Ender's Game

This is an engrossing story of a young boy who has been selected for training at a space academy. Earth is under threat by aliens. The initial battles in space have not gone well. Earth's only hope is to find and train the leaders who can defeat the aliens in the few years breathing space that has been won before the aliens return. Children are evaluated to see if they have the qualities to be those leaders, and the few that show they are intelligent enough, determined enough, and ruthless enough are sent into space to be trained. The regime is brutal and brutalising, but the main character, Ender Wiggin shows compassion and regret as he is forced to take actions he would rather not. You feel for this small child who has the hopes of humanity riding on his shoulders.

This is simply one of the best books you will ever read. Five stars.

This book has become a sci-fi classic in a short time. Fast read and will always be remembered! Highly recommended.

I picked up a copy of OMNI magazine decades ago and read a short story by Orson Scott Card- I think it was "Unaccompanied Sonota". Brilliant! Around the same time I also recall reading (probably in OMNI) a precursor novella of Ender's Game as well as another story, "Songhouse", that became the novel Songmaster.

I have since given "Ender's Game" and other Card works to more people than I can recollect. It's like turning someone onto the Beatles. Card is that good.

My middle-school aged daughter (who has read everything under the sun from Jane Austen to Mark Twain) completed Ender's Game in 2 sittings and is almost finished with Speaker for the Dead.

She is now turning her friends onto the Ender universe. And so it goes with Card. Both adults and young adults appreciate his stories, style, and penetrating view of humanity.

My only complaint is with the truly awful cover on the current paperback edition (the one with the hand). The original paperback and hardbound editions have great covers, but the copy to get is the gift edition hardback which is budget priced (at just over 10 dollars) and also uses the classic cover.

I can't wait for my sons to read Orson Scott Card.

I read a lot, and this is a book I can always come back to and I love it all over again. Even though it is an older book, it feels like it was written for our times. The desks are computers in the school, for example. I keep giving books to friends and family with diverse reading tastes, and they all love it so much that they won't give it back. If you are looking for a book that teaches heart, bravery, honesty, integrity, what it means to work as a team, and how to overcome adversity. . .you've found your book. It is simply amazing!