didn't particularly like this tale of child soldiers/commanders - i could never let go of the ages of the main character, ender, and the incredible violence he unleashed. even though it is a movie now, i have no desire to see it.

i also thought it was morally ambiguous. ender doesn't want to harm but feels forced to, and ultimately kills a couple of children himself. the book never really adresses the loss of humanity when you snuff out a life. instead, ender see-saws between feeling so bad he goes straight to bed and won't eat, and justifying the need for such action. so the character lives on both plains of good and evil.
a book about violence and children should take a specific stand on the issue, and not be so wishy washy. then again, perhaps the author IS taking a stand but one that can't abide by: justified violence is not an evil act. in fact, his premise is that good and evil can be judged through intention alone.

it reminded me of the forever wars, and was published a few years after that book, so maybe the author was influenced. it also seemed, up to about the last 5-6 pages that it would be a series - that ender would discover one more queen and he'd the forced to train up another child to replace him - forcing him to participant (again) in a process he's so against, but ultimately engages in. ie: more of the same wishy washy stuff.

the addition of the religion at the end was pointless - their society never used religion before, why would it seek it now now? and the religion itself was ridiculous.

lastly, ender spends his entire life suspicious of people's motives and even recognizes his sister as manipulating him - and yet he has no similar suspicion when faced with an alien race that 'knows' him so well. why the trust now?