Lots of people have already read this book, and it's pretty much universally acclaimed, so it probably doesn't really need another review. So I just want to point out one thing that bothered me both times I read it (with a decade at least in-between at that):

Isn't it weird how much time the kids in this book spend naked? The entire time Ender is at Battle School, Card constantly tells us how everyone is always sleeping naked, or walking around the barracks naked or jogging naked. And one of the major fight sequences happens in the shower, and Ender's opponent strips down beforehand so they can both be naked. And did I mention that the genders are mixed (if mostly male) and the oldest character in the book is 12?

I don't know, maybe it's just me. It's not like I'm offended, it's just odd and a little distracting. Don't kids have shame in the future?

This review brought to you by the word "naked."

------------------------------------------------

Oh and I also meant to put in something about how this book predicted so much of the way politics and the internet would evolve and intertwine, and the emergence of blogging as a platform where any one person can rise to international attention through a democratized communications forum. But it didn't fit the naked theme.

Okay, some people find this book kind of juvenile and have trouble suspending disbelief long enough to enjoy it. For those folks, you might want to move along from Ender's Game.

Ender's Game is the twenty-five year old science fiction classic that's soon to be a major motion picture. Actually, the film comes out in November of 2013.

Unlike many hard-core science fiction titles, this book is particularly appropriate for a younger audience. By the way, this new young adult edition of the Hugo and Nebula Award-winning classic includes an original postcript by the author, a man (Orson Scott Card) who just so happened to win the Margaret A. Edwards Award for outstanding lifetime contribution to writing for teens. One interesting thing about the interview is he reveals that the novel is all about leadership. Go figure.

Back to the story...

Its protagonist, Ender Wiggin, is just six years old at the novel's beginning and still a pre-teen by the time the story ends. Ender's parents have received special permission to have a third child in spite of strict population control laws in the society in which they live. His brilliant older siblings, Peter and Valentine, have all kinds of promise, but still don't have what it takes to be considered for the commander that the International Fleet (I.F.) so desperately needs.

The novel asks an important question: What does it take to successfully lead men into battle?

Battle comes in the form of alien invasions of Earth (two thus far). During the last invasion, mankind survived only because of the brilliance of Mazer Rackham, commander of the International Fleet.

Years later, a third invasion is feared and the I.F. believes that Ender may be the commander they need. They hope he can lead them to victory should the alien "buggers" invade again.

Ender ends up displaying the desired combination of compassion and cruelty the I.F. wants in their commander and they take him to Battle School, where brilliant children are trained in military strategy and tactics. Ender is only six years old when he is plucked to succeed Rackham and sent to the space station "school."

In Battle School Ender is isolated, ridiculed, bullied, and pretty much persecuted. He shows the wherewithal to survive and even thrive these difficult circumstances.

Using his astonishing intelligence, the boy learns to be a leader and to act with the vengeance of a top-notch solider. His youth and small stature fail to hold him back, and Ender climbs the ranks quickly. Ender is only 12 years old when he begins commanding his fellow soldiers, earning their respect and ultimately their fear of him.

The centerpiece of their education is a game that simulates battle. Naturally, Ender is very good at this game and this is the biggest reason why he becomes the youngest commander in history. Anyhow, Ender's life in the school and the various games, trials, and tribulations in which he excels are very richly described.

As successful as Ender is, you discover that he's ultimately a pawn in the larger game being played and controlled by the I.F.. It's weird because you find yourself sympathizing with him and cheering him on despite him being a pawn.

The political and philosophical focus of the end section of the novel may not appeal to everyone.

Ugh. Okay. I'm officially giving up on this one.

So, a little disclaimer here. I do not like Orson Scott Card. As a person. I think he's a shitty human who's used his award-winning author status as a platform to advocate the denial of other humans' rights. This is detestable to me.

But that is not why I rated this book 1 star.

The reason I gave this book 1 star, and have given up even trying to read it, is because I do not like Orson Scott Card. As an author. This was the second book of his I've read - or tried to read- and it will most assuredly be my last. I finished the other one, but can't say I liked it, though it was... interesting. This one I just couldn't even muster up any meh over, and it's supposedly his best work. I disliked it almost immediately.

I made it about 15%, and I've read about all I can stands, I can't stands no more.

The writing is awful. We're told what Ender thinks. We're told what Ender feels, and does, and says, and why, and despite supposedly being in his head, I don't understand or like him at all. We're told he's a genius. We're told he's mastered calculus as a toddler, that he can hack school computers with ease. We're told that he plays game A. Then he beats it, and plays game B. In every game, the goal is conquer and kill, and he's the best at it. But we're told that Ender does that only when he's forced... but then we're told that he likes it - no he doesn't! - yes he does. He stabs the game giant in the eye and likes it, and then when the giant is 'dead' and no longer an obstacle, out of boredom, he wishes he could murder it again. Because he liked it. That's why he's The One. Duh.

The ridiculous chapter-leading nameless dialogues are terrible and jarring and distracting, and they take me out of the story. Which is a very bad thing when I'm disliking and uninterested in the story as it is.

The complete lack of characterization is shameful. These kids, and especially Ender, who is SIX YEARS OLD and likes to throw the N-word around like it's a frisbee, sound like adults that I wouldn't even want to talk to, let alone root for. I don't like, understand, or care about a single character in this book. Not one. Wait, I might like the Buggers, but that's only because I feel like they have to be decent if they want to rid the universe of this society of sociopaths and groomed killer children.

Then there's the fact that I'm apparently supposed to believe that a society as advanced as this one, with space travel, in-body monitoring of thoughts and actions of their potential recruits, the ability to at least partially coax out genius children by specialized breeding, etc, would be so casually dismissive of female potential as to respond to a question regarding whether there will be girls at this murder-camp with "A few girls. They don't often pass the tests to get in. Too many centuries of evolution are working against them." Because, apparently, only Y chromosomes can carry intelligence and females are just sub-par, even at evolution. How can they be a war leader and savior of humanity if they can't even master upward evolution, like males have?

Oh, but wait... which entry tests were those again? The ones that require extreme violence? Stomping the shit out of another kid, albeit a bully, was the only test-like thing I saw that earned Ender a spot at murder-school. And it's OKAY that Ender put him in the hospital, because he was forced to do it or keep being bullied. There was no other solution. So maybe that little comment was a backhanded compliment to us of the gentler, weaker sex. Our delicate sensibilities just don't automatically run to murderdeathkill at the slightest provocation, which from what I can tell makes females completely valueless except as future-soldier-makers, so yeah, I guess we fail. Darn!

I don't buy the concept of putting all of the eggs of an apparently critically endangered humanity into a single basket that consists of a child 4 years away from attaining the glorious achievement of double digit age. But wait, this war is apparently on hold while this generation of future soldiers grows up? How awesomely considerate of the "Buggers". I now see why they must die. /sarcasm

Which brings me to the "Buggers". They are aliens. Got that. Apparently, there's no possibility of aliens NOT wanting to wipe out all of humanity... because, you know, the universe isn't big enough for the both of us. I was really, really hoping for a plausible reason why these aliens would want to kill people, but I got nada. Perhaps it's explained later. Or maybe this is just fear and hatred of the unknown. I don't know, and frankly don't care all that much, but it just feels like we're supposed to just go along with the story that implies that different = bad and must be killed.

I'm not squeamish or tender-hearted. I fully believe in killing off characters that need to die, even and especially if it's painful to the reader. Violence, in general, doesn't bother me, and I have no trouble reading about abuse, or death, or destruction, or brutality. But it needs to have a purpose and reason for existing on the page. It needs to be honest, and realistic, and plausible. And I didn't feel like that was the case here. It felt like it was for pure shock value here, placed with ever more aggressive offensiveness with the hopes of a reaction. "OMG! they are just babies! Oh the brutality! Won't someone save the children?!" And it worked, because my reaction is to stop reading this shit called a book. The racism, misogyny, hatred of the 'different', the adult condoned and encouraged cruelty and alienation of weaker or smaller children, the violence and genocidal-tendencies in a 6 year old all made me hate every minute I spent reading, or avoiding, this book, and only confirmed that Orson Scott Card is not someone whose work I will ever read or watch again.

I could go on, but I'm done with this book. Writing it off and washing my hands because they feel like they've been holding something disgusting and slimy. I haven't seen anything even remotely redeeming in this book, nothing that makes me think that the rest of it would be worth my time, and I'm done.

Ender's Game (The Ender Quintet #1), Orson Scott Card

Ender's Game is a 1985 military science fiction novel by American author Orson Scott Card. Set at an unspecified date in Earth's future, the novel presents an imperiled mankind after two conflicts with the Formics, an insectoid alien species which they dub the "buggers".

In preparation for an anticipated third invasion, children, including the novel's protagonist, Ender Wiggin, are trained from a very young age through increasingly difficult games including some in zero gravity, where Ender's tactical genius is revealed.

تاریخ نخستین خوانش: سی ام ماه ژوئن سال 2014میلادی

عنوان: بازی اندر (اِندِرز گیم) - کتاب یک از پرونده پنجگانه؛ نویسنده: اورسن اسکات کارد؛ مترجم: پیمان اسماعیلیان خامنه؛ تهران، نشر قطره، 1390، در453ص؛ شابک 9786001192845؛ موضوع: داستانهای نویسندگان ایالات متحده آمریکا - سده 20م

پس از دوبار یورش بیگانگان، به کره ی زمین؛ که نژاد بشر را، تا آستانه ی نابودی پیش می‌برند، حکومت جهانی، برای تضمین پیروزی نوع بشر در جنگ بعدی، و حفظ یکپارچگی سیاره؛ دست به گزینش و پرورش نوابغ نظامی می‌زند؛ و سپس آنها را در نبردهایی شبیه‌ سازی شده، آموزش می‌دهد؛ تا هنر جنگ را در ذهن نوپا، و تشنه ی دانایی خویش نهادینه کنند؛ نخست آموزش‌ها جنبه «بازی» دارد...؛‏ «اندرو ویگین» حتی میان نوابغ دستچین‌ شده نیز، گل سرسبد، و برتر از برترین‌هاست، ایشان برنده ی همه ی بازیها، و برخلاف خواهر مهرورز خویش «ولنتاین»، و برادر دگرآزارش «پیتر»، دارای تمام شرایط لازم و کافی، برای انجام ماموریت مورد نظر است؛‏ درعین حال او چنان باهوش است، که می‌داند وقت رو به پایان است؛ ولی آیا بقدر کافی باهوش است تا زمین را نجات دهد؟ ...؛

تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 15/09/1399هجری خورشیدی؛ 22/06/1400هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی

I decided to reread Ender’s Game before tackling the rest of the series. My feelings about it are more complicated than on my first reading. There’s some religious stereotyping and homophobia that haven’t aged well at all. And there’s not just an absence of women in the story. Women are actively disrespected by the men, who explain their almost total lack of representation by stating “too many centuries of evolution are working against them.” Gross.

Ender Wiggin, however, remains a fascinating character. His calculated use of violence—winning one fight to prevent all other fights—is both logical and chilling. He is believable as a potential Napoleon, even if his consistent positioning as a form of Goldilocks between his hyper-violent brother Peter and his pacifist sister Valentine is a bit too convenient.

The story, moreover, remains a really interesting exploration of certain philosophies, as well as interpersonal and military strategies:

There is no teacher but the enemy. No one but the enemy will tell you what the enemy is going to do. No one but the enemy will ever teach you how to destroy and conquer. Only the enemy shows you where you are weak. Only the enemy tells you where he is strong.

In the moment when I truly understand my enemy, understand him well enough to defeat him, then in that very moment I also love him. I think it’s impossible to really understand somebody, what they want, what they believe, and not love them the way they love themselves. And then, in that very moment when I love them.... I destroy them.

There is quite a bit of subtle foreshadowing that is apparent on a reread: “The adults are the enemy, not the other armies. They do not tell us the truth.” Still, even knowing the ending does not dilute the story’s power, or its anti-war message.

Ender’s Game is not a perfect book, but even if some of its views are regressive, many are not. Above all, it is an entertaining read, for young and old. Highly recommended.

P.S. When asked the difference between science fiction and fantasy, Mr. Card once said you can forget all the other explanations you hear. The difference is “science fiction has rivets; fantasy has trees.” A perfect explanation that I wanted to preserve for posterity, and this review was as good a place as any.

Buddy read with Meg (2024).

In the not too distant future, Earth desperately needs help, hideous aliens called disparagingly "buggers" by the inhabitants...(they do look like bugs but with brains ) on the third planet of the Solar System because we were twice attacked brutally, killing countless from an unknown region of the galaxy...another will probably be fatal unless a Caesar, Alexander or Napoleon can be found, however this type of leader is hard to discover. So the International Fleet recruits children for harsh training on the immense orbiting space station but since some are as young as six this seems sick and it is. Andrew "Ender" Wiggin 6, from a trio of brilliant siblings, gentle sister Valentine 8, and vicious Peter 10, the surprise, the parents John and Theresa are a nondescript American couple, maybe, and again rather ordinary in appearance. This in the age of Starships, faster-than-light travel, requiring captains and admirals, however the older ones though unusually intelligent kids have already been washed out for obvious reasons. Treated like Spartans boys ( a few girls) from ancient Greece but much worse, Ender feels the pain of a lonely existence above the world even hated by the other jealous children because his higher abilities can't be hidden from them. Weightless in parts of the structure for training purposes in the Battle School, still different rooms have gravity because of the spinning wheel. At first fun games but quickly becomes drudgery, the tedious exercises. Colonel Graff in charge here apparently likes to inflict pain, is merciless to everyone and Ender in particular. Major Anderson second-in-command wants to moderate his superior officer but is sadly unsuccessful .The boy misses his sister the only person he really loves , his older scary brother hates him and the feeling is mutual. Year after year with no end in sight the child grows older but happiness will never arrive just suffering and his few friends adroit Alai, little Bean, Petras, very able and only girl in his army, seems an illusion... Day by day he becomes weaker in spirit... hope , a word for others to believe but Ender must believe otherwise ... The struggles will be great the rewards might be too. The novel is quite original in its plot and the main character gives a unique insight into the adolescent mind, though young he is quite perceptive. A sci-fi novel for adults.

“Humanity does not ask us to be happy. It merely asks us to be brilliant on its behalf.”

While I enjoyed Ender’s Game quite a bit (I think I’ve read it 3 times now), I first read it after reading Ender’s Shadow. This means I already had a take on how things went down at Battle School (and that was from Bean’s rather than Ender’s perspective). That said, I wholeheartedly recommend Ender’s Game not because I think it’s better than Ender’s Shadow (I don’t), but because Ender’s Saga is fantastic (especially the next two books in the series, Speaker for the Dead and Xenocide). The premise of Ender’s Game is interesting (training the brightest minds to fight the war against mankind’s greatest enemy); however, it’s just as interesting to look at the social and cultural changes on Earth. For that, we have the perspective of Ender’s two siblings, Peter and Valentine. I think they are sometimes overlooked, but they are great characters. Overall, I found Ender’s Game to be a fun and entertaining read!

n  Polemical indeedn


n  BEST SCI-FI'S NOVEL CONTENDER?n

I decided to read the novel basically because the incoming film adaptation (it was "incoming" at the moment that I read the book) and I wanted to read the original book before of watching the film.

I am aware of the controversial opinions about sensitive social subjects, but I want to keep that out of this and only commenting about my impressions about the book itself.

First of all, I doubt highly that the film adaptation will be so crude in certain developments of the story mainly because of that the protagonist of the story is a child. (and I wasn't mistaken about that)

And commenting about the shock made for the book, it's obvious that it's provoked due that the protagonist is a child.

This very same story using an adult, even a young adult, and this book wouldn't impress anybody.


n  HOW MUCH TIME CHILDREN REMAIN AS CHILDREN NOWADAYS?n

However I think that establishing that this is a story set into the future of humankind, I think that how the children think, talk and act here is not far-fetched.

Maybe in 1985 could be...

..., but now?

Now, children have all the access to internet just like this "futuristic" story sets, and now kids got "mature" very quickly, not a real maturity per se, but the exposure to so much information in the web and the interaction on social networks, forums, blogs, etc... make them to "act like adults" before their time and also it make them to lose sensibility on how treating living things.

So, that angle is very visionary. No doubt about it, and maybe because of that, the book will remain as something relevant to read not matter if we enjoyed the reading or not of it.


n  A BATTLE SCHOOL SHOULD BE STILL A SCHOOL?n

Now, the development.

I found odd that in his life on Battle School, you only get the practices and exercises, and you only read about how Ender learn from his peers and never from the teachers, it's supposed to be a school but you never see how are "classes" there.

It's like if he wouldn't get any valuable education from adult teachers.

The book was really interesting while Ender was still very young but as soon he got a promotion to commander, I think that much of the "spark" of the narrative was lost.


n  TO BUG OR NOT TO BUGn

It's kind of a rule on these military sci-fi stories that they have to battle against insect-like species?

Like on Starship Troopers. I guess that it's easier to get a lot of killing without provoking so much social shock. I am sure that when Peter did some awful things to one single squirrel disturbed a lot of people, me included, but killing insects?

If a kid kills an animal, it's a sure signal that they have a psychopath on their hands, but killing a cockroach? An ant? A wasp? Unless you are a monk in Tibet, you have kill an infinite quantity of insects on your life and you didn't think twice about it again.

So, the easiest way to make people confortable with massive killing is convincing them that they are not killing sentient life forms but dang bugs.

And, yes, that not only works here, in this book, but in many dark moments in our history.

I read this book in 7th grade. I remember it so exactly because still, to this day, I distinctly remember sprinting up the stairs to get to the bookshelf to read the next chapter. It is an absolutely engrossing tale of a small boy involved in a big war, filled with heartache and camaraderie and betrayal and cleverness.

The problem is that Orson Scott Card hates queer people and liberals so much that he's written a number of novels entirely about how awful they are. He posts screeds about how gay people should be put into camps. He is a hateful bigot, and I can no longer read his books without remembering that. And almost as bad, now that I'm older, it's all too easy to see how manipulative the story of Ender's Game is. Time and time again Ender commits a horrible act, but is forgiven (both textually and authorially) because he was innocent of mind, and because he was driven to it by the constant, unremitting abuse and neglect he suffers from those in authority. Looking through the book as an adult, I realized that Ender's doctrine (which Card and the characters he speaks through, like Valentine or Graff, repeatedly tell us is morally righteous) is to destroy his enemies, and then be pitied because his victims "forced" him kill them. It's pretty creepy. John Kessel talks about the problem of Ender-as-innocent-scapegoat much better than I over here: http://www4.ncsu.edu/~tenshi/Killer_0... (it's an excellent essay, and I highly recommend taking the time to read it).

Ender's Game is a book that's really satisfying while you still feel that the whole world is against you. But once you grow up, it's too easy to see Card behind the scenes, pulling the strings.

I am disgusted.

I am so thoroughly disgusted with this book that I can’t even logically explain my utter revulsion. Ender’s Game reads like propaganda, and the characters in it are living it. It wasn’t until I saw the comparison to Adolf Hitler that I thought of Hitler Junge, but it makes sense. These kids are brainwashed into becoming soldiers, killers, and they’re never given a choice.

Except it’s much worse than that. Ender actually learns to doubt, to disobey, to choose, and he chooses wrong. He chooses mass murder. To add insult to injury, he writes a book about it and gives voice to the voiceless, to the dead. How is that different from any other conqueror rewriting the history to suit them?

If this were a normal review, I’d remark upon the failed, nonexistent characterisations, the lack of character growth or lessons learned, the lack of actual challenges overcome (how can he overcome anything when he never fails?), the lack of plot that isn’t told in short paragraphs as in passing. But this isn’t a normal review and I’m just going to link you to better articles about the story itself.

I know it's a classic of SF. Didn't work for me. Call me heretic.

If Ender's Game were a piece of modern SF, the cries of "Gary Sue" would be heard all the way across the cosmos. Ender is a hyper-intelligent child, who begins the story as a much reviled outsider, but soon has his peers (often boys much older) eating from his palm, becoming a master battle tactician who single-handedly saves the entire human race from destruction.

This is nerdboy fantasy 101. This is a book for every little boy who got beat up by the jocks, picked on because he was in the chess club, who sat alone in his room with a nose full of snot and his little fists clenched white, vowing one day he would "show them all". And hell, I was that little kid with the face full of snot, so I understand the niche for a book like this. But creating an ultra-child who's simply flawless and perfect at everything, who won without really trying - it just felt plastic and flat. Tell a story about a normal kid who used what little he had to win out? Yeah, that'll work. This? Not so much.

I found Ender to be a singularly unbelievable and unsympathetic character. He spoke like a 30 year old man, even when he was 6. For me, there was no sense of life or light in Ender or his sister (who also speaks like a 30 year old man). The climax of the book, due to the nature of the much-lauded 'twist', just drifts into view and fades out again. In order to pull off his switcheroo, Card keeps readers in the dark about the stakes in play, and with no stakes, I found it hard to care. I was looking at the amount of pages left in the book, thinking "All these simulations are well and good, but this climax better show up soon." And lo and behold, the simulations were the climax, and the MC and the reader just went through the battle to save humanity without even knowing it. The end.

I guess what I'm ultimately saying is, if you want me to be frightened about the gun to my head, you have to let me know it's there.

In 13 sleeps, I’ll have dinner (and I'm invited for a sleepover, too, but I honestly have to check my schedule) with a man I’ve known for 20 years, his wife, and their 3 children (one very new). It’s funny because in bible college, everyone conspired (dreams, visions, my parents, our friends) to nudge us into “our destiny.” Only thing was, we had different plans for our destiny than marrying each other.

And here’s where it gets complicated: one night at the end of a week-long “mission trip” to Kansas City, this man said, “Hey Sare, what if instead of going back to school for break, we jump in my car and take a road trip to visit your folks in San Francisco [where they lived until retirement] and try all these restaurants you keep talking about…”

I was like, “FUCK yes!” But no, I didn’t say that. I said, “You’re gonna love my parents.”

Except the thing was, we were in bible school. And he was a boy and I have a vagina. So… problem.

My dorm mother, also leader of said trip - who was/is a very kind woman, who has a soft spot in her heart for me and is not at all a jerk - said, “No.”

Me: The trip is over. It’s break time. I don’t understand.
DM: Even if there’s no… problem… even the appearance of impropriety…
Me: We’re staying with friends you know all along the way who’ll be home for the break, and there’s nothing to worry about, I swear.
DM: No.

I was angry now, on the inside. And sometimes, if I’m being reasonable and someone who’s not the boss of me thinks they are the boss of me even though they’re not the…

Me: I already have a mother, and she’s a good one. We’re going.

So, we did. And it was an incredible trip I’ll share one day if we get to be friends.

What’s my point? Sometimes, even when you don’t want to fuck one of your best friends on a super exciting road trip across the country, everybody - except your mother and dad, who just kinda hope you will, after marriage - will conspire to convince you that you do, and that you will, if you’re not careful.

Thing is, I am careful. I am so goddamn careful. It’s just that I’m careful… inside of my own self. If I have a green light, I swear to you I’ve already spent requisite time (days, months, 40 years…) in the salt mines, making sure it’s green and…

Well, now I’m just mixing metaphors.

On that trip, this man and I prayed one night (bible college friends), side-by-side, on a swing-set in a quiet neighborhood, in a town I’d never been to before, underneath the stars.

And I thought to myself: This guy isn’t my guy (pre-bisexual self-outing). But I want someone who will do this with me whenever we can because I really, really like this. And because… so does he.

And this book doesn’t have anything to do with what I just said, except that this man recommended it to me. And, he was right.

Book/Song Pairing: Get Me (Everything But The Girl)