A quick
and fun read, Ender’s game supplies everything that makes a book worthwhile.
Orson Scott Card took his short story
from 1977 and expanded on the short story with this novelization. A science
fiction novel at heart, Card was able to do the one thing that a science
fiction novel should do: made the story believable.
The book follows 6-year old Ender Wiggin as he is molded into a Commander in the hopes that he will be able to save the world from a third invasion by an alien armada. Ender is quickly enrolled in Battle School where he is placed in a mock army with other children. Maturing with every second he spends at the Battle School, Ender learns and creates strategies as he plays the war games. At every point Ender is being manipulated into becoming the best Commander he can be by the teachers. Ender recognizes how he is being used, but accepts that this is his fate.
More than anything the book is about, as all books about children are, growing up. With the situations that Ender is pushed into, he is forced to mature at an incredibly fast rate. Card does an excellent job describing how a child would deal with the idea of coming to terms with self-sacrifice and shows how much influence adults have in raising a child. Many times during the book Ender questions whether all they are doing is worth the loss of his, and all the other members of battle school’s, childhoods. The teachers do everything in their power to shape Ender into a tool for humanity, one that can match the genius of Mazer Rackham, the man who saved the world from the Second Invasion.
Ender’s Game is an excellent and worthwhile read, but the book is not without faults. Ender is the most exceptional person in the entire world, yet as brilliant as he is, the boy is not even seven years old when he is sent to Battle School. Card reminds readers every couple of chapters that Ender may be six, but he has been bred to be the smartest stratagem ever. In a world that has population limits, Ender’s parents were petitioned to have a third child. Peter and Valentine, Ender’s older brother and sister, were both candidates of Battle School, but were unsuccessful in graduating to Command School. The promise his siblings showed are what allowed Ender to be born in the first place. Ender is not a normal child, but a six year old boy with an IQ leagues beyond the smartest men and women in the history of mankind. Readers must accept Ender as the child prodigy to enjoy the book. Without going into detail about what theories (as that might give away some plot points), readers must also be accepting of scientific theories. Some theories are not thoroughly explained, but that only further promotes that the science is not what is important in the story.
The book’s greatest fault is the scenes that follow Valentine and Peter. The chapters with Ender’s brother and sister are some of the best in the book. How could the best chapters take away from the quality of the novel? Peter and Valentine’s story does not have enough of an effect on the book’s end. The necessity of showing what the children were doing back on Earth while Ender is at Battle School is almost non-existent. Using the chapters with Peter and Valentine, Card shows the aspects of his character that he has taken from his family. The side-plot helps compare Ender’s current state of mind with his brother and sister, showing when he begins to lean towards being more like his aggressive brother and passive sister. Using these chapters for the purpose of comparison is pointless as teachers constantly point out when Ender is acting more like one sibling over the other, questioning whether he is capable of surpassing both or not.
Ender’s Game is a very worthwhile read. The novel is original in both characters and plot. The book is fairly short and is a standalone novel. Although the sequels and prequel can be read to expand the universe of Ender’s Game, the story is completed with the one novel. Reading Ender’s game is entertaining from cover to cover and is thought provoking with themes that can illicit some moral debates. With a still expanding universe, Ender’s Game is a book worth investing in.
The book follows 6-year old Ender Wiggin as he is molded into a Commander in the hopes that he will be able to save the world from a third invasion by an alien armada. Ender is quickly enrolled in Battle School where he is placed in a mock army with other children. Maturing with every second he spends at the Battle School, Ender learns and creates strategies as he plays the war games. At every point Ender is being manipulated into becoming the best Commander he can be by the teachers. Ender recognizes how he is being used, but accepts that this is his fate.
More than anything the book is about, as all books about children are, growing up. With the situations that Ender is pushed into, he is forced to mature at an incredibly fast rate. Card does an excellent job describing how a child would deal with the idea of coming to terms with self-sacrifice and shows how much influence adults have in raising a child. Many times during the book Ender questions whether all they are doing is worth the loss of his, and all the other members of battle school’s, childhoods. The teachers do everything in their power to shape Ender into a tool for humanity, one that can match the genius of Mazer Rackham, the man who saved the world from the Second Invasion.
Ender’s Game is an excellent and worthwhile read, but the book is not without faults. Ender is the most exceptional person in the entire world, yet as brilliant as he is, the boy is not even seven years old when he is sent to Battle School. Card reminds readers every couple of chapters that Ender may be six, but he has been bred to be the smartest stratagem ever. In a world that has population limits, Ender’s parents were petitioned to have a third child. Peter and Valentine, Ender’s older brother and sister, were both candidates of Battle School, but were unsuccessful in graduating to Command School. The promise his siblings showed are what allowed Ender to be born in the first place. Ender is not a normal child, but a six year old boy with an IQ leagues beyond the smartest men and women in the history of mankind. Readers must accept Ender as the child prodigy to enjoy the book. Without going into detail about what theories (as that might give away some plot points), readers must also be accepting of scientific theories. Some theories are not thoroughly explained, but that only further promotes that the science is not what is important in the story.
The book’s greatest fault is the scenes that follow Valentine and Peter. The chapters with Ender’s brother and sister are some of the best in the book. How could the best chapters take away from the quality of the novel? Peter and Valentine’s story does not have enough of an effect on the book’s end. The necessity of showing what the children were doing back on Earth while Ender is at Battle School is almost non-existent. Using the chapters with Peter and Valentine, Card shows the aspects of his character that he has taken from his family. The side-plot helps compare Ender’s current state of mind with his brother and sister, showing when he begins to lean towards being more like his aggressive brother and passive sister. Using these chapters for the purpose of comparison is pointless as teachers constantly point out when Ender is acting more like one sibling over the other, questioning whether he is capable of surpassing both or not.
Ender’s Game is a very worthwhile read. The novel is original in both characters and plot. The book is fairly short and is a standalone novel. Although the sequels and prequel can be read to expand the universe of Ender’s Game, the story is completed with the one novel. Reading Ender’s game is entertaining from cover to cover and is thought provoking with themes that can illicit some moral debates. With a still expanding universe, Ender’s Game is a book worth investing in.
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