Boy outsmarts bullies and fellow soldiers in mock battle fights. Great character development and personality conflicts.

STORY BRIEF:
This is young adult science fiction. Eighty years ago the buggers attacked earth. Humans fear the buggers will attack again so they establish a Battle School and search for brilliant children in hopes of finding their next commander. Ender is selected to go to Battle School when he is six. He is one of the youngest. Most of the story takes place at the Battle School. Ender is quiet, doesn’t talk much, but the reader is in his thoughts – a lot. Ender is in the “launchee training group” for a while. Then he is promoted to the “battle armies group.” There are many armies consisting mostly of boys. The armies are assigned to battle each other in the Battle Room - a large zero gravity cube. They wear flashsuits and carry flash guns. The guns cause portions or the entire suit to become rigid (as if frozen). The partially or completely frozen suit is how they define wounded or dead. The boys propel themselves by pushing off obstacles, side surfaces, and each other. In addition to these battles, the boys spend time in computer game battles.

REVIEWER’S OPINION:
I loved the character development of Ender. I loved seeing him handle bullies when the odds were scary and stacked against him. I loved seeing the strategies he used when in the Battle Room. This was a wonderful example of showing not telling. It reminds me of what so many mediocre authors lack. I don’t want to hear “he was brilliant and won the battle.” I want to see exactly what he told his soldiers to do and how it affected them and the enemy. And that’s what this author does.

For parents of boys who don’t read much and who love video games, I suggest you tempt them with this. It’s also great for girls and those of us who are older than young adult. I was drawn in right away. I had fun throughout the book. I didn’t want to stop reading.

I listened to the audiobook which was wonderfully well done with a variety of actors reading the parts.

The author has written many books. There are two Ender series.

Ender Wiggin series:
Ender’s Game (Book 1 about Ender) 5 stars
Five sequels

Shadow Saga series:
Ender’s Shadow (Book 1 about Bean) 2 ½ stars
Three sequels

After reading several reviews and hearing a comment from the author (next paragraph), I decided to read only the above two books. I’m not planning to read any sequels. They don’t sound as fun or entertaining. I subsequently gave Ender’s Shadow only 2 ½ stars which reinforced my decision not to read any more.

At the end of this audiobook the author described his books as follows. “EG is centered around a child while the sequels are about adults. EG is a heroic adventurous novel while the sequels are a completely different kind of fiction, slower paced, more contemplative and idea centered and dealing with the theme of less immediate import to younger readers. Ender’s Shadow is telling the same story (as EG) but differently.” ES is about Bean who is at the Battle School at the same time as Ender.

DATA:
Unabridged audiobook length: 11 hours 5 minutes. Narrators: Stefan Rudnicki, Harlan Ellison, and others. Swearing language: none. Sexual content: none. Setting: future time on earth, space, and another planet. Copyright: 1985. Genre: young adult science fiction.