Bloodchild

I thought the story “Bloodchild” had some interesting and symbolic aspects to it. While at first it seems like just anther fantasy short story, after continuing the reader can see that many parts of the story can be taken in different ways.

The story is set in some fantasy kingdom where humans are enslaved to a bug-like people who inject their young (in egg-form) to live inside of the human until they eventually eat their way out to become independent beings. The human who serves this purpose is something like an indentured servant to the bug, and since it takes many years for the babies to reach their maturity inside the body, the master and servant often form a close bond.

This story focuses on a young boy who has been chosen by one of the bugs (who is also a friend of his family) to incubate the eggs. He is given second thoughts on how eager he is to fulfill his destiny when a birthing gone wrong appears before his eyes; another bug’s servant who didn’t have the babies removed in time rushes to the boys house where another bug has to cut them out and set them on a dead animal carcass. The story ends with the boy accepting his fate in order to save his siblings from taking his place as host.

One of the most obvious parallels this story presents is the incubation of eggs to the process of being in labor. Both are excruciating for the “hosts”, and the servant in the story is even given a form of painkiller to ease the process along. Also, the act of cutting the babies from the host’s stomach relates closely to the practice of a c-section. While human children are often not so parasitic, the complications and perils are still an issue in modern births.

Another in the story is indentured servitude/slavery. While in the story it is noted that some of the humans consider being chosen to be a great honor, it’s still apparent that they would have to go through with the process whether or not they approved. In the story, humans are the slaves rather than the masters, and we are under the control of beings who are stronger and more advanced than ourselves.

While I thought the story was horrifically graphic at times, I thought it was well-written and was an interesting concept to explore. It seemed like a plot that has often been explored in sci-fi novels and movies, but not been elaborated on in fantasy. I thought that that in itself was an interesting kind of twist to the genre.

Ender's Game

“Ender’s Game” by Orson Scott Card is one of my favorite sci-fi books. It’s much more than a basic space story though; the novel’s main plot is almost entirely character driven, making it sound like the story could take place anytime (not just in the future on a space training station). Card’s characters are very strong and well-developed, and even though they sometimes form into clichéd archetypes, the reader still has a strong sense of how the character would react in situations or how they would interact with the others. And since most of the main characters in the novel are under the age of 15 (many of them still elementary school aged), it makes for an interesting read.

The book’s protagonist, (Andrew) “Ender”, is recruited to a training program to defeat an alien species called the “buggers” (formally, called the Formics). He is incredibly intelligent and calculating, and is only six at the novel’s opening. He is sought out because his parents were both brilliant scientists, and his older siblings Peter and Valentine were both unsuitable for the program (though being just as or more intelligent as Ender, they were deemed too violent and too gentle, respectively).

Ender is sent into space to begin his training, where upon arrival the commander of the training program Graff makes sure all the students know that Ender is the most intelligent amongst them. This singles Ender out and makes him have to stand up for himself against the more ambitious students. Over the years, Ender participates in multiple training games with a team that he leads, and is promoted frequently through the ranks. Meanwhile on Earth, Valentine and Peter begin writing essays under pseudonyms that influence the world’s leaders, the eventual goal being Peter’s rise to power.

Ender is eventually brought into a final simulation, this time on a computer. With multiple members of military command watching, he beats a simulation in which pilots face off against Formic fighters. Ender defeats the Formics and kills their “Queens”, only to find at the end that the simulation was real and that he was responsible for needless military deaths as well as genocides. Ender is not allowed to return home because of his skill level, and wanders around space looking for a place to rebuild the Formic race (there was one Queen left).

I think that part of “Ender’s Game” I find most interesting is the fact that the characters are so young. They think, talk and act like much, much older characters and I often found myself forgetting they were in the 1-3 grade range. The story is brutal and so are they; society made them old and jaded years before ever having to fire a gun. The whole novel is about different types of manipulation and control, and it’s interesting to see how characters respond to or fight that kind of domination.