Ender’s Game (Ender's Saga, #1) in The Alternative Worlds

Jul 30, 2007 Wealhtheow rated it liked it

Shelves: sci-fi

I read this book in 7th grade. I remember it so exactly because still, to this day, I distinctly remember sprinting up the stairs to get to the bookshelf to read the next chapter. It is an absolutely engrossing tale of a small boy involved in a big war, filled with heartache and camaraderie and betrayal and cleverness.

The problem is that Orson Scott Card hates queer people and liberals so much that he's written a number of novels entirely about how awful they are. He posts screeds about how gay ...more

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Dec 13, 2010 Danielle The Book Huntress rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: middle-grade-juvenile, tortured-hero, space-another-planet, owned-copy, nerd-prof-scientist-genius-geek, science-fiction, yearly-reading-challenge, dangerous-hero-2012-general-reading, scientific-ethical-considerations, futuristic

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Do the ends justify the means?

What if the only way to save your planet from certain annihilation is to ruthlessly manipulate a young child into becoming a solder who is skilled enough to destroy billions of your enemy, to make him into a killer?

With Ender's Game, the reader gets to ponder this question. I had many thoughts as I read this story. I didn't always understand what was going on. Like Ender, I questioned where the game ended and reality began. Children in the environment of this book d Do the ends justify the means?

What if the only way to save your planet from certain annihilation is to ruthlessly manipulate a young child into becoming a solder who is skilled enough to destroy billions of your enemy, to make him into a killer?

With Ender's Game, the reader gets to ponder this question. I had many thoughts as I read this story. I didn't always understand what was going on. Like Ender, I questioned where the game ended and reality began. Children in the environment of this book don't get to be kids for long at all, especially when they are genius children. Instead, they become soldiers, training day in and day out to be the best, to win, to conquer their enemies. All for the purpose of defeating the alien race that Earth views as a deadly enemy (called Buggers) in the coming war. I questioned how a six-year-old kid could even grasp this. Even a genius child. As I read, I questioned the ruthlessness of adults who would put a child through these experiences. It takes a certain personality, a particular mindset to able to justify one's actions. It's hard not to judge, but then, I'm not in the same situation. And I was grateful for that.

I just wanted Ender to have some peace and be able to just be a child. I cheered for him to find his way past the many mazes he was manipulated through. I didn't ever lose faith in him, because he had proven himself worthy of my faith. Even though I wondered what was the whole point of everything, I didn't stop believing in Ender. I was glad that Ender managed to find that light that kept him moving forward. Sometimes it was in the form of his beloved sister, Valentine, and other times, it was his fellow students, and sometimes it was the determination not to let them see him sweat. Whatever it was, this kid didn't break. I liked that about the book.

Some things didn't sit well with me as I read. I couldn't always visualize the game setup at Battle School as clearly as I would have liked. Instead of letting this throw me out of the read, I just managed to fill in the blanks around my lack of understanding and keep reading. Maybe Card meant it that way, but it was interesting how warfare became an experience that felt more like playing a video game than a face to face meeting of enemies. I wondered where that was going, but I soon found out, and I was like, "Are you serious?" I don't care much for mind games and boy was there some serious mind-screwing going on in this book. Perhaps his point was that as technology advances, warfare becomes more and more dehumanized, and it takes away the immediacy of the moral questions of taking a life, and using soldiers like pawns on a board to do so. As above expressed, the ruthless treatment of children and its effects hit me hard. They did not make for easy reading for me. On one level, I understand that a lot of psychology goes into training soldiers, and I know that some of it is necessary. I just wonder where the line gets drawn. The aspects of Peter and Valentine's political experiment left me a bit cold. I wasn't sure what Card was trying to get across here. Is the political arena just a big elaborate game in and of itself, a game that has the potential to have very disastrous and wide-reaching effects? Or was he trying to say that age is just a number? Kids aren't really kids, depending on the society and the situation that the child inhabits. Still not sure about either of those conclusions I drew. As close as I can get, anyway. Lastly, the ending got a bit strange. While I appreciated the aspects about Ender gaining an appreciation for the mind (the human-like aspects) of the Bugger civilizations, things got a bit weird and abstract when Ender's empathy with the Buggers became a philosophy that turned into a religion. It felt disconnected from the story to me, and added to a certain lack of satisfaction I felt overall. I appreciate the fact that he examined how war, differing philosophies, external differences, what have you, can separate entities in a way that if we strip down all the differences, there is a lot more alike than we think.

Final Thoughts:

Ender's Game is a well-written work of science fiction that has a lot to say about subjects that can make for hairy discussion. Subjects that I tend to avoid discussing with a ten-foot pole. War is as old as mankind. Literature is a good sounding board to explore those questions of war and humanity. Overall, I think that this novel does a good job of staying in the story and not just acting as a soundboard for the author's opinion. I am sure that others may disagree. For myself, I didn't necessarily feel that it was a preachy work. If it was, I think both sides of the questions were adequately presented in such a manner as for me to feel that this was a book with a story that had some themes that could get a reader thinking. Not mere propaganda for espousing one person's beliefs.

I liked this book a lot, but I felt the ending took it down from a five star rating for me. Also, my sense of disconnection at not quite getting some of the gaming aspects. I'm sure that others better versed in gaming or military strategy, or better read in science fiction might have visualized and understood those elements better than this reader. For what it was, this was a good book, and I can say that I gained a lot from reading it. I still have some philosophical questions running through my head now, and I feel that I have yet to make up my mind about those things, as there are always two sides to every story. So for me, that's a good experience, getting a good story and something to think about in the end. ...more

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Apr 01, 2009 Nicky rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: speculative-fiction

I was warned Ender's Game would mess with my mind. Obviously, I didn't take these warnings to heart, since I got within the last thirty pages and started flailing with realisation. The end is a nice twist. If you go through the story complacently, if you identify with Ender and see things the way he does, it comes out of completely nowhere. But it also makes sense and works and is good, and I don't think I've read a better ending for a book in quite a while.

Ender, as a character, is pretty likea ...more

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Feb 28, 2010 Kara Babcock rated it it was amazing

Shelves: science-fiction, own, 2010-read, favourites, 2010-best10, hugo-winner, nebula-winner

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Books can be like old friends you haven't seen in a while. Your friendship has lapsed, and there's always the fear that when you do resume contact, things will be different and you'll have changed too much to remain friends. Sometimes that's true, and the two of you go your separate ways. I've mostly found, however, that it feels like no time has passed at all. As with friends, books like that feel comfortable the moment you begin turning pages. Reading them just feels right. Emotions begin to w ...more

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Jun 28, 2007 Wealhtheow rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: sci-fi

Yes, there are worrying political undertones in this book. But Ender Wiggin is a captivating, engaging and brilliant main character, and I loved reading about him, his adventures, and the moral questions he wrestled with throughout the book. His siblings are equally fascinating, and the framing device of the entire thing lends that extra edge of darkness to an already twisted book.

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Dec 05, 2009 Simon rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: sf

It's us versus them. The Earthlings versus the Buggers (yeah, it took me a while to get over that too!). They've tried twice to wipe us out. Against overwhelming odds we somehow survived and beat them back. Now we've got to take the fight to them. Strike at their home world before they get a chance to come back at us.

The Buggers are some kind of hive mind like species that communicate instantaneously telepathically, controlled by their queens but individually incapable of independent thought. We It's us versus them. The Earthlings versus the Buggers (yeah, it took me a while to get over that too!). They've tried twice to wipe us out. Against overwhelming odds we somehow survived and beat them back. Now we've got to take the fight to them. Strike at their home world before they get a chance to come back at us.

The Buggers are some kind of hive mind like species that communicate instantaneously telepathically, controlled by their queens but individually incapable of independent thought. We cannot understand them nor make ourselves understood by them. A fight to the death is the only option.

So, our mightiest fleet is converging on their world, an all or nothing attempt at victory. What's needed is someone to lead them. Someone so gifted at tactical thinking that they can win against a much larger force that constantly and instantly adapts to whatever strategy is used against them and reacts at lightning speeds. Ender is to be that person. Bred for the task, this book follows his childhood as he is to be put through the most gruelling training programme in order to prepare him for the task ahead. We follow the trials and tribulations of Ender as he is ruthlessly used, manipulated and honed into our ultimate weapon.

None of the above is a spoiler which might surprise you because you might have been expected a little more mystery at the start. Perhaps it would have been a better story had the reader been a little more in the dark about where the story was headed. What surprises there are later in the story are fairly obvious, you can spot them a mile off, but this is still an engrossing read. Ender has a mountain to climb, to reach beyond the limits of any normal person's endurance and achieve this all while he is still a child.

The style of writing is quite plan and functional. It is not a sophisticated literary piece by any stretch of the imagination. It's probably aimed at the younger reader but still has something to offer a reader of any age. I enjoyed it and am curious to see where the series goes next. ...more

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Apr 07, 2009 Caitie (caitiegirlreads) rated it it was amazing

When I started this, I wasn't really in the mood for a sci-fi novel about a kid (boy :p) But after a week of pick-ups I finally got into it, and I could not stop till I finished. This will be one of my all time favorite books, but the gem of the series was Speaker for the Dead ...more

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May 30, 2010 Taueret rated it really liked it

Shelves: ya, sci-fi, audiobook

If I didn't know this was a classic, I would probably only give this 3 stars. I think that's mainly because I found out Card is a Mormon. oh well. ...more

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