 This is going to be a special edition of 32nd Sci-Fi Book Review. I'll divide it into four parts. First, I'll spend my regular 30 seconds talking about Ender's Game. Second, I'll do a short bit about the sequel, Speaker for the Dead. Third, I'll spend some time talking about the author, Orson Scott Card, and then I will end with some remarks about the upcoming movie and the boycott. Okay, part one, Ender's Game is one of the true classics of modern science fiction, and it deserves every bit of attention that it's gotten. It's a fantastic book. People have interpreted the book in every way imaginable, and taken their own personal conclusions from it in ways that I can't even start to cover here. What I personally took from it was that I just personally admired this child named Ender. He had special abilities and special intelligence, and he was born into very difficult circumstances, and he did what he had to do to survive. He made his choices. He didn't second guess himself, and he struggled to avoid being used and manipulated. And of course, every single person in his life was lying to him about everything and manipulating him as hard as they could. This book is absolutely everywhere. You can find a copy at a local used bookstore. Just don't buy it new. Part two, Speaker for the Dead. I've mentioned before how an excellent book can be diminished by a bad follow-up book. Well, Speaker for the Dead is actually not a follow-up book. Orson Scott Card makes it very clear in the introduction to Ender's Game that the only reason he wrote Ender's Game, the only reason was to act as an introduction to Speaker for the Dead, which is the book he really wanted to write. Well, that's pretty tragic because it's not a good book. I've heard some people say that Speaker for the Dead is the superior book, and I do not understand the words that are coming out of their mouths. Let me describe it to you. Ender has grown up to become a kind of traveling spiritualist who makes his living traveling the galaxy, delivering eulogies and funeral rites for people who don't have someone to do it for them or who are difficult to do it for them. And there's your problem right there. I mean, what kind of person would have a funeral that they need to put together and they would say, oh, this is too difficult for us. We need somebody special. And then they would wait weeks or maybe even months for a specialist to travel through hyperspace from some other system. Who would do that? Nobody would do that. It's a dumb premise. I already don't like it. And the big shock that comes at the end of the book is not only not a shock, it's not even a surprise. You could see it coming from page one. Every death and every bad thing that happened was caused by scientists keeping their research secret from each other in exactly the way that real scientists never do. And again, Ender, this character that I admired so much, grew up to be this pseudo religious charlatan. It was unacceptable. Part three, I'm going to talk about Orson Scott card. Now, I noticed back in the day when I started reading a card's work, I believe that Ender's game was the first I'd read. But I remember noticing that I could see his Mormon religion just all over everything that he wrote. And for a while I was like, am I being, you know, I know he's a Mormon, am I being prejudiced against him? Am I seeing stuff that's not there? But then I realized that the reason I was seeing it is because he was talking about it. In the introduction to every book he's ever written, he goes on and on and on about how Mormon he is. So that when you start reading the rest of the book, you see it all over everything. And although he wrote some amazing stuff, some books on some short stories that I'll remember forever, it started leaving a bad taste in my mouth when I lost interest. And now over the last decade or so, we've discovered that card is not just devoted to his religion. He is a serious bigot, one of the worst. For a time he was on the board of directors of the National Organization for Marriage, the NOM. This group is seriously bad news. It's down there at the bottom with the absolute worst of the religious hate groups. These people don't just have an ethical problem with homosexuality. They want gays and lesbians put in prison and even executed. If you think I'm exaggerating, look them up. The kinds of horrifying problems that are happening in Russia right now with the government openly harassing, imprisoning, and even threatening to execute homosexuals is exactly what the National Organization for Marriage wants to happen here in the United States and all over the world. These terrible videos and photos that we're seeing from Russia with average citizens openly hunting and humiliating gays and homosexuals, that's what the NOM wants. I could go on for an hour but I won't. There are people online who have said things much more concisely and much more eloquently than I will. Hank Green made a video called Orson Scott Card as a dick. Google that phrase and you'll find it. It's great. And Lindsay Ellis did a fantastic video blog about the subject. Google Nostalgia Chick Enders Game and you'll find it. Okay, part four. As I'm posting this, the Enders Game movie is supposed to premiere on November 1st of 2013, which is about a week away. There's been a lot of talk over the summer about boycotting the movie and surprisingly though, a lot of people who were very upset about Orson Scott Card's positions are publicly stating that they won't boycott the movie and that they don't support a boycott of the movie and I'm honestly mystified by it. These are people whose opinions I normally admire, including Lindsay Ellis. I don't understand it. The excuses for not boycotting the movie and I call them excuses because they are excuses, not reasons. But one of the primary categories of the excuses for not boycotting the movie is the fact that you have to be supportive of all the other people who worked on the movie that it's more than just Orson Scott Card involved. Well, I'm going to be blunt. This is straight up bullshit. Every single person who worked on that movie, every actor, every extra, every gaffer, every best boy, every makeup artist, every costume fitter, every caterer, they got paid for their work. They got paid for the work that they did on that movie. They got paid on an hourly basis. Their job was done years ago and they moved on to other jobs because they're in the movie industry, that's what they do. Their jobs do not depend on one movie. The only people whose future profits depend on the success of any one movie are the people who invested in that movie. Maybe the producers, maybe the director and in this case, the guy who owns the source material, Orson Scott Card. Sure, he's already been paid for his allowing them to make the movie and he will certainly make a lot more if the movie is successful. And here's the thing. If the movie is successful, there will be a sequel and he will get a lot more still and he's already said what he's going to do with his money. One of the other excuses I keep hearing is that it's just wrong to boycott in general. Please come on. Conservatives boycott and blacklist the rest of us every day and they love doing it. If you're not prepared to do one little thing or make one little gesture, then how committed are you to any beliefs that you actually have? And this isn't just a gesture, it's your money. It's eight dollars or fifteen dollars or however much money you spend at the movies and every one of those dollars contributes to the success of the movie, even when you hate the movie, which brings up my next point. Why do you have to see this one movie? All of these critics who are saying that boycotting the movie is not the right thing to do, what they're really saying is that they want to see the movie. All the excuses that they're making are immaterial because really what it comes down to, they just want to see the movie. I would have more respect if they would just say that. Maybe they think it doesn't matter but as I was pointing out, every little dollar does matter. Sure, there are other issues in the world. In a lot of cases, bigger issues. I mean our government entirely floats the nation of Saudi Arabia where homosexuality has the death penalty. What can each of us as individuals do about it? I don't know. In the case of this Ender's Game movie, I do know what the solution is. Don't go to the movie. There's no anguish about what to do. If you're still listening to this right now and if you're still wondering what you should do, the reason you're having trouble making a clear decision is because your gut is trying to tell you what to do. In this case, listen to what your gut says. You don't need to see this movie just because everybody else is seeing the movie. You don't need to see this movie just because all your favorite YouTubers are seeing it. You don't need to see this movie, period. Skipping this one movie will not hurt you but it will help the larger issue which brings up the last thing I want to say is the most insulting thing that the anti-boycotters have ever said. They tell us to go ahead and see the movie, have fun seeing it and then contribute some money to a gay and lesbian organization. How cynical can you be? Go ahead, do the damage. Just spend a little extra money to make yourself feel better about it afterwards. Well, I say make your donation to the gay and lesbian organization and take that money that you would have spent on the movie and make an extra donation to the gay and lesbian organization and forget about Ender's Game altogether. This is not a difficult decision. It's a simple one.