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How can a book not even set on a planet appeal to so many readers? To be fair, Enders Game starts out on planet Earth, so we all know the person we will be reading about is a human. Grappling with life and death, genocide for his own species or another, fighting in all situations, and making his way before he’s even remotely developed. Don’t we all relate?
Actually, probably not. But he does make a few friends. He does have difficult siblings. We can definitely relate to that.
Although this novel by Orson Scott Card was written at the beginning of his amazing career, although a lot of people have read it already, still many people have not. Go back! Read it! Or, read it again!
Ender Wiggin is a third child in a population-controlled future, where such a thing is usually not allowed. His brilliance as a strategist, his empathy as a person, and his intelligence bring him to battle school at a much younger age than most. This is a rotating space station, where battles are held in zero gravity. He learns to deploy an army at the same time he’s learning interpersonal lessons.
Ender’s days at the battle school for children are cut short. He moves on to an adult battle school, and his studies there lead to an invasion. In a plot twist that rings true, he is allowed to have his original team of children with him. It gives poignancy to a desperate situation.
The stakes are pretty high. Humanity faced near-extinction at the hand of an invading species years before.
Ender doesn’t know it, but he is preparing to bring the battle to the other species, the Formix. Otherwise known as the buggers. Throughout his entire brilliant military career, he thinks he is playing a game.
Minor characters are nothing like the cardboard cutouts we expect them to be. Petra. Bean. Even Stilson and Bonzo Madrid, who may have been typecast as villains — but that doesn’t sit right — are characters readers feel are real, even though they’re fictional. Ender believes in each one.
Will he annihilate another species? Will he redeem them? Can he do both? Go ahead and read Ender’s Game to find out.
Rated: Moderate. Profanity is minimal. No sexual content. Violence includes the main character in a wide range of violent situations. Murder, hand-to-hand combat, battle, and worse. Minor characters are also involved in violence against animals, violence in battle situations, and interpersonally. The author’s stance toward violence is always clear — that it’s only justified as a defense, even when it seems like aggression.
