In order to develop a secure defense against a hostile alien race's next attack, government agencies breed child geniuses and train them as soldiers. A brilliant young boy, Andrew "Ender" Wiggin lives with his kind but distant parents, his sadistic brother Peter, and the person he loves more than anyone else, his sister Valentine. Peter and Valentine were candidates for the soldier-training program but didn't make the cut—young Ender is the Wiggin drafted to the orbiting Battle School for rigorous military training.
Ender's skills make him a leader in school and respected in the Battle Room, where children play at mock battles in zero gravity. Yet growing up in an artificial community of young soldiers Ender suffers greatly from isolation, rivalry from his peers, pressure from the adult teachers, and an unsettling fear of the alien invaders. His psychological battles include loneliness, fear that he is becoming like the cruel brother he remembers, and fanning the flames of devotion to his beloved sister.
Is Ender the general Earth needs? But Ender is not the only result of the genetic experiments. The war with the Buggers has been raging for a hundred years, and the quest for the perfect general has been underway for almost as long. Ender's two older siblings are every bit as unusual as he is, but in very different ways. Between the three of them lie the abilities to remake a world. If, that is, the world survives.
Read this book. No, don't go see the movie, don't read a summary, don't read movie reviews, just go read the book. Okay, you can read my review first, but then go read the book. You can thank me later.
Alright, in all seriousness, this is an amazing book. This will probably be one of my more sparse reviews because I don't want to spoil things. It really deserves as open a mind as you can give it. Then again, I've read it three times now and each time I've gotten something different out of it. The first time was for a high school class, and I remember becoming inextricably engrossed in Ender's journey and the battle school and eagerly jumping into the next books of the series. The second time was in college, around when I was studying a bit of philosophy, wherein I paid much more attention to Valentine and Peter's story. Finally, upon reading multiple reviews (and summaries) of the movie, I decided to revisit Ender's Game for a bit of comparison, analysis, and nostalgia. And it is every bit as great as I remembered.
Before I go too far, here, I feel somewhat obligated to touch on the elephant in the room that is the author. Orson Scott Card has been in the spotlight lately due to his extremely vocal and financial support of anti-gay causes. I personally abhor his words on this topic and had I not already purchased his books before learning of his practices I would probably never read them. But I did read them, and I love them. That being said, I fully support those who refuse to support him or his works. If you still want to read these, perhaps read them from the library, or from a friend, and if you feel so inclined to purchase one, do so from a used retailer.
