I read Ender's Game because I had to for a class and I probably wouldn't have read it if it wasn't required, but let me tell you, that would have been a huge mistake on my part. It was sooooooo good and soooooo meaningful.

There are so many lessons and hidden meanings in the novel that I could probably read it again and still come to new realizations. I cannot even fit into one review how much I loved this book. And it's for any age for ANYONE. Like, seriously, I don't care who you are. Read this book.

Basically, kids are raised for the sole purpose of becoming super soldiers to command star fleets to prepare in case of an attack by an alien species. HOW COOL IS THAT?!

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Only a select few who are like extra good at what they do actually get to become a soldier and go into space though and Ender is one of them. The whole process though is totally inhumain and not only that but they're doing it to CHILDREN. There's a lot "behind the curtain" so to speak ;).

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Ender is seriously the coolest character ever though. He's only like.. I think 6 in the beginning of the novel but I think he ends up like 13 or 14 or something in the end.... Don't judge me for not remembering, his age wasn't the most important part of the book to know.

Let me just mention again though, this is a SPACE BOOK. An EPIC space book. Need I say more?

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There was also a movie released for it back in 2013 but I'm scared to watch it because I don't want it to ruin the book for me. *sigh* First world problems...

Anywho, I had to write a persuasive speech for my college public speaking class and I chose to do it on persuading people to join in the efforts of abolishing child labor and the book was a great example that I got to use in my speech. It totally related to the topic. Ender doesn't really have a choice in doing all the stuff he does and has basically all of his freedom taken from him. He's forced to do other's bidding and suffers greatly for it. *wipes away tear* I'm getting weepy just thinking back on it.

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Even though ender is just a little kid though, he is SO GROWN UP. The kids in this novel have to mature so fast, because they're forced to. If they don't follow the rules and if they get kicked out of the program, well, that's a big "no-no."

Ender's problems don't stop at "space school" though. He has a troubled family back on Earth which the author actually shows throughout the book too. He even switches the points of view throughout the book which was great because I got to read a lot more in detail.

Omg and the ending. *screams*
The ending is such a plot twist. I was SOOOOO not expecting it to turn out the way it did.
I was like:

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The climax is equally surprising and intense. This was me:

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Well... The ending isn't really intense like the climax. The ending more makes you sit there like, "Well diddly-darn-doo I can't believe this." But, in a good way.

*sigh* so much awesomeness.

Now go. Read it. Do it. You know you want to.

Me ha gustado más de lo que esperaba en un principio. De todos modos, empezar un libro sin ningún tipo de expectativa ayuda mucho a que te sorprenda y te agrade, y eso es lo que me ha ocurrido con esta novela.

La historia me ha enganchado y siempre tenía ganas de seguir leyendo, algo que no me ocurre últimamente. Ha sido atrapante todo el proceso de aprendizaje de Ender, pero lo que más me ha gustado es el transfondo moral y psicológico. En cuanto a los personajes poco se puede hablar ya que la historia gira en torno a Ender en todo momento y los personajes secundarios únicamente aportan más al personaje principal que a ellos mismos. Uno de los puntos a favor es que me ha sorprendido y el final me ha dejado con ganas de seguir leyendo el siguiente, al que espero echar el guante cuando tenga una oportunidad.

In an effort to branch out in my reading ventures this year and try different genres, I decided on Orson Scott Card’s classic modern Sci Fi, Ender’s Game. The book won every award going (Hugo, Nebular, etc) and has a huge reputation. Is this reputation earned? Let’s find out…

The story itself is a mix between Harry Potter and the movie Full Metal Jacket, set in outer space. The protagonist Andrew “Ender” Wiggin is selected at the tender age of six to attend the International Federation’s battle commander academy based on a space station. A precocious, young boy is sent to a school for the gifted, with the weight of humanity’s hopes on his shoulders. The children there are divided into groups that have various animals and mystical creatures as their logo. Sound familiar?

“Welcome to the human race. Nobody controls his own life, Ender. The best you can do is choose to be controlled by good people, by people who love you.”


The story is set roughly two hundred years in the future and there’s a great deal of complex developments in play. High levels of government control, propaganda, restrictions on the number of children a family can have, all amidst first contact with a hostile alien race sparking inter galactic war. I’m going to put my English Lit’ student hat on and say there are a number of important theme’s tackled, including the nature of humanity, how we often fear what we do not understand and if the ends truly justify the means. That’s all I’m saying as I don’t want to spoil anything for you.

Card’s writing can best be described as “good enough.” He’s not going to blow you away with metaphors and imagery, but the story is key in this one and the standard is easily good enough to get this across to the reader. It’s a relatively short, fast paced read and the only thing I can think of that would really put people off is the strategy and tactics that play a part in the description of the games played at the command school. If you’re a sports and military tactics fan like myself though you’ll eat them up and they are a fundamental part of the story and very well done.



So to close things off, Ender’s Game is a story that I didn’t think I was going to enjoy but ended up loving. Is it my favourite type of story…no. But what it is, is a fantastically brilliant story and one hundred percent, essential sci fi reading. A definite classic and it’s getting 4.5 stars from me rounded up to five. It’s convinced me to continue my sci-fi journey at the expense of being branded a complete geek. Who cares, life’s to short and there’s so many great stories out there to worry about that. Peace Out!

Homoerotic Bildungsroman from the homophobic mind of Orson Scott Card.

Weirdly good and weirdly bad.

One wunderkind takes over the internet while a subplot focuses on another wunderkind's video gaming. The central ambiguity, left unresolved, is which kid is more likely to still live in his parents' basement at age 30?

There isn’t anything wrong with escapism, but there was something about the way this book encouraged narcissistic fantasies that grated on me. The lure seemed to be that you should identify with the protagonist, which means: You are remarkably brilliant and special, and anyone who stands in your way is an idiot or psychopath. Any failures you encountered weren’t really your fault, but due to a conspiracy against you. But don’t worry, they’ll get their comeuppance. You’ll beat the shit out of the kids who are picking on you. You’ll embarrass people who doubted you. You’ll be universally admired. The only problems you’ll have will be the weight of the responsibility others put on you, and how lonely you’ll be because you are such an awe-inspiring leader that others can’t relate to you.

To be fair, I know the book is deeper than this. And the above setup is layered with irony, so the more sophisticated reader is meant to take away a more complex message. And it does take some interesting twists at the end that gives you something to think about. So, it’s probably fair to say the point of the author wasn’t for the reader to revel in success and revenge fantasies. But I do think that’s the lure of the book.

This book is commonly recommended for Young Adults. I hope it doesn’t turn them into smug jerks.

There are also a couple plot issues that didn’t make much sense to me. For instance, the book features children who don’t act like anything near their age. Maybe I should have just let that go, but it was really distracting.

While the above review sounds negative, the story still did capture my interest throughout, and I liked the twists at the end.

I've been hunting for a great Sci-fi since Dark Matter and Gemina blew my brains out. This is a classic. I truly believe one can never go wrong with classics.

He disfrutado muchísimo con esta lectura.

Ender se ha convertido en uno de mis personajes favoritos. Sufrí mucho al principio por lo mal que lo trataban, no veo ninguna justificación a eso.
Toda la parte de la sala de batallas, el juego del Gigante y los juegos en Eros me han entretenido mucho. Nunca habría pensado que me lo pasase tan bien leyendo cosas así.

A pesar de que esperaba una gran batalla no me ha decepcionado lo que ha pasado. Ha sido una sorpresa.

Y al final todo ha acabado bien. No me ha gustado que Peter se saliese con la suya, aunque al final lo hiciese bien. Me alegro de que Ender y Valentine acabasen juntos y casi en paz, creo que se lo merecían. Aunque la saga sigue, asique a saber lo que pasará...

Esperaré un poco para seguir con la saga porque no quiero que se me vaya el buen sabor de boca que me ha dejado este libro.

I first read Ender's Game the same year it was published; I was a marginally successful junior in a US Service Academy at the time, and well on my way to forming my current negative opinion about how such works. What ever other critiques readers might have about Card's story here, IMHO he nailed the military training environment, complete with psychological manipulation and Machiavellian intrigue. I am not surprised to hear rumors that Ender's Game might even be promoted by the military training establishment. Even before this book was published, my training cadre made no secret of how they were using 'significant emotional events' to reshape our personalities to conform to the expected standard ... Much like Graft attempts to manipulate encounters for Ender at the Battle School. This was made slightly more difficult after hazing became illegal; it didn't actually eliminate it, just moved it into the shadows. Needless to say, my first encounter with the book evoked a very strong affinity with the protagonist. First cut gets 5 stars.

Another significant concept Card presented in the story was that such a system inevitably fails ... As in it doesn't predictably (limited correlation) create your top military commanders during war time and can in fact hinder their development. Unfortunately I don't believe Card's solution is very realistic. Throwing away the rulebook in order to foster social isolation and constant exposure to violence at an early age does not create individuals who are strong, independent leaders ... It creates sociopaths. Fortunately Card seems to have a knack for knowing when he may have pushed too hard, as Ender immediately becomes overwhelmed with angst about his actions. About the only benefit I get from these rather irritating episodes is an opportunity to expose ethical talking points (which I took advantage of when I re-read the book with my preteen). Several critics seem to believe that they know which side Card comes down on these issues (e.g. Is Xenocide always evil? ... Is it ever necessary?) ... Strangely enough, there is little unanimity among them (I actually think Card leaves it up in the air for each reader to think about). There are other areas in the story that I could pick apart, in fact an army of critics have already done so (and to some extent they have valid points); however, I still find the over all story to be an excellent starting point for talking about how we go about determining ethical behavior, both within our society and in response to a potential foreign encounter.

Authors, publicists, hi! Since this is the review that has resulted in by far and away the most messages saying "I see you liked Ender's Game - want to try this?", let's take a moment to clarify. I would not like to try this. Some people may love to hear about such things; I am not one of those people, so you're best off saving your time.

I wish you, your friend, your client, and your book, all the best, but if I get any more of those messages I'll know for sure they're spam and react accordingly.

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I lent this book to a student of mine. Finally, he has finished reading this, and for the last 45 minutes of our lesson last night we discussed it.

Oh, you guys, if you're bookish sorts, you would just have loved this lesson we had last night. So we spent the first 45 minutes finishing off discussing the gothic elements in Poe's "The Raven" and Browning's "My Last Duchess", and then did a complete about-face and spent the last half in animated discussion over Ender's Game. He didn't love it as much as I loved it, but I have never had such an animated, interesting discussion with a teenager about sci-fi before.

We talked about good and evil, and what counts as torture, and whether you can be as Machiavellian about it as Colonel Graff. We talked about leadership - Ender's and other people's - and how godawful a character Mazer Rackham was. We talked about growing up in a pressurised environment, and the things you get a lot of, and the things you miss. We talked about John Locke, and the Warsaw Pact, and how communism works, and the historical context in which Orson Scott Card was writing.

We talked about how knowing about the writer of a book can cause you to see the events in it differently, about whether Ender is really inclusive and focused on community, or really exclusive and focused on being special and different and better than people. I asked him whether you'd be able to see those different versions of the story anyway, and he said maybe you would and maybe you wouldn't, if you didn't know where to look.

We discussed the structure, how he hadn't been expecting to see Peter and Valentine after the beginning, and how that's a really interesting way to put the rest of the events in context, to stop them being just sterile kids' games on an anonymous spaceship. We disagreed, in fact, in some ways, about the effectiveness of the structure - where I thought the transition from Battle School to Command School ramped up the tension, he thought the tension dissipated because we were just seeing the same events over again. He liked the Peter and Valentine bits best; I liked them, but preferred to be inside Ender's head. He found the inside of Ender's head comparatively boring.

And it was fantastic. He just opened up. He read quite a different book to me, which was fascinating. We'll make a reader of him yet. I teach for this, I swear.

OSC is still a terrible human being, but that's twice now I've got a whole lot out of Ender - once on my own, and once in company. As I mentioned before, Stargate Kid is on to To Kill a Mockingbird now, and I can't WAIT.


PREVIOUSLY:
I bought it second hand, meaning to use it as an introduction to reading for a kid who apparently likes his sci-fi. I read it in three days, in huge breathless gulps.

I've had such trouble reading lately - lack of time, enthusiasm, the stars aligning. Is this really worth five stars? I can't tell, but I do know that it's the first thing I've read compulsively since the beginning of the year. The first thing I've been unable to put down, that's followed me round.

I can't believe it was written by someone like Orson Scott Card. Did he not read back his own writing to himself? I genuinely don't understand.

Mindfuck.

That's probably the most apt description for this book.

For obvious reasons, I won't get into the plot too much so suffice it to say that the protagonist is 6 years old at the beginning and we follow him through 5 very damaging years of Battle School and Command School.
Children are screened via an implanted monitoring system in this future. Why? Because there has been an alien invasion about 80 years ago and it almost wiped out humanity. During the second invasion, we were lucky that one military fighter emerged who was able and willing to do what was necessary (and that his tactics worked). Now, the third invasion is probably upon us so we're looking for geniuses who think outside the box and are insanely adaptable so the younger, the better.
Ender (the third child in a world where the limit per family is two) is taken from his parents and siblings but he's not too sad about it considering what his sadistic brother often puts him through.
In Battle School he meets other children, all bigger and a little older. He plays games, he trains, he runs simulations ... and he beats them all.
So is he the answer to all of humanity's hopes?
Should we really put someone so young through such ordeals to save humanity?
Is there an actual war against the "buggers"?
Who is lying and about what?
Not to mention that Sometimes, lies are more dependable.

What struck me most was how, basically, this was all about certain people not wanting to get their own hands dirty. Let's face it: yes, only few were as brilliant as Ender but they could have just copied him and given the ultimate commands themselves instead of emotionally and psychologically ruining an 11-year-old kid!

And while I definitely liked the chapters in which we experienced Ender's battle simulations and tests, more than the chapters about Ender's siblings and their unlikely actions on Earth anyway, the petulance annoyed me. Of course that was utterly realistic because these ARE children but the whole concept of taking physically, psychologically and emotionally immature people and giving them more than one sadistic twist through their lessons was a bit much. Moreover, I expected better - at least from kids like Ender's "friends". It proves that the concept is flawed.

But it's true that as long as you're the victim, people like you because they have someone to pity (someone they can feel superior towards) and are on your side. But as soon as you turn your victimhood into victory, these same people turn away, resent you even.

Thus, many things were hard to read. The bullying, the constant lies and tricks, that Ender couldn't trust anyone and that his teachers did that to him deliberately. It was all extreme, all excused with the war effort. And, to some degree, I understand that approach.
Nevertheless, the novel asks some hard questions, then and now, and I know that many authors and movie directors have taken quite a number of tropes and details from this book when creating their own stories.

Movies ... that reminds me that, many years ago, I've seen the movie adaptation of this book. If you haven't, don't! It's one of those adaptations that makes you want to cry and rage at the same time.

I did have some problems with this book, such as Valentine basically just being the smart but ultimately weak girl (why wasn't Peter made to be the weak one caught between convictions? why did it have to be the girl?) that doesn't add much to the story.
Or Petra, the only girl in Ender's ranks, who was brilliant at first, but then was the one (the only one) to break down in the end.
And are we really to believe that a person like Peter would just become a benevolent ruler of Earth after being such a sadistic little shit for all those years?!
Or the fact that we knew so extremely little about the buggers and had to just believe one reveal after the other. I mean, it can happen that one does know preciously little about an enemy, that's the whole point of someone losing a war in many cases in fact, but I want to be shown certain things in a book instead of just being told. However, that last point changed a bit for me in hindsight as it is exactly what Ender is going through and I wonder if it was done deliberately.

So I'm torn about this. I really am. It was fun in most places and had a certain action-y feel to it. But some of the philosophical aspects were a bit too over the top for me. It also didn't have as broad a spectrum as, for example, Asimov's Foundation. The world, here, felt "smaller" if that makes any sense. Then again, it is a book for children ...
Decisions, decisions ... after reading this book, I'm reluctant to make any. OK, I decided to round the 3.5 stars up after all because the action did sweep me along despite the problems I had with certain details.

By the way: the author is right when saying that this (full-cast audio) is how he meant his story to be enjoyed. It added a lot to the reading experience.

“If you try and lose then it isn't your fault. But if you don't try and we lose, then it's all your fault.”

Ender’s Game is one of the most beloved sci-fi novels of all time. So why did I take so long, to read it? Firstly, I’ve been seeing a bit more negative reviews seeing a variation of “maybe it was good for the time but now…” ultimately made me cautious. 2ndly battle schools aren’t super appealing especially dealing with kids who are like 8-10 years old. Though shocking myself (but probably not others), I found this novel to be a delight. At times bloody excellent. This is one of the most well-paced and efficient novels I’ve read.

For being only a 300+ page book, the amount of depth packed into it is surprisingly a lot. Card is able to build an interesting world, a compelling conflict that is both at the forefront and as a backdrop. An interesting alien species which you slowly gain information regarding their motive. Lastly having a decent idea of how the populace is run on this Earth, especially in relation to religion. I should give a heads-up that I didn't see any signs of Card shoving his Mormon perspective in the novel. Though I will say if that was done, I could not tell from what I read. I mainly stating this point, just because somebody randomly brought it up to me. In the midst of me reading of the novel which he hasn't read but heard.

I will be honest the characterisation is a lot better than I expected. Especially for this type of Sci-Fi. My favourite two characters by far would be Ender and Valentine. So firstly Ender, in a nutshell, the kid goes through a ton. He never catches a break, he is always tested to his limit, consistently at his breaking point but still, he does his duty admirably, but he is still human so that vulnerability will come out. For the longest time Valentine, (I will briefly describe her later) was my favourite, but by the end, you feel for this poor lad. From beginning to end his arc is great and honestly, I can see why this type of character is so influential. His ideals are very strong, he questions his actions not just being a puppet. Now Valentine, honestly, I was shocked I clicked with this character so much. Her vulnerabilities, strengths, and weakness are all conveyed in a ridiculously small page count. In terms of the remaining support casting their some more highlights I think is Bean is pretty good but those two are the real essence of the novel.

The plot is very good, though I think one aspect that was a bit muddled is the ages of the children. I think for the most part Card does a good job (though sometimes he slips up) like children have these super feats but explained within the novel why that is the case. But sometimes the character feels a little too young, especially with some of the dialogue. So, I did imagine them as slightly older. Especially when they're doing all this battle school action. It’s hard to visualise children doing all these combat skills. Furthermore, I will be honest, I don’t love Cards' description of the action. I never felt too wowed and a lot of the novel centred around this battle school. So, you’re wondering why I enjoy this novel so much. Though the action is a component of the Battle School it's about survival, strategy and perseverance which shines. I will discuss themes below but yes problem-solving is one of the core aspects of the novel. It's not just Ender but everyone is problem-solving and it’s so easy to see why this is influential. Continuing with the battle schools, the character moments are pretty good. They consistently must re-evaluate their actions and are just interesting to read.

In terms of themes, I will go very broadly and stick to one specifically. There are multiple explored in the novel, manipulation, control, coming of age etc. but the one that will discuss most will be leadership. To me this was the most important theme, seeing the different types of authority, seeing varied leadership styles and just the sheer importance of it. Ender and many characters must make those firm decisions without any guidance as that is what you do in the real world. You must consistently apply yourself. These decisions that you make as a person of authority can be good and bad and this novel explores both, it very much deals with the ramifications of decisions by leaders.

In conclusion, this novel is great, especially how the ending ties everything up. I can see why this novel was studied in school back in the day. A lot of that can apply to a person of youth even an adult. Though this is not one of the best sci-fi novels for me, I have a great deal of respect for it. I am excited to see how Card will tackle Speaker of the End considering hints in this novel. But I will say this is a standalone tale, there is no big cliffhanger or anything. If you are one of the few people who haven’t read it, I will give it a shot, be open-minded, don’t worry too much about the hype and you will be surprised.

8.5/10