Metamorphoses and transformation is a common theme in science
             fiction, particularly since its speculative nature may make it that much
             easier to consider novel scenarios and changes unlikely in more traditional
             fiction. This theme is dealt with in a relatively practical fashion in the
             two science fiction classics Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban and Ender's
             Game by Orson Scott Card. In their process of developing from childhood
             into adulthood, the protagonists of both these stories stand at a cusp of
             vital change, and essentially live the death of an entire way of life and
             being. Each reacts to this loss by recreating themselves anew from a
             synthesis of old and new, paradoxically coming into their own and
             overcoming their enemies by melding with them to form new, stronger selves.
             Perhaps the most important thing to realize when approaching these
             two books is that in both cases the main characters are children. The
             entire point of Ender's Game, of course, is to deal with the subtle way
             that brilliant young children can be unknowingly forced into superseding
             the evil of adults. The youth of the protagonist is such a major plot
             element that it is not at any risk of being forgotten, however it is so
             prominent that it may be at risk of being ignored when it comes to
             understanding the more subtle points of the work. In Riddley Walker, the
             protagonist is portrayed as being a man from the very beginning, and one
             recalls that the very first page describes "my naming day" on which he
             becomes a man. Yet he is a very young little man, just twelve years old,
             and even by the end of the book he's hardly a month past that. Though he is
             treated both as a sexual and a philosophically equipped adult, there is no
             doubt that to our modern eyes he must still be a child in many ways, and
             this book is the story of his slow transformation into an adult.
             In both cases, the transformation int...