Customer Reviews

Ender's Game: Battle School (Ender's Game Gn)

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2 star:		(1)
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Ender Wiggin is a very unusual boy -- he's a brilliant tactician, a genius, and a despised "third" in a future that only allows two children. He's also six years old.

And despite the fact that Orson Scott Card's sci-fi classic is about a little boy learning how to be a warrior, the first part of the comic book adaptation is a pretty solid graphic novel. "Ender's Game: Battle School" has plenty of zero-G action, tense confrontations between little boys and girls who act like hardened adults, and some weirdly shiny faces and hair.

After a fight with a gang of bullies, Ender Wiggin is approached by an army officer who wants him to join the elite Battleschool, where kid geniuses become soldiers -- basically because aliens are about to attack Earth AGAIN and may end up wiping out the human race. His brother Peter is too wild and cruel, and his beloved sister Valentine is too mild-mannered. Ender accepts, and quickly finds himself in a dog-eat-dog space school where he soon becomes loathed for the special treatment the teachers occasionally give him -- when they aren't observing his every move.

And it soon becomes obvious that Ender has a natural ability that exceeds that of most of the Battleschool recruits: he instinctively knows how to outmaneuver his opponents and protect himself in a fight, even if he annoys some of the "army" commanders who don't like being outshone. But an elaborate fantasy VR game has also revealed some unpleasant doubts in Ender's mind, as he tries to move through a fairy tale world filled with dangers....

"Ender's Game: Battle School" has a pretty daunting task in front of it -- it has to take a story filled with psychological games and children acting like adults, and somehow turn it into a good graphic novel. Sure, aliens are about to invade the Earth, but the focus here is on the slow transformation of Ender from a very self-contained young boy into a tiny prepubescent adult.

But it actually does work rather well -- lots of punching (with accompanying blood splatters), zero-G acrobatics, and tense confrontations between assorted children, divided by "toons" and competition. It gets too slow in patches, but once Ender starts really showing his skills the story becomes more intense and focused. And it adds a chilling overtone that the adults are watching the whole thing and clinically observing what is going on.

Perhaps the biggest problem with the story is that we don't get much of a look inside Ender's thoughts, and mainly see how he feels through his fantasy-world explorations and the psychological evaluations. He does seem to come alive more at the end, when he struggles with his fears of becoming like his brother Peter, and realizes the true purpose of Battle School. And Valentine serves as a good supporting character, a girl who adores her brother and serves as his rock.

As for the art, it's a mixed bag. It's rather awkward at first, with giant heads and scrawny legs for everyone, and a stylized video-game sheen that makes everyone look like video game characters. However, the art becomes smoother as the series goes on, and the glimpses of talking snakes, green-skinned giants and magical mirrors in the imaginary realm are lovely.

"Ender's Game: Battle School" has some minor flaws, but is a surprisingly solid comic adaptation of the first part of Orson Scott Card's sci-fi classic. And Command School is yet to come.

On one hand this version doesn't change any facts or story elements (except making Ender's figure in the "Fantasy game" into a mouse . . . oh, and putting Salamander army at the top of the standings prior to Ender joining them, instead of at the middle . . . and changing the "buggers" to "Formics" exclusively . . . and making the guns during the game part of the suit, not something that can be holstered . . . I guess they did change a bit--but they didn't change Valentine into a beloved dog or anything seriously significant like that).

But on the other hand, this graphic novel moves through the narrative like a cheap TV-movie that tries to cover the first half of the book in 45 minutes. It chops out so much that I can't understand the reasoning. Were they on a time schedule in making it? Characters are introduced that are of great significance in the story, but only have time to really state their name and then they have to step to the side because the story's gotta keep moving. If you don't already know the story from the novel, you WILL be left scratching your head by the time you reach the end of this one (and it's pretty short). Its speed robs it of all depth, and its lack of an internal voice for Ender removes the most fascinating parts of the story--his heart and mind. We see Ender in the battle room with the Salamander army for just a couple brief frames, and we see nothing of his evaluation of Bonzo's tactics. In fact . . . I was watching for Bonzo's tactics, but the tight formations of toons weren't there, they looked just as scattered and formless as the other army. So what would there have been for Ender to analyze, other than deciding to break orders and use his weapon or not?

The art is okay. It's a bit lazy in some places as they clearly drew ONE picture for an entire setting, then just cut and pasted and zoomed for the additional frames needed, and that's annoying. It is neat, though, to see someone's vision of this world.

So that's what we're left with. A few images of half-way decent art depicting key scenes from the first half of Ender's Game. Don't come to this graphic novel and expect to get out of it what you would from reading the book. I read this thing and I fear what kinds of things Orson Scott Card is doing to his story to try to get it to the screen. This thing reads like it's a few explosions and feet of cleavage short of a Michael Bay movie. If you see it at a library, by all means take the time to sit down for 15 minutes to read it, but do not waste your money on this.

I am a big fan of the Ender's Game novel by Orson Scott Card so I was very interested when I discovered they were going to do a comic adaptation. I just received my copy in the mail and couldn't put it down, it was great! Illustrations are very interesting and it's cool to see someone else visualize the story. I hope they continue with this series and come out with more issues. I recommend!

Excellent rendition.

Having read "Ender's Game" in it's full glory I found myself more than a little hesitant to approach the graphic novel. I don't know about you, but frequently I've found that the graphic versions of popular works do adequately with the artwork, but entirely miss the tone of the originals. In this case I was afraid the the tone would be childish and the dialog boxy.

Surprisingly, that wasn't the case. "Battle School" was serious and carried the sense of intrigue and adventure/danger that Card put in the original. And I was entirely drawn into the story again.

Now the artwork, I must say, took some getting used to. The stylized shadowing I found a little odd, but soon I found that I was making the transition and really got into the dark backgrounds and striking images. (The inside artwork, by the way, doesn't look like the coverart. It's much better. And much darker in tone.)

All-in-all I really enjoyed re-reading Andrew's story.

Pam T~

mom/blogger

If you haven't read this books, you should. Even if this isn't really the type of book you normally read, I would still give it a try becasue you'll probally surprise yourself and love it.

The book was good. Realtively close to the book. If you haven't read the book, the comic could be a bit hard to follow. All-in-all, as a Card fan, I enjoyed it.

Very high production values evident in this creditable version of the first part of Ender's Game, that is, from the point up until Ender gets his own command. Excellent paper; vibrant clear colors.

The writing is excellent - Christopher Yost did an strong job compressing the dialog and capturing the key moments. Sometimes his versions are even better than in the original, for example, in cutting down Graff's somewhat long-winded recruitment speech to Ender to its essentials.

The weak point of this adaptation was the insipid and unimaginative artwork in the drawing of many of the characters, notably Ender, who comes across as a cliche - and an uninteresting one. Similarly, Stilson is drawn like the stereotypical bully: it's unoriginal and unconvincing.

On the other hand, Graff is well-drawn, the artist did a good job capturing his character.

The mind game scenes are the highlight of the artwork, and probably better than in the book, (the scene where Ender hands over part of the giant's eye was modified from the book, but it works well nonetheless).

Bernard is inexplicably shown breaking his right arm, and wearing a sling on that arm, even though the dialog both in the novel and the adaptation states he broke his left arm. This is a minor blemish, but was a bit distracting.

The battle scenes are OK, although my sense is that the scale of the rooms and stars were a bit compressed as compared to the book.

Despite the unimaginative character art in places, it's not a bad adaptation.

Finally getting to see Ender's game world and characters drawn by some of the best artists at Marvel is a treat. I hope this work is a launching pad for an Ender's game movie. The quality of the art is 1st rate and of the story is a classic. Where can I buy my Flashsuit? and is there a "Mind Game" app yet for my iphone?

It's a good adaptation, but a lot is missing. You don't really see Shen Alai and Ender get close but it was still a good adaption nonetheless. Also while ender plays the mind game it feels rushed. He never goes to the playground and gets eaten by child wolve-things or kills any, but you can't include every detail in an adaption I suppose. I also really like the art. Not so much the cover but what is on the inside. I salute Pasqual Ferry.

Though some parts are absent for the right reasons - like the fight with Bonzo in the end or the making of Locke and Demosthenes, but overall it has tried capturing a difficult book in a form that if you have read the book then you will appreciate better. Now on to reading the Ender's Game: Command School which is the next in the series and continues with the story of Ender Wiggin in command school.