Books: Ender's Game & Neuromancer

While I was at UGC08 in Seattle last week, I got the chance to do some reading. Here's the 2 books I finally knocked off my list:

First I read Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card.  It's a story set in the future after a devastating attack on earth by the "Buggers", an alien insectoid race that nearly killed us all.  The only way we survived was through the legendary attack of one man.  Now we leave under constant fear of another invasion, so the government analyzes and recruits potential soldiers at very young (single digit) ages, and puts them through intricate battle games to prepare them for war.  The book is the story of one exceptionally talended kid named Andrew "Ender" Wiggins.  It's a great book with a several good twists toward the end.  There are several sequels to the book, but I'm not sure if there is really any temporal order to them.

On the flight back I read William Gibson's Neuromancer.  It's an interesting cross between Blade Runner and Snow Crash, a distant future where the "Matrix" ( a virtual world ala the MetaVerse) is the core of all computers in the world.  A former elite hacker who fell victim to a virus that shattered his nervous system is recruited by a strange man to pickup a new terminal and do 1 more job.  But it all spins out of control when he figures out who his boss is working for, and meets the other people involved. It's a very dark book, with alot of far-fetched lingo and ideas.  It's a great sci-fi run through various exotic locales on earth, in orbit, and in the "Matrix".

I've heard alot about both books over the years, they're both considers somewhat "required reading" for SciFi buffs. 

Technorati Tags: book, neuromancer, endersgame