On 16 Apr 2020, at 20:46, Phil Pugliese - philpugliese at yahoo.com (via tml list) <xxxxxx@simplelists.com> wrote:

I read 'Ender's Game' way back when it was serialized in 'Analog' magazine.
To tell the truth, I didn't really care for it at all. As a result, I never read the other books in to series.
It seemed so contrived & I just couldn't see the 'process' as an even remotely feasible, not to mention rational, solution to the 'problem'.

I agree that the ‘process’ makes no sense, plus it would be nice to follow the adults in the room exploring solutions to the ‘problem’ instead of having all the details hidden from the reader until the end of the book.

On the other hand, I found Speaker for the Dead worked well, even if I didn’t know where it was going. I’m not sure that I needed to read Ender’s Game first, just to set up the protagonist.

Garak in DS9 and Shepard Book in Firefly both worked as characters with a past without needing an origin story episode.

I haven’t read the other novels in the series.

I’m also not adding anything to the original essay question, sorry.

Phil Kitching