Ender’s Game is a science fiction novel written by Orson Scott Card. It follows a boy named Andrew “Ender” Wiggin and his journey through Battle School where he learns to defeat the “buggers.”
Card is an American novelist best known for the genre of science fiction. His novels Ender’s Game and its sequel Speaker for the Dead are his two most known works. Both of these works won Hugo and and Nebula Awards. This makes Card the only author to win the top two American prizes in science fiction in consecutive years. Also, Card co-produced Ender’s Game the movie which premiered in 2013.
Plot
This novel takes place in the future where humanity has decided to explore the Universe in order to win against the alien race, also known as the “buggers.” The main character who goes by the nickname Ender is a six year old child who is living in this society. However due to his poor attitude toward others, a high power group called the I.F removes Ender’s monitoring device ending his chances of Battle School. When explaining his action to I.F Colonel Hyrum Graff, Ender states his belief that, by showing superiority now, he has prevented future struggle. Graff, on hearing this, offers Ender a place in Battle School.
Ender’s days at Battle School were anything but easy. Graff and other leaders at that school made it even harder for Ender to thrive. This was to prevent him from growing too comfortable in his environment. Even though the I.F made it hard for Ender, he was able to excel in competitive zero gravity war. Due to his exceptional work in the combat arena, Ender was able to work his way up. Later on in the novel he ran his own team. However nothing prepared Ender for life outside of Battle School and he had to learn that the hard way.
Review
In my opinion Ender’s Game is one of the best science fiction books of all time. This novel conveys so many themes including: anger, love, hate, war, violence, and and competition for power. Card left me on the edge of my seat curious of what will happen next. Also, his foreshadowing on events made me love the book even more. There wasn’t a time where I was bored with the novel because the pacing was so well.
My favorite part of the novel was when Ender got the chance to be a commander of his own army called Rats. What made this chapter very interesting for me was that Ender was able to take no name individuals and turn them into a full fledged army.
Although this book had amazing plot twists there were a few things I disliked. For starters it was hard for me to believe that Ender was the smartest person in the galaxy considering he was only six years old. Also, I found the ending a little disappointing and confusing to follow. Other than that there isn’t anything I would change about this novel.
For anyone interesting in the genre science fiction I would recommend this book to them. However it should be read by children 13 years old and older because of violence and profanity. Also, there is a movie about this novel with the same name that I recommend to watch. Although the movie was good, the book was a lot better which is why I recommend it.
