short of what the novel entails.
Only for hardcore fans of Orson Scott Card, I'm afraid. -
Confession: I did not want to spend the time to read Orson Scott Card's novel "Ender's Game" (though I should, being a children's librarian, and am sure that the day will come...) so I embraced the graphic novel. I rarely read graphic novel, especially adaptations of novels, but it was a good experience. The graphic version stays loyal to the novel and makes the argument for preemptive war while conveying an abhorrence for violence. It definitely leaves the reader with more questions than answers, hopefully. I think that the original novel had to be read in order to have a thoughtful discussion about the social themes and criticisms that Card is making. However, a reading of the graphic novel tells the story, and now I know what "Ender's Game" is all about.
FYI: The illustrations and text are so dark that this graphic novel is not a good bedtime read. It's for young kids, sitting under bright florescent lights in their school or public libraries. -
Having first read the novel, I can't "un-read" it to see what this graphic novel treatment of Card's book might be like for a first-timer in Card's Battle School and Formic Wars. I expect it might not be as rich and deep as my experience was reading this graphic novel. The original Ender's Game is in my Top 10 Fave Books lists to this day. Chris Yost was quite disciplined and true to the Battle School aspect of this story, and the illustration was both technically proficient and heartfelt, the latter I often find lacking in Marvel's graphic-novel-stable-of-artists production approach. They did spell "Phoenix" wrong on two menu board displays, and the abrupt end with no blank pages prior to Marvel printing alternate drawings/addenda was a bit tacky, but otherwise a pleasant surprise from Marvel.
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Ender's game was wonderful. After that book I didn't know what to expect. The rest of Ender's adventure was interesting, but lacked what caught my attention in the first book with battle school and Ender's inner battle with his emotions. While some of that still existed on his journey, it lacked that suspense and sense of accomplishment that the original first book provided. With the piggies and Jane, and a religious girl across the universe, it just was kind of out there.
Enders Shadow(Bean) was pretty fun, especially with his point of view in battle school. But his story was kind of disturbing, and I got bored with his role after the Buggers were defeated, and wasn't intrigued by his relationship with Achilles. became a story of cowboys and indians. It was meh.
Enders story = philosophical outlook of the universe and such
Beans story = an action movie with a few twists -
I Inter-Library Loaned this book to see how well the book was put together and whether the content would be good for our library. Since the book has been made into a movie everyone has wanted to get their hands on the book. I have listened to the audio book version of the novel.
I must say that the graphic novel (the Ultimate Collection of 10 comics) was quite good and followed the story line very well. The artwork was very colorful and also followed my personal vision. I was very comfortable with the story and believe that it is a great supplement to the novel.
Because of the nature of the material this graphic novel is more geared toward teens and adults just as the original novel. -
BOOK REVIEW: I’m almost ashamed to write this, but having read Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card, I just don’t understand the hype and why this is considered a sci-fi classic. Let me save you some time: If you’re in the mood to read a book about bullying at a futuristic battle-training school for six-year-olds (yes, you read that right…it made just as little sense to me), where the students just continue to do battle simulations over and over again when they’re not bullying each other, then this book is for you. To me, it was as interesting as watching somebody else play a video game. What a snoozer. Two stars…only because I’m too embarrassed to give it one.
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Not as good as the book, but still good. I'm kind of curious to know what someone who's never read the book or seen the movie thinks of this. There are parts of this that don't get much explanation that are clearer in the book, but it certainly hits all the high points. The artwork is decent, though it does get a little grainy in spots. Not sure if that's the printing or the original artwork, but I suspect the latter. I'm guessing this was done digitally and the pixelation comes from zooming in for a closeup without smoothing things out. Maybe. I'm no artist so what do I know? Anyway, this is a decent, if unspectacular, adaptation of an excellent book.
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Overall, I thought this covered the majority of the main plot points from the book, with the exception of the ending (involving the Hive Queen). The artwork was adequate, and I did enjoy the graphic novel quite a bit. With that said, I certainly would not recommend reading this without having read the book. You won't get enough out of it.
I was mostly disappointed with the scenes in the battle room, but my real problem with the graphic novel was the same problem I had with the movie: So much of the original book focuses on the thoughts and inner headspace of Ender Wiggin, and a great deal of that is lost in these adaptations. -
This trade paperback includes all 10 issues of the comic book adaptation of the novel Ender's Game. These issues were previously collected in two hardback volumes: Ender's Game: Battle School (issues #1-5) and Ender's Game: Command School (issues #6-10).
Like most graphic adaptations of Card's novels, this was enjoyable for its visual representations of an exciting story, but the true beauty of Card's writing--the interplay of several characters with sophisticated motivations--doesn't translate very well into this medium. -
Overall I liked the visual depiction, it's been so long since i read the original novel I can only assume it matches it as imagined by Mr. Card. I'm not too sure about how this book wrapped up the last couple of pages, might just have to go back and re-read the novel.
Would certainly like to see the remainder of the series adapted to this format, especially Speaker for the Dead - my personal favorite that perhaps sparked a rexamination of all my preceptions and preconceptions on the value of war; although I certainly didn't fully realize it at the time.
