science fictions

An alien race has just attacked earth twice, and nearly destroyed the earth. Now to prevent the 'Buggers" from destroying us the government has taken the smartest children into space to train them to be commanders of the International Fleet (IF). A child named Andrew "Ender" Wiggen is the brightest kid in the battle school and also the youngest soldier in his army. When Ender makes it to command school he is to be trained to be a commander by completing all of the games he plays. But Ender is smart enough to know something is wrong. Read this book to find out what is wrong and what happens to Ender.

This is a fast paced, exhilarating novel. It was an enjoyable, thrilling, edge of your seat read. I like Orson Scott Card's books a lot and I hope to read the rest of the series. Some other books in the series are: Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, Children of the Mind, Ender's Shadow and Shadow of the Hegemon.

Orson Scott Card, Ender's Game (Tor, 1985)

Orson Scott Card says in his preface to Ender's Game that one of the main criticisms with the book people have is that gifted kids just don't act and talk like Ender and his battle school mates. To which Card usually responds with something like "they're just smart enough not to talk that way around adults."

Been there, done that. He's right.

The main criticism of the book dispensed with, Ender's Game focuses on young Andrew "Ender" Wiggin, a genetically-engineered genius recruited by the army at the age of six as a potential battle commander in a war against another race of beings from far off in the galaxy. But, as with most good science fiction, the actual science fiction parts of the book are tangential to the main thrust of the book at best; take out the stuff we can't do in modern-day society and put Ender and pals in a present-day prep school, and the human drama at the book's core remains credible. This is a necessity in any novel written in any genre, and Card carries it off with grace and dexterity.

The book's only real failing is that some of the minor characters (a number of Ender's schoolmates with small, but key, roles throughout his life) could have been better developed. But what is there is good; unlike most underdeveloped characters, Card's aren't there solely to advance a specific political or philosophical point of view; think of this particular set of underdeveloped characters as paler than usual rather than cardboard cutouts. They also don't get introduced with the words "kill me" already branded into their foreheads a la Stephen King or Joe Lansdale. It just would've been nice to see more of them, though that probably would have required a change in narrative perspective.

Other than that, everything works here. The book is eminently readable, the characters are believable, the plot flows along. I didn't find myself with the same obsessive devotion to it as many of the book's fans have, but it certainly put me in the mood to continue on with the series, and that can never be a bad thing. Highly recommended. ****

I have just a read Ender's Game. I'm reading it in a summer school class and we are dicussing many ideas and we came up with the conclusion this book is AWESOME. I also am half way through Ender's Shadow and that one is great so far. Honestly i think I like Ender's Shadow a bit more then Ender's Game, but only slightly. Orson Scott Card is an excellent author. Ender's Game makes you feel like you're up in battle school with them. If you like Ender's Game I defiantly recommend Ender's Shadow. I think it's a good idea to pick which one you like better and go along with that series and then finish the other one. Hope you enjoy this wonderful series.