Book review (sort-of): Ender's Game

I didn't like it as much on the re-read. I gave it another go-round for several reasons: 1) It seems to come up oddly frequently in conversation; 2) I wanted to do an in-depth analysis for the blog; 3) Since I'd already read it once, it wouldn't need that initial warm-up phase. 

Well, (2)'s out the window, because I've now read three books between then and now. So why didn't I get around to writing that long post I'd intended to? Probably mostly because of laziness, but also...I just didn't like Game as much the second time around. 

Why?

Maybe because I already knew the big reveal - and boy howdy, what a reveal.
Maybe because I'm older. 
Maybe because I'd forgotten how truly awful Peter is. 
Maybe because dream sequences get on my nerves more. (And the Giant's Game is naught but an extended dream sequence, don't try to convince me otherwise.)

All of these reasons summed together remind me of a line from Bill Bryson's The Lost Continent: "[T]here are three things you can’t do in life. You can’t beat the phone company, you can’t make a waiter see you until he’s ready to see you, and you can’t go home again." I had high hopes for this re-read, and high nostalgia. But I'm different, and Ender cannot bring the same emotions it once did. You can't recreate the feelings of the past; you can't go home again. 

xo, 

Devo