Comment Re:Bean was cool, but what about Alai? (Score 2) 111
Mazer Rackham was my personal favorite "supporting cast." Here you have a man faced with the prospect of guiding a presumably brilliant child -- Ender -- who is also presumably mankind's last hope for survival -- to full fruition of Ender's potential.
Is that a job from hell or what? In a very real sense then, mankind's hope for survival REALLY rests with Mazer, because Mazer is the man who will make or break Ender. In other words, from a certain point of view Ender is the weapon that humanity has developed to defend themselves, but Mazer must "wield" that weapon properly.
That intense part-adversarial, part-mentor/father-figure psychological relationship between Mazer and Ender was highly intriguing and, imho, could have been more fully explored. Another book would have been a great vehicle for that . . . now Bean, it seems it's just like Ender all over again. With Mazer we get a TOTALLY different story.
After all, Mazer was certainly not in the dark about any part of the situation like Ender was. And yet he has to, in some way, subordinate his own brilliant ability to that of Ender. It would take a pretty remarkable individual to do that effectively. The whole situation is similar to the storyline in the film "Searching for Bobby Fisher."
Is that a job from hell or what? In a very real sense then, mankind's hope for survival REALLY rests with Mazer, because Mazer is the man who will make or break Ender. In other words, from a certain point of view Ender is the weapon that humanity has developed to defend themselves, but Mazer must "wield" that weapon properly.
That intense part-adversarial, part-mentor/father-figure psychological relationship between Mazer and Ender was highly intriguing and, imho, could have been more fully explored. Another book would have been a great vehicle for that . . . now Bean, it seems it's just like Ender all over again. With Mazer we get a TOTALLY different story.
After all, Mazer was certainly not in the dark about any part of the situation like Ender was. And yet he has to, in some way, subordinate his own brilliant ability to that of Ender. It would take a pretty remarkable individual to do that effectively. The whole situation is similar to the storyline in the film "Searching for Bobby Fisher."
