ender

The alien-vs-human issue was covered in the beginning setup and then the end of ender's game, when ender realized what he had done.

Ender's Game is about murder writ small and large, and the provocative question it asks is whether you can blame Ender for what he did.

In the real world, Ender not knowing that the kids are being killed would not excuse his behavior.

He wrote Ender to have misapplied violence on several occasions, so that he can then be excused for it.

Card counters this by framing Ender as the embodiment of human ability -- justice, self-awareness, compassion.

You're going to get at least a few juries claiming that, sure, the rear ender was 99% at fault, everyone can see that.

Doing so would be a career ender for a number of people.

Losing your data is a career-ender in any other scientific field.

How many people can claim to have programmed as a front-ender or PHP programmer (which launched 20 years ago) and then moved on to something else?

At some level, I think that anyone who hasn't borrowed code (or layout, if you're a front-ender) can be fairly classified as an idiot.

Are there any works from the last 2 decades that could be even mentioned in the same breath as dune, foundation, ender's game, neuromancer, hyperion...etc.?

I think this aspect of Ender was conceived as a great short story angle, but as the plot develops it gets a bit two dimensional.

THis is a direct rip of part of Giulia Ender's "Gut" book.

"The main character is thrusted into greatness and power without any effort and continues to do great things with little effort." This perfectly describes my reaction to Ender's Game, except Ender is also smug and arrogant about it as well.

These themes get stronger through the book as Ender beats and earns the respect of the older kids at Battle School and then eventually turns out to be the individual upon whom the future of humanity is gambled, a decision made by older, "stronger" individuals.

I'd argue that even if you view the Ender series as works of political rhetoric and Card as a card-carrying member of some worldview "team" (which you or I may agree or disagree with), the books may still be harmlessly enjoyed as works of fiction.

I loved Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow - but it gets harder to read them the more you're aware of Card's, uh, political stances.

For example, Orson Scott Card, the author of Ender's Game has some pretty homophobic and bigoted views.

In Ender's game they are searching for the perfect specimen to transform into the perfect military commander.