As he got into the car that waited silently in the corridor, he heard Valentine’s anguished cry. “Come back to me! I love you forever!”


Most readers of this review who have any interest in SF have certainly known of this book for years. It was published in 1977. I was in my early 30s then, we had our first child, and I had withdrawn from SF several years before that, really since I had left high school. So I have no recollection of the book from those days, and didn’t really become aware of it till maybe five years ago. I’ve had a copy for a few years. Finally started reading it yesterday. Finished it today.

Here’s the backstory, as I absorbed it through my read. (I may not have some of the details right, it doesn’t matter.) Some takes place on earth, but most takes place in special training facilities that have been set up elsewhere in the solar system. Call it sometime in the twenty-first century? Anyway, at a time that humans had conquered space and where exploring the solar system.

Decades prior to the novel’s present an alien life form had been discovered in our system, simply referred to as the “bugs”. There was a lot of fighting between humans and bugs, many lives lost, the bugs repulsed. They returned a couple decades later, and even more fierce fighting occurred, even more lives lost. Again the humans won.

But now the nations of earth have banded together (sort of) in expectation that a third war will occur, when the bugs return they will return in vast numbers. So the story relates how the humans are preparing to meet this invasion: by identifying, through very early childhood, young children who are believed to have a particular ability (postulated from results of the first wars) to command in, and win, the ultimate war.

Children identified are taken to space, to training facilities, starting at ages around five. They leave their families, for years, for this training.

Ender is one of these children. He has an older brother who was tested and found lacking, and a sister between the two brothers, Valentine, also tried and found lacking. The quote above is taken from very early in the book, when it’s decided that Ender has passed the pre-training phase. His parents and he himself have agreed to allow him to be trained off-planet. But it’s a hard parting with his sister, they have supported each other throughout childhood against the rather brutal older sibling.



Well, that’s enough of the spoiler stuff. The novel mostly takes place over the next five-plus years of Ender’s childhood.

Card has written an extremely well-crafted story here. I found it hard to stop reading, always wondering what was going to happen next. Details of the current social realities on earth are revealed slowly, and influence both the telling and the flow of the story in interesting ways. A real page-turner.

It’s also, in some parts, very moving.



The edition I have contains an Introduction that the author wrote in 1991. This was very much worth reading. I read it after I finished reading the story, and that worked well for me.



I have 119 friends who have this book in their libraries on GR. About forty of them have yet to read it. So to those, who I assume did have at least some interest in it, I say do read the novel!

For other friends: if somehow you’ve never heard of it, check it out, read some other reviews. I didn’t look at it as a YA novel (when it was written I don’t think the phrase was in use.) But it is true that it has become apparently a very popular read for young people, a fact that Card addresses in the Introduction.



I didn’t know until I actually read the book that there are three novels that follow it in a series. Whether I read those who knows? But this one was certainly good enough to make me consider it.

A movie came out in 2013. Mixed reviews. Apparently most people thought the book, which won awards in the sci-fi field, was better.



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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?!

n  n

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 ;).

n  n

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?

n  n

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.

n  n

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:

n  n


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

n  n

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.

I read this novel because it was often the favorite novel of students of mine, and I wanted to understand why. I should mention that I love science fiction, and have read it avidly since I was barely more than a child. I'm not by any means some kind of anti-sci-fi snob.

The first thing that bothered me is that the novel sets adults against gifted children in a way that strikes me as bizarre. Adults are essentially evil but teachers especially. The children are inherently excellent, capable of helping each other in trying to figure out just what the adults are hiding, which is, in this case, a vast and secret war they are tricking the children into fighting for them. This was perhaps the hardest to believe of all the things thrown at the reader, and interestingly, it is hidden from you until the very end, though you can guess at it before then.

What disturbed me the most is that the writing is terrible---far too much happens internally, inside the character's head--it's an emo space opera, basically--and one of the most interesting events of the book is nearly buried and the presentation of it is rushed, because it is near the end. There are many points in the battle scenes where it is impossible to understand what's happening. And the penultimate plot event, where it's revealed all of the games were not..games...could have been handled more interestingly. But the novel was overdetermined, things happening only because the writer wants them too and not because they feel inevitable, and so too many of the arrows point in the same direction. By the time Ender meets Mazer, his final teacher, my eyes rolled back into my head at the implausibility of it all.

And it's worth mentioning the thing no one prepared me for was the bizarre homoerotic subtext built into the book as well, a subtext that is sometimes just a plain old supertext, on display, right beside how women in this novel are to be loved distantly and kept from real knowledge, and turned against themselves, so they can then be used to compel others.

It creeped me out and I'm gay.

I'm also a former 'gifted child', and was tested and poked and pushed, all of these things, made to study computer programming when I didn't want to, and I made myself fail out of their program to get away from them. But I found no commonality with the gifted children here, not as I have in other stories about gifted children, say, like Salinger's Glass family. Also, these kids are all jerks.

I do hand it to Card for the ideas in the novel: blogging? Yes. It's in here, well before anyone was doing it, and it ...matters a lot, and in the ways blogging matters. Also the idea of an institution that runs on the manipulation of its populace into a distant war with an implacable foe, as a way of controlling people. And a society that has no privacy at all, not even in dreams. This novel does offer a dark picture of what life is like under these terms. Also, the idea of how a hive-mind would think differently, without language, and the complications of communicating with someone like that, that's brilliant also.

I wish it had been revised--that the battle scenes were clearer, that the movement of the novel's action, the way the 'buggers' are in a race to try and communicate with Ender before he kills them, that this were more obvious to the reader, and not a surprise whipped out at the end, so that it could have lent tension to the scenes of the games and manipulation, which were only boring. And Ender's decision, to be the Speaker for the Dead, that struck me cold, because in the end, the buggers were only trying to do what everyone else in his life were doing to him: poring over what makes him tick and trying to get him to do their bidding.

The novel contains a rant against style at the beginning, added by Card, called 'literary tricks' by him. I think the most interesting thing about it is that given the millions sold, it is proof that story matters more than style, even as convoluted and badly formed as this one is. In the end what matters is the questions the novel raises and the implications of the questions, and that the novel really is about something at its core, behind all of the badly rendered fight scenes. I admire style, don't get me wrong. I love it. But it would appear you can get by without it.

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.

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'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.

**** به‌روز رسانی ریویو در تاریخ ۲۲ تیرماه ۱۴۰۱ ****

داستانِ اندرو ویگین، داستانِ زیبائیست.
هر بار که این داستان را بازخوانی میکنم بیش از پیش بهش علاقه پیدا میکنم و زوایای بیشتری از لایه‌های نهفته در درون این داستان برایم آشکار میشه و مسائل بیشتری برای اندیشیدن در ذهنم جرقه میزنه! چیزهایی که ممکنه حتی خود اورسن اسکات‌کارد هم در زمان نوشتن این مجموعه به اون‌ها نیندیشیده باشه ولی با این حال اون‌ها رو در ژن این داستان وارد کرده باشه.

به زعم من داستان اندر یک درسنامه هست.
درسنامه‌ای در مورد انسان و انسان‌شناسی!
درسنامه‌ای در مورد جامعه‌شناسی، در مورد کل‌ و جز!
درسنامه‌ای در باب درست اندیشیدن!
درسنامه‌ای در باب رهبری!
کتابی است که در ظاهر پرونده‌ی زندگی انسانی را از خردسالی تا ابتدای نوجوانی، از ۶ سالگی تا ۱۲ سالگی جلوی چشم مخاطب باز میکنه، اما این کتابی نیست که برای کودکان یا نوجوانان نوشته شده باشه!
کتاب داستانی‌ست فیلسوف‌مآبانه که برای همه نوشته شده، یک داستان روانشناختی عمیق و چند لایه. این داستان برای همه کسانی نوشته شده که به دنبال یافتن جایگاه خودشون در زندگی هستن. کسایی که لازم هست تا با دردها و رنج‌ها مقابله کنند، کسانی که قرار هست همیشه در حال مبارزه برای اثبات خودشون باشن و کسانی که به یکباره و بدون خواست خود همه بار زندگی رو باید به دوش بکشن.

بطورکلی داستان این مجموعه در واقع یک اپرای فضایی سخت هست که به واقعه مقابله با تهاجم بیگانگان به سیاره زمین، زمانی در آینده، می‌پردازه. موجوداتی که در داستان به حشرات معروف هستن و ۲ بار تلاش ناموفق داشتن برای تهاجم و تصرف زمین.
ما جایی وارد داستان میشیم که سال‌هاست از آخرین تهاجم گذشته و حالا سیاره زمین خودش را تجهیز و آماده‌ی انتقام میکنه. جنگی با این هدف، یکبار برای همیشه احتمال بازگشت بیگانگان به زمین را از بین خواهیم برد و برای اینکار به آموزش نیروهای نخبه نظامی از سنین کودکی دست زده و همون‌طور که گفتم ما در این کتاب داستان یکی از بچه‌ها را پی میگیریم. داستان اندرو ویگین، امید آینده بشر، از ۶ سالگی تا ۱۲ سالگی.

چند تا نکته از روایت کتاب اول برام جالب بودن که دوست دارم در این ریویو حتما در موردشون صحبت کنم.

۱. ایده استفاده از کودکان برای جنگ‌های آینده
اینکه کودکان و نوحوانان با پتانسیل ذهنی که دارند بیشتر و بهتر میتونن با انواع تکنولوژی‌ها و ابزار ارتباط برقرار بکنن و ماهرانه‌تر از اون‌ها استفاده بکنن و با اموزش صحیح با سرعت انتقال بیشتر و راهبردی‌تر تحلیل، فکر و تصمیم بگیرند.
این موضوع برای مخاطب امروزی ایده‌ی نا آشنایی نیست و صف طولانی از انیمه یا مانگاهای معروفی با همین سبک الان وجود دارند اما وقتی فکر کنید که نویسنده این ایده را در دهه ۸۰ میلادی، یعنی بیشتر از ۴۰ سال پیش در داستانش استفاده کرده قضیه را جذاب میکنه.

۲. موضوع بعدی پیش‌گویی نویسنده در مورد آینده‌ی جنگ سرد هست که کاملا با وقایع امروزی در تقابل بین شرق و غرب منطبقه. پیش‌گویی که در اون نشان میده حتی دوره‌های صلح طولانی مانع از تقابل بین شرق و غرب نخواهد شد و جنگ سرد همیشه راه خودش را به آینده‌های محتمل پیدا خواهد کرد و در نهایت برخورد نمادین پیمان ورشو و ناتو در دنیا و در داستان به بهانه‌ای خودش را نمایان خواهد کرد. چیزی که براحتی نشان‌هاش را می‌توان در جنگ اخیر اوکراین مشاهده کرد.

۳. سومین چیزی که برام جالب بود بازنمایی نمادین جامعه نظامی‌پرور اسپارت و راه و روش و‌ مسلک اون ها در پرورش نیروهای زبده و نخبه نظامی از همون سنین کودکی تا بزرگسالی در قالب یک داستان علمی تخیلی نظامی و یک اپرای فضایی امروزی‌ست.

۴. مورد چهارم که از همه برای خودم شخصا جذاب‌تر و درخشان‌تر بود پیش‌بینی و استفاده زیبا و بجای نویسنده از مفهوم فضای سایبری یا فضای مجازی و رشد و استقرار شبکه های اجتماعی در آینده و تاثیر بسزا و عظیم‌شون در جهت‌دهی و شکل‌دهی اذهان عمومی جامعه در قالب مسائل اجتماعی و سیاسی بود.
واقعا که اورسن اسکات‌کارد در این بخش از پرداخت داستانش استادانه و درخشان عمل کرده و اگر این موضوع را بگذارید کنار اینکه این داستان بیش از ۴۰ سال قبل نوشته شده اون وقت به عمق کاری که انجام داده پی خواهید برد.

۵. و آخرین موردی که دوست دارم در موردش صحبت کنم در مورد موضوعی هست که در بعضی از نظرات مخاطبین دیدم. اینکه اورسن اسکات‌کارد را یه نویسنده ضد زن می‌دونن و به این دلیل که در داستانش زن‌ها تحقیر میشن و نقشی ندارن خوندن این داستان یا ادامه‌ش را ترک کردن.
به این دسته از خوانندگان حق میدم که با خوندن تنها کتاب اول یا نیمه ی نخست کتاب اول به چنین نتیجه‌ای برسن اما این نتیجه را منصفانه نمی‌دونم.
نویسنده در همین کتاب دو شخصیت زن بسیار کلیدی در داستان داره که نقش تعیین کننده یا به اصطلاح گیم‌چنجر در داستان دارن و علاوه بر اون اگر ادامه داستان‌های این مجموعه را مطالعه میکردن کاملا به نادرست بودن برداشتشون از اعتقادات ضدفمینیستی نویسنده پی میبردند.

خلاصه که خوندن حداقل کتاب اول از این مجموعه‌ی زیبا و لذتبخش را از دست ندید

I'm not giving any of my money to a man that wrote this, and who regularly donates money that he's earned from his books towards anti-gay rights outlets.

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)

„Играта на Ендър“ е възхитителна научна фантастика! С препрочитането открих много нови неща и затвърдих мнението си, че представлява едно от най-добрите и стойностни четива в жанра. Централно място заема военната сюжетна линия на Ендър, която е забележително изградена, обаче този път още повече ме впечатли политическата линия на Лок и Демостен... Книгата поставя началото на поредица, но спокойно може да бъде четена като самостоятелен роман. Играта на Ендър донякъде може да бъде сравнявана с „Дюн“, тъй като и двете чудесни многопластови истории разглеждат темата за израстването като личност на момче, което е натоварено с огромни очаквания да бъде „спасител“ за човечеството, както и в двете са вплетени разнообразни философски размисли.

Андрю (Ендър) Уигин е приет и отива в елитно военно училище за деца, което се намира вщна станция в орбита около Земята. Там започва неговото обучение чрез високотехнологични игри и битки, като военните го подлагат на жестоки изпитания, за да се превърне в съвършен военен командир. Впоследствие личен учител му става легендарният военачалник Мейзър Ракъм и му предстоят още по-трудни премеждия в Космоса...

Междувременно Питър и Валънтайн (брат и сестра на Ендър), които също са талантливи деца, са останали на Земята и решават тайно да участват в информационната мрежа. Те постепенно се превръщат в лидери на обществено мнение на планетата, която още се намира в състояние на Студена война и атмосферата е доста напрегната. Питър следва най-вече своите лични амбиции за власт, докато Валънтайн търси начин да помогне на Ендър... Впоследствие отделните сюжетни се преплитат, за да се получи тази превъзходна научнофантастична твор��а!






„Ендър разбра повече от онова, което му каза Петра. Овладяването на гравитацията бе едно нещо, измамата, с която си служеха офицерите — съвсем друго. Но най-важното, което разбра, бе, че истинският враг са възрастните, а не другите армии. Възрастните са онези, които не ни казват истината.“


„Войниците вече знаеха, че Ендър може да бъде груб, когато говореше на групите например, но когато работеше с отделния човек, той бе винаги търпелив, обясняваше толкова пъти, колкото е необходимо, правеше предложенията си спокойно и изслушваше въпросите, проблемите и мненията. Но така и никога не се засмя, когато искаха да се пошегуват с него, и те скоро спряха да правят подобни опити. Той бе командир във всеки един миг от общуването им. И никога не се налагаше да им го напомня.“


„Освен това те все още се ограничават с приказки. Имат влияние, но не и власт.
— Моят опит ми подсказва, че влиянието е всъщност власт.“

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.

I rarely really enjoy reading science fiction (the movies are another matter), but - most likely because of the refreshingly unpretentious and clear prose, which did take me by surprise - this book was almost a joy to read. I say "almost" purely because it's still science fiction, and for many reasons that are too long-winded to go into here, I prefer fantasy.

It's nice, though, to have Card (in his 1991 introduction) refer to this clarity of style, and actually encourage his readers to read Ender's Game any which way they please. In his own words:

I designed Ender's Game to be as clear and accessible as any story of mine could possibly be. My goal was that the reader wouldn't have to be trained in literature or even in science fiction to receive the tale in its simplest, purest form. And, since a great many writers and critics have based their entire careers on the premise that anything that the general public can understand without mediation is worthless drivel, it is not surprising that they found my little novel to be dispicable. If everybody came to agree that stories should be told this clearly, the professors of literature would be out of a job, and the writers of obscure, encoded fiction would be, not honored, but pitied for their impenetrability. (p.xix)

Ok, so he loves to toot his own horn (and did he "design" it that way or was he just not able to write anything more elaborate? ouch, snarky Shannon!), but since I really don't like wanky, pretentious writing, I appreciate the unadorned prose of Ender's Game. It's no Neuromancer, that's for sure *grimace*.

Quick Summary - a few spoilers
Ender's Game is set sometime in the future, when the world is divided up differently and yet united under various pacts and hegemonies to face the threat of the "buggers" - an insect-like alien race with a hive mind that attacked, and was repulsed. Now, after a successful defeat in the Second Invasion 70 years before, the powers that be are feeling the strain of finding the person to lead their own invasion force, sent to the buggers' home world after the Second Invasion. The starships will be in place in a matter of years, and their one hope is 6 year old Ender Wiggin, one of many genius children who have been monitored for the right qualities for years. Sent to Battle School with all the other geniuses (mostly boys), he is isolated and pushed to extremes no other student is, all to find out if he is the one, and if he is, to have him ready by the time the starships reach the buggers' home world. Training is done in null gravity in the battlerooms, "armies" against each other, and Ender excels at the game. But with Ender's level of genius he quickly attracts hatred and hostility from some of the others students. His own efforts to beat the game draw him closer to his biggest fear: that he will be just like his older brother Peter, who would have been here in his place if it weren't for the fact that he's a sadistic kid who relishes torturing others.

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That this book is about children trained to be soldiers and skilled killers didn't really shock me - it happens in the real world often enough, and in a much more hellish way, as I learned from reading A Long Way Gone. But it's still a pretty horrible thing to do, brought on by sheer desperation it's true, but the things these children endure are things most adults would crumble under. They think and speak like adults, and I really needed the reminders of their ages. Ender is only 11 when the war with the buggers finally ends. But there is definitely something poignant and utterly tragic about the loss of innocence - if these kids with their higher intellects and greater-than-usual understanding and awareness were ever innocent - and childhood. One of the kids, a little 6 year old boy called Bean, helped drive this home:

He felt terrible. At first he thought he felt bad because he was afraid of leading an army, but it wasn't true. He knew he'd make a good commander. He felt himself wanting to cry. He hadn't cried since the first few days of homesickness after he got here. He tried to put a name on the feeling that put a lump in his throat and made him sob silently, however much he tried to hold it down. He bit down on his hand to stop the feeling, to replace it with pain. It didn't help. He would never see Ender again.

Once he named the feeling, he could control it. He lay back and forced himself to go through the relaxing routine until he didn't feel like crying anymore. Then he drifted off to sleep. His hand was near his mouth. It lay on his pillow hesitantly, as if Bean couldn't decide whether to bite his nails or suck on his fingertips. His forehead was creased and furrowed. His breathing was quick and light. He was a soldier, and if anyone had asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up, he wouldn't have known what they meant. (p.224)

However, it's less the human condition and more a sort of anthropological perspective of human attitudes and alien race relations that interests me. The notion of superiority, of the right to live and survive no matter the costs to the enemy, of judging other species' intellect by their ability to think like us and see us the way we see ourselves - this is what really fascinates me. From the time the European settlers arrived in Australia and decided the Aborigines were barely human because they couldn't say a tree was "a tree" and didn't understand that taking a sheep was stealing, to the idea that because the buggers look like insects they don't have feelings, or reasoning. Remember the aliens in Independence Day? I mean, aside from that movie being just another propaganda film for the Greatness of America (it smacks of insecurity that some people feel the need to reinforce this myth, but oh well), the aliens were, well, alien - and once reduced to the unknowable Other, gone is the human conscience in destroying them.

Because Ender studies the buggers' strategies and tactics, to understand them, he feels compassion for them. He wants to understand them completely, but nothing is really known about them. It isn't until the end of the book that we find out more, as does Ender, and the real enemy becomes us rather than the buggers, for being so stubborn and self-righteous and superior, that we sought to destroy destroy destroy before finding out anything about what we were destroying. Which is, classically, what humans are best at: destroying. Much easier than creating. Kill first, ask questions later kind of attitude. Do we even deserve another planet to colonise when we don't even know how to look after this one? Well, a question for another day, though I make no effort to hide my own cynacism and contempt.

This book is considered a science fiction classic and the vast majority of people who have read it have loved it and studied the crap out of it. There are some negative reviews of course, and one I read here on Goodreads made several very good points, notably that the characters are rather one-dimensional ("cardboard cut-outs" was the expression he used), which I thought was quite accurate - there really wasn't much character development, especially with Ender of all people; and that there was a "creepy pedophile vibe", with all the references to naked little boys, and the scene in which a naked, wet and soapy Ender fights an older boy in the showers. Hmm. Now I'm going to have trouble shaking that one off! Someone else who also gave it 1 star made a crack at the Introduction and Card's smugness (and he is very pleased with himself, and doesn't mind telling us), and that he "feels it necessary to rant about Fantasy and how derivative it is compared to Science Fiction" - I must have missed that part, but isn't it so much more fun to read negative reviews than positive ones? As long as you've already read it, that is ;)

I actually marked pages in this book, passages that resonated with me while I was reading it, but now when I go back to them and read it again, I see nothing special, and I can't remember why I committed the crime of dog-earing a page. Anyway, while the book didn't amaze me or show me anything new, and I saw the "twist" coming and, to be honest, was rather disappointed that the buggers and the war were actually real and the whole Battle Game thing wasn't just some sick, cruel scientific experiment (might have made for a more interesting book?), Ender's Game was a surprisingly fun read (must be all the games, I thought they were kinda fun), and plot-wise it was well written despite several unanswered questions that could be called plot-holes if they had been more important. I just have one more quote from Card, because I absolutely agree with it and he puts it so well:

Why else do we read fiction, anyway? Not to be impressed by somebody's dazzling language - or at least I hope that's not our reason. I think that most of us, anyway, read these stories that we known are not "true" because we're hungry for another kind of truth: The mythic truth about human nature in general, the particular truth about those life-communities that define our own identity, and the most specific truth of all: our own self-story. Fiction, because it is not about somebody who actually lived in the real world, always has the possibility of being about ourself. (p.xxiv-v)