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Really? I never knew Card was involved with anti-gay stuff. That's a shame. Alai and Ender always seemed to be skirting that sort of relationship, the whispered Salaams (spelling error probably) and what not. I know whispering something to another guy isn't homosexual, but for some reason it just read that way to me.

I read the blurb, got to the bit about kids saving the human race and put it back on the shelf. I'd rather read about 80 year olds doing that than read about sociopathic children, and well, at least Old Man's War doesn't come across as taking itself so seriously. I'll be watching the film of Old Man's War, but books about children never really did anything for me though.

Isn't it set in the future anyway? Those looked like jump jets at the beginning, though again, I haven't read the thing. =P

This has potential. We shall be watching with great interest

 motyak wrote:
Really? I never knew Card was involved with anti-gay stuff. That's a shame. Alai and Ender always seemed to be skirting that sort of relationship, the whispered Salaams (spelling error probably) and what not. I know whispering something to another guy isn't homosexual, but for some reason it just read that way to me.

I kind of got that vibe, as well.

 motyak wrote:
Really? I never knew Card was involved with anti-gay stuff. That's a shame. Alai and Ender always seemed to be skirting that sort of relationship, the whispered Salaams (spelling error probably) and what not. I know whispering something to another guy isn't homosexual, but for some reason it just read that way to me.

Card is always in the local news for me whenever there is some kind of anti-government discussion going on.

I had the displeasure of having him address the "Ethics of Law Enforcement" course I took my first year at college, and the "I wear a tin foil hat when not in public" vibe just oozed off him.

 rubiksnoob wrote:

 motyak wrote:
Really? I never knew Card was involved with anti-gay stuff. That's a shame. Alai and Ender always seemed to be skirting that sort of relationship, the whispered Salaams (spelling error probably) and what not. I know whispering something to another guy isn't homosexual, but for some reason it just read that way to me.

I kind of got that vibe, as well.

Glad I'm not the only one. I thought it was a really good addition to the book, but if it wasn't intended and Card is actually anti-homosexual...I'll stick with my interpretation.

 Wyrmalla wrote:
I read the blurb, got to the bit about kids saving the human race and put it back on the shelf. I'd rather read about 80 year olds doing that than read about sociopathic children, and well, at least Old Man's War doesn't come across as taking itself so seriously. I'll be watching the film of Old Man's War, but books about children never really did anything for me though.

Isn't it set in the future anyway? Those looked like jump jets at the beginning, though again, I haven't read the thing. =P

The book is quite good, and much more plausible and realistic than any number of bad "kids save the day" stories you've seen. The kids are mostly quite smart and mature for their ages, though still have limitations related to their immaturity and lack of experience.

I never got a gay vibe off that relationship. The kids were pretty darn young at that stage, as well. The whispering was due to the need to keep the religion secret.

 malfred wrote:

 Mannahnin wrote:

 malfred wrote:

 Mannahnin wrote:
Fingers crossed. The book is classic (though the sequel is better).

Which sequel?

Speaker for the Dead. The third one (Xenocide) is pretty good, though after that the series goes downhill in a bad way.

I meant which series of sequels

But nevermind that, you answered.

I made the mistake of bringing up Ender's Game to my gay co-worker. Oops.

Not that the book itself has any blatant homophobia, but the politics of the author ruins the idea of sharing the book with others. I also heard he had a book that featured gays in a not so wonderful manner?

Card's politics are pretty far out in nutty land from my perspective, but I don't need to like or agree with the author to enjoy a book. I'm sorry your co-worker can't separate the two, but I can't judge him for it; Card's been pretty darn hurtful. Here's a Salon overview on Card's views on this subject.
http://www.salon.com/2013/05/07/sci_fi_icon_orson_scott_card_hates_fan_fiction_the_homosexual_agenda_partner/singleton/

Wait what!? Old Man's War is getting a MOVIE!?

Also did they "spoil" the ending in the trailer?

 Ma55ter_fett wrote:
Also did they "spoil" the ending in the trailer?

Um... isn't it common "sci-fy" lore that the ending is known?

It is an old story after all...

 whembly wrote:

 Ma55ter_fett wrote:
Also did they "spoil" the ending in the trailer?

Um... isn't it common "sci-fy" lore that the ending is known?

It is an old story after all...

Well yea, but even so it seems odd.

 Ma55ter_fett wrote:

 whembly wrote:

 Ma55ter_fett wrote:
Also did they "spoil" the ending in the trailer?

Um... isn't it common "sci-fy" lore that the ending is known?

It is an old story after all...

Well yea, but even so it seems odd.

It's a book that's been out for ages. If at this point you don't know the ending, you may as well reading the wikipedia entry.

Unless, of course, they've change the movie entirely and it's now a teen-romance move between Ender and the bugger queen.

 Ma55ter_fett wrote:

Unless, of course, they've change the movie entirely and it's now a teen-romance move between Ender and the bugger queen.

Have you not read the rest of the Ender series?

 malfred wrote:

 Ma55ter_fett wrote:

Unless, of course, they've change the movie entirely and it's now a teen-romance move between Ender and the bugger queen.

Have you not read the rest of the Ender series?

Oh man I had completely forgotten. gak gets weird later on with Jane and the whole Ansible system. Looks like I have to pull those books back out from storage.

 Ma55ter_fett wrote:

 whembly wrote:

 Ma55ter_fett wrote:
Also did they "spoil" the ending in the trailer?

Um... isn't it common "sci-fy" lore that the ending is known?

It is an old story after all...

Well yea, but even so it seems odd.

If that is the ending, it's nothing like I'd hope it would look. I reckon that is the first battle, all the buggers in a cloud in front of the planet, isn't that how the first battle goes as well?

 KalashnikovMarine wrote:
Wait what!? Old Man's War is getting a MOVIE!?

Yup, there's the occasional post on Whatever about it, though I haven't been keeping up on it lately. Ender's Game seems to be a little "Humanity Feth yeah", whereas Old Man's War goes into the viewpoint of the aliens quite a bit. *Spoiler. In fact by the time of the third book it turns out that its Humanity that's the bad guys. We've just misunderstood the galactic situation/or chosen to ignore it. Ender's Game seems more clean cut about who's right and wrong, but then again, my opinion's not informed. Heh, In Old Man's War even the aliens that eat babies (and there's a few) don't come off too bad when you get to know them (*Spoiler, you go through an entire chapter before you find out the perspective character's not human in the second book). =)

 Frazzled wrote:
I thought it was a pretty pedestrian book actually.

Same here. I think in my case it was because I read it later in life than most people. To a disaffected highschool geek a story about a special kind of genius who saves the day through being smart and inflicting violence on others is just about the perfect power fantasy. But when I read it in my mid-20s it basically read like someone else's power fantasy... and that's about the least enjoyable type of story you can think of.