Ender's Game

I don't use awesome for hardly anything, but I loved this book. I've re-read it off and on for years, and I don't re-read many other books.

Ender is a young boy who is sent to a military-strategy school to learn how to win battles. The book follows his training experiences as well as his journey to learn about, understand and destroy humanity's greatest threat(with a twist).

A great classic in science fiction.

Without a doubt Ender's Game is my favorite book. Since reading it in school I have reread it at least 10 times.

"Ender's Game" by Orson Scott Card

Many thanks to Borders and Barnes & Noble for allowing me to read this in the store while my wife checks out books and magazines for herself.
This is quite the story.
Ender is a genius. He has been followed by some 'monitor' (inside his head or skin? Or just hovering around him?), so the government/military can make sure of his growth and development as well as his safety. He has grown up in a normal enough family: Mother, Father, brother and sister. He has just started school and is adjusting to this new life. There is a stigma associated with excess children, the world being a closed system, it can only support so many people. One or two children is all that is normally allowed; a third is taking advantage of everyone else, and is given a very bad social stigma. This is what Ender is: a third. When the 'monitor' is taken away, nobody knows it is just another test for his quality or fitness to be who he has to be. He passes and is taken away, after appropriate fussing and fuming, from his family to command school. It happens to be miraculous how prescient and adept the teacher Graff is in helping Ender become great, but it is fiction, so I guess the author can have the story do whatever he finds necessary.
It is hard for us 'normal' folks to understand all a genius thinks, so Mr. Card does not go into that, he just gives the impression of quality and intelligence exhibited in the actions and conversations of the heroes. I have read this sort of thing before (Robert Henlein). There I felt that the heroine was not shown to be such a great genius, in fact, she showed some very silly mistakes, not at all what a genius would do, as far as I am concerned.
In the edition I read, Mr. Card wrote an introduction. It was funny how different people took the notion of exceptional children. A teacher said it was all bosh. A bunch of exceptional children said he really got the problems and attitude shifts they use very correct. But some of that is odd, because he puts Ender in a school of exceptional children, so why the problems, etc.?
Mr. Card developed a full story. He gave the characters something to do and problems to work out, and in the end you felt very good about the future of the characters.

Sadly, this took me ages to read. But when I finally got around to it, I was amazed and touched beyond words.

On the surface, this is a fairly typical sci-fi novel, but what makes it stand out as the modern classic that it has become is the deeply felt emotion. This remembers to be a book that is about people and how we treat one another.

A war is occuring, an attack on an alien species affectionately known as the Buggers who have attacked Earth twice before. Understandably Earth is sick of it and doesn't want to be wiped out this time. So they twist the Golden Rule and begin an army to make this aforementioned attack. To do this, they train young shoulders to be commanders, pilots, whatever. This is where the boy genius Andrew "Ender" Wiggins comes in.

We get to watch Ender go through incredible and heartbreaking training that forces him to be more than the little kid he needs to be. On top of that, we see intriguing perspectives of other characters that surprise us in their effects on the plot.

This is a well-written story that manages to be driven equally by both character and plot, with plenty of emotion and philosophy in both.

Basically, I bawled through this. It was that good.

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card is definitely not your typical science fiction novel. At first glance, I was reluctant to read it, "Oh boy, another version of Star Trek or Star Wars with a cheesy plot." I was wrong with Ender's Game! Although the book includes science fiction entities, it goes beyond them. What lies beneath is a book with a story filled with foreshadowing and twists and turns.

The plot of Ender's Game is filled with many climaxes and incidents. As we follow a young boy that is definitely not like the rest through Battle School, we experience the high points and low points of his life. This young boy, Ender Wiggin becomes the outcast of his peers due to his intelligence. "Ender noted quietly that this was the first time another Launchy from his own class had sat with him at a meal." (P.56). Ender is constantly caught in the wrong place at the wrong time and his unintentional antics result in him becoming the loner of his launchy group. As we watch Ender develop through his trials and tribulations of Battle School, it is quickly determined by the many that he will be the one capable of saving the human race from the aliens. Will Ender be able to live up to his potential while trying to live a typical life at school? You will have to see for yourself.

Ender's life at Battle School demonstrates his excellent abilities and potential. He immediately becomes the favorite of the teachers. This creates many enemies for Ender. In what becomes a good v. evil battle, Ender is forced to make decisions he may later regret. "You took him apart. I thought you were dead meat, the way he grabbed you. But you took him apart. If he'd stood up longer, you would have killed him." (P. 232)

The most intriguing aspect of Ender's Game is the foreshadowing. Each cadet at Battle School is constantly monitored by the teachers. Each decision and move they make can be scrutinized or praised by the teachers. If they do not meet the standards of the teachers, they can be sent home immediately. This is especially challenging for Ender. Every game he plays, his loneliness, his decisions are all observed. Even more so because the teachers believe Ender is the chosen one. He must be prepared to beat the aliens and save the human race. "But going for the open eye - like that - this is the one we want to put in command of our fleets? (P. 171)

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card is a must read for anyone looking for some unexpected twists thrown into a science fiction theme. You are drawn into the main character, Ender within the first few pages. You personally experience Ender's ups and downs at Battle School. As Ender becomes the chosen one to save the human race from the aliens, will he rise to the occasion or will he crumble under the pressure? The lives of the human race are at stake and you can see the outcome by reading this book!