Movie Review: Ender's Game

All right, to be fair when it comes to this story,  I'm pretty biased.  Although the novel came out in 1985, I didn't get around reading it until the mid-90s and it sits pretty high on my list of favourite science fictions stories.

Yesterday I took my daughters out to see the new film, and I've got to say it was pretty great.  For those unfamiliar with the original story, 1) go read the book, as fun as the movie was, the book a fantastic read, and 2) the story follows a child who is put through military training with other kids to prepare for a potential war with an alien race that has already attacked Earth in the past.

Although my favourite part of the book series comes after Ender's Game, the first story is a pretty amazing one and I'm glad my kids got to see it in theatres, as the visuals were pretty darn amazing.

Definitely worth a watch.

Genre Character of the Week: Alvin Maker

So here I am, not even fully through the first novel in the series, and I'm really loving the character of young Alvin Maker in Orson Scott Card's Seventh Son.

The series takes place in an alternate history version of America, in the early 1800s.  It follows the childhood of a young man called Alvin, who happens to be the seventh son of a seventh son, which in his world makes him pretty special indeed.

Unlike the author's other main protagonist (Andrew "Ender" Wiggins), Alvin comes across as a pretty great little kid (and later young man), he's honest, works to make the world around him a little better, and has the knack to make just about anything.

To be fair there are some pretty obvious parallels between Alvin and the real world historical figure Joseph Smith, founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Later Day Saints (also known as the Mormons), but seeing that the author is a practicing member of that faith, parallels can be expected.

So far the story is pretty great, there's a great sense of both wonder and danger throughout, and even though I'm Canadian, stories set in the history of my continent (even an alternate history), are pretty fun for me to check out.

Although I can't recommend the series as I'm only on book one, the first book is pretty great and definitely worth a look if you enjoy fantasy fiction.

Genre Character of the Week:Colonel Mack Tavernor

Over the last few days I’ve been reading the 1969 novel The Palace of Eternity by Bob Shaw, a science fiction novel taking place on the planet Mnemosyne (an artist’s colony) and taking place during a war with a strange alien race called the Syccans. Our main character (and our genre character of the week) is Colonel Mack Tavernor.

Tavernor is introduced to the reader as a repair man living in a colony of artists, musicians, and poets. He is 49 years old, and keeps many of the planets indigenous creatures in his home as pets. Throughout the novel we learn of his childhood (he was a lone survivor of a planet-wide Syccan attack at age eight) and his military career, as well as the events leading to his current situation.

The novel has a lot of obvious parallels with later SF books, namely Ender’s Game, and Falling Free (from my point of view), and Tavernor is definitely one of my personal favourite kind of genre characters; the working-Joe just trying to mind his own business and live a quiet life who gets swept up in something huge.

I don’t want to go into too many spoilers of the novel, but trust me, Mack’s journey is a pretty major one, and it had me intrigued, excited and honestly shocked at various points throughout. Although the book may require you to make a trip to your local used-book store, it is definitely worth the trip.