I read every single one of the Orson Scott Card novels I could get my hands on, for years. Some are good, and some are excellent. Ender’s Game was excellent. Now they’re making a movie out of it. Which I will not see. Why? Because he crossed a line.
The first time I noticed this was in the novel Hart’s Hope. The hero, Palicrovol, marries and publicly rapes a twelve-year-old girl. He doesn’t want to, but he has to in order to cement his rule as king. She gets her revenge by making him like it.
At the time I didn’t think too much of it. But then I read “The Treasure Box.”
Spoiler alert for “The Treasure Box” (but don’t worry, because Orson Scott Card spoiled the ending first)
The main character in “The Treasure Box” is seduced by and marries a woman who later turns out to be an evil succubus. We find this out at the very end, and we also find out that she was an eleven or twelve year old girl. At the very end. When it is too late to not read it. And re-interpret all the romance scenes in an icky way.
There’s a message I’m getting here, and it’s icky. It has to do with adults being sexually taken advantage of by children. Hart’s Hope has the rather disgusting idea that rape is more okay if the perpetrator doesn’t enjoy it (what???) and the other that a child can intentionally arouse an adult during an act of rape. Meanwhile, “The Treasure Box” has the adult perpetrator being the victim.
So. Ender’s Game movie. I’m giving it a pass.
Kristin Ann King 