Kristjan Gunnarsson Gunnarsson itibaren Anguran, Hormozgan, Iran
I was surprised by this book. I really didn't think I'd be very interested in it because I feel such strong disdain for Orson Scott Card's Rebecca. I also am not really into sci-fi. But I have to admit that I thought this was an incredibly engaging and intelligent read. Another thing I was surprised by was the fair number of (mild) swears and not-as-mild violence written by a Mormon author. I suppose it's realistic that military men and boys would live and speak and act this way, and I certainly wasn't offended. I suppose I was expecting things to be censored since the author is LDS, and it's refreshing to me that it wasn't. What I enjoyed wasn't the aliens or battles or space travel. Those things just don't interest me, and that's why the 4 stars. But Ender's Game has wonderful, complex characters and Mr. Card has so much to say about human psychology that I liked the book as a whole.
Tremendously well-done combination of biography, sociological inquiry, and scientific expose. The juxtaposition of HeLa's abstract medical value and its impact on Henrietta's compellingly portayed family (especially her daughter Deborah) is utterly engrossing. The judgments implicit in the telling of the tale are clear but never shrill. The obvious affection the author feels for the people behind the immortal cells is similarly apparent but never overshadows her ability to conveythe science.