Ender’s Game

(book review)

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Ender’s Game is a tragic tale that put’s the fate of the world into the hands of a young boy. Ender Wiggin is a gifted mind, tormented by his responsibilities and past traumas. It’s an engrossing tale expertly written by Orson Scott Card.

This is the second novel that I’ve read from Card(Lost Boys before this) and I look forward to experiencing more of his works. He’s very skilled at creating characters that are interesting and portraying relationships that have a genuine quality. I do all my reading in the evening, usually reading a chapter or two prior to falling asleep, but Ender’s Game kept me up a few late nights to see how the story would unfold.

I particularly enjoyed the dynamics between Ender and the other students at Battle School. A large portion of the action revolves around a game that the students play within a “Battle Room”. This could easily have become tedious but the Author describes the scenes so effortlessly that they are among the best parts of the book.

I look forward to experiencing the other entries into the “Ender Quintet” and watching the movie to see how it stacks up to this excellent novel.

My Rating: 4 of 5 Stars

– coe33

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• Question: How does the movie stack-up against the novel? Is it worth watching? Cast your vote on the poll below!

“In order to develop a secure defense against a hostile alien race’s next attack, government agencies breed child geniuses and train them as soldiers. A brilliant young boy, Andrew “Ender” Wiggin lives with his kind but distant parents, his sadistic brother Peter, and the person he loves more than anyone else, his sister Valentine. Peter and Valentine were candidates for the soldier-training program but didn’t make the cut–young Ender is the Wiggin drafted to the orbiting Battle School for rigorous military training.

Ender’s skills make him a leader in school and respected in the Battle Room, where children play at mock battles in zero gravity. Yet growing up in an artificial community of young soldiers, Ender suffers greatly from isolation, rivalry from his peers, pressure from the adult teachers, and an unsettling fear of the alien invaders. His psychological battles include loneliness, fear that he is becoming like the cruel brother he remembers, and fanning the flames of devotion to his beloved sister.

Is Ender the general Earth needs? But Ender is not the only result of the genetic experiments. The war with the Buggers has been raging for a hundred years, and the quest for the perfect general has been underway for almost as long. Ender’s two older siblings are every bit as unusual as he is, but in very different ways. Between the three of them lie the abilities to remake a world. If the world survives, that is.”

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