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11. A War of Gifts - Orson Scott Card
Well, I'm really not learning my lessons here. I don't even want to talk about this novella because I don't think it deserves any kind of serious commentary... Ugh, I'll try. This is Ender's Game: The Christmas Special. No, really. It centres around religious zealot Zeck (I swear to god OSC, if you named him Zeck because it looks similar to "zealot" I will hurt you...), yet another super-genius who goes to battle school and-
Okay, we need to take a break here. Hey Mr. Card, are you capable of writing a character who isn't a super-genius? Because I honestly can't think of any main character in any of the books in this series who is just fucking normal - except for villains or minor characters. LEARN TO WRITE A DIFFERENT CHARACTER. Right, back to A War of Gifts... sigh...
-Dink. So Dink is trying to invoke the spirit of Satan Claus or Sinterklass or Black Peter or something by giving gifts... gifts like socks... to other students and Zeck adamantly opposes him because Santa is an anagram of Satan... or something. I feel like a jackass just writing a summary, I can't even imagine what OSC felt like writing this novella. They argue, Muslims pray, Ender has about three fucking lines and then swoops in at the last chapter like the incarnation of Santa Christ and solves everything by giving Zeck a sock.
I don't know, I fucking hated it. HATED IT. There is an unwritten rule in science fiction that you NEVER put in Christmas. Want to know why? Because you end up with shit like Santa Claus Versus the Martians and this piece of crap. It's completely pointless, it's just shoved somewhere in the Ender's Game timeline, meaning that it neither adds nor takes away anything from the main story. It's like that ridiculous Beauty and the Beast Christmas movie they did. Worse, it's just another lame attempt to rewrite Ender's Game. We really don't need to see the same story through every characters eyes. Twice was pushing it, this is flogging the horse and pissing on it.
The worst part is, I am still gonna continue to read his novels, but take my advice, skip the novellas...
Well, I'm really not learning my lessons here. I don't even want to talk about this novella because I don't think it deserves any kind of serious commentary... Ugh, I'll try. This is Ender's Game: The Christmas Special. No, really. It centres around religious zealot Zeck (I swear to god OSC, if you named him Zeck because it looks similar to "zealot" I will hurt you...), yet another super-genius who goes to battle school and-
Okay, we need to take a break here. Hey Mr. Card, are you capable of writing a character who isn't a super-genius? Because I honestly can't think of any main character in any of the books in this series who is just fucking normal - except for villains or minor characters. LEARN TO WRITE A DIFFERENT CHARACTER. Right, back to A War of Gifts... sigh...
-Dink. So Dink is trying to invoke the spirit of Satan Claus or Sinterklass or Black Peter or something by giving gifts... gifts like socks... to other students and Zeck adamantly opposes him because Santa is an anagram of Satan... or something. I feel like a jackass just writing a summary, I can't even imagine what OSC felt like writing this novella. They argue, Muslims pray, Ender has about three fucking lines and then swoops in at the last chapter like the incarnation of Santa Christ and solves everything by giving Zeck a sock.
I don't know, I fucking hated it. HATED IT. There is an unwritten rule in science fiction that you NEVER put in Christmas. Want to know why? Because you end up with shit like Santa Claus Versus the Martians and this piece of crap. It's completely pointless, it's just shoved somewhere in the Ender's Game timeline, meaning that it neither adds nor takes away anything from the main story. It's like that ridiculous Beauty and the Beast Christmas movie they did. Worse, it's just another lame attempt to rewrite Ender's Game. We really don't need to see the same story through every characters eyes. Twice was pushing it, this is flogging the horse and pissing on it.
The worst part is, I am still gonna continue to read his novels, but take my advice, skip the novellas...