As I've admitted before, writing is not something I consider myself particularly good at, and as such I'm definitely not qualified to go critiquing others' writing in any scholarly way. However, I can remark on the aspects of style and plot with which I have some experience.
Ender's Game is set in the near future, immediately following what we are led to understand was a devastating intergalactic war with the only intelligent alien species known to man. The war ends in a pyrrhic victory for mankind and the remnants of earth's inhabitants have scrambled to establish a technologically advanced fleet of war ships and commanders in anticipation of future space battles.
Interestingly, the commanders drafted for service are genetically engineered (though biologically conceived) children from Earth. Ender Wiggin, the main character, is one of the few super-kids that manages to get accepted to an elite training school likened to an outerspace sort of West Point Academy. The majority of the book is centered around Ender's experiences at this school, and tackles age-old archetypes such as the insecure bully, self-important social climbers, and the book's ivory tower: the misunderstood genius child (which of course we are meant to personally identify with) who learns risilience toward the beratement of the former two.
While the sci-fi-ness of it all gets a little campy at times, for the most part, the book seems written with a sincerity uncommon amongst what could be called "entertainment literature". One almost forgets amid the parables and aphorisms that they are reading fantasy because the well developed characters and lush imagery bring an even better-developed social commentary and metaphysics to the fore. Among the more thought provoking topics discussed are morality of conflict, xenophobia, cencorship, hegemony, and of course, politics.
Unique to Card's writing is his ability to demand that you become emotionally attached to the way of life of the characters and the environment in which the reside. It embues your mind with magnificent ideals of a united humanity dressed in antebellum military tradition in the limitless frontier of space. It stokes one's lust for innovation and advancement, both of onesself and of society-at-large. I strongly reccomend that you give this book a try, even if you don't usually shop in the sci-fi paperback section of Barnes & Noble.
Typically my interest in the advancement of modes of transportation and habitation is of a decidedly more terrestrial nature, confined by silly things like gravity and friction. So naturally the idea of an architecture that is somewhat free of those constraints is compelling to say the least.
I've often cynically scowled at humanity's petty differences, so long unresolved that efforts at international cooperation are at best, comedic. I wonder if it would really take near-annhilation to unite men toward a common goal, to urge us over the Kármán line and into the infinite vaccum of space. To progress toward a truly advanced species, we'll have to devise a way to shed our feudal stranglehold on information and knowledge.
It is my belief that certain technologies should be strictly for the benefit of mankind as opposed to perpetuating the viscious cycle of ownership and entitlement. The confusion the native americans experienced with the idea that someone could "own"a piece of land is very similar to my sentiment regarding copyrighting and the perpetuation of capitalism.
One of the central tenets of technological advancement is to "make life easier" (or so we are led to believe) for the general public. Technologies that we currently enjoy cost money, which, as I've said before, is nothing more than a relatavistic denomenator of work accomplished. Because of this, advancing technologies don't actually make ones life any 'easier', it just makes it more tedious and specific.
For these reasons books like Ender's Game are somewhat depressing to me because I know that as human beings, it is essentially impossible for us to stop bickering about petty bullshit long enough to do something truly great like travel to other worlds or (gasp!) actually cure a disease. Despite the meddling of evil politicians and theocratic zealots in Card's version of future-Earth, people have somehow huddled together out of fear long enough to realize that for the most part, were more than the sum of our failures and internal conflict is counterproductive.
Though this book is nearly as old as I am and has enjoyed a wide readership to date, I encourage you to give it a read if you haven't already. And if you're one of those people that requires apochryphal accolades to persuade you, It recieved both the Hugo and Nebula awards which I suppose means that if it's that good in the eyes of sci-fi nerds, it'll knock your fucking socks off.
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