The book Ender’s Game was published in 1985, under the author Orson Scott Card. Ender’s Game was Card’s most well known book and won the Hugo and Nebula Awards in 1986. The book is a futuristic science fiction, where humans and aliens are war bound. I really love this book. It’s interesting how an author can describe such a futuristic setting. The protagonist is Ender Wiggens, he was the third child of his family of genius kids. When he was six the future military chose him to train for the war against the buggers (the aliens). He later becomes the second hero of Earth’s space wars, making him a very good person. Ender is very relatable, you see him grow up and live his military childhood. He changes from a child into a military adult. The antagonist is the opposing alien race disrespectfully named, buggers. The buggers are very sympathetic, they are another race, they think, they breathe and live just like human beings. Card really showed his likeness towards Ender, he made it seem like an innocent little child is up against the whole cruel alien army. Valentine is Ender’s older sister, she was the only person on Earth who loved Ender.Peter is Ender’s older brother, he hates Ender, he represents all that is evil. Peter hates that Ender got chosen by the military and he wasn’t.
Both characters roles have nothing to do with the main plot. They play in the side story. The stay on Earth and write on debate blogs so that they can gain a foothold in the political world. Valentine is my favorite because no matter what she will always believe in Ender. Ender is the youngest in his family. In the future the government controls how many kids you can have and set the limit on two. Ender is child number three, “Thirds” are hated by all. He’s a special case though, the military let let the Wiggens have another in hope that he will be able to save the world one day. The government tracked his behaviors for six years. Until they chose to train him. He was then sent off into space where he gets trained on a space base. After years of training and going through the ranks, his teachers send him off to another base to advance his skills. He is told to play a strategy game, he plays the game and eventually wins it. The twist is that the game is actually real life and everyone who he had killed was actually the buggers. The confusing thing is at the end of the story, the buggers queen makes a psychic connection with Ender. She tells him to search for a planet that is habitual for the buggers. She then tells him where to find the last bugger egg. He takes the egg and makes it his life’s goal to find the buggers a new home.
Ender’s Game describes the lives of children and how they behave. He makes the adults seem just as bad as the buggers. “The adults are the enemies, not the other armies. They do not tell us the truth.” (Card 66). Ender, himself, is a symbol. He represents all the good in life and how he’s the only chance Earth has to survive against the buggers again. He doesn’t hate his enemies, he just knows how to defeat them and he knows he’s needed to do good for Earth. “And always Ender carried with him a dry white cocoon, looking for a place where the hive queen could awaken and thrive in peace.” (Card 324). Orson Scott Card’s writing style was very simple and descriptive. He described an unimaginable setting and made it real. He shows Ender as a grown-up stuck in a childs body, making him seem more intelligent than most pre-teens. “You want to make me the best soldier possible. Go down look at the standings, look at the all-time standings. So far you’re doing an excellent job with me. Congratulations. Now when are you going to put me up against a good army?” (Card 173). Ender shows his teachers that he knows what their intentions are and wants them to speed up the process.
The theme is shown by Ender and his wicked brother Peter. Peter is ultimately evil, he picks on Ender and forces him to participate in “play” fights. Peter always ends up winning and beating Ender to near death. Ender is the good in these fights. He doesn’t show any need to counter Peters attacks, he just takes them. The theme is the line between good and evil. Later, once Ender leaves earth to train, the evil shifts from Peter to the buggers and the adults. Even after Ender destroys the evil, he still tries to find them a new home. That just shows how good of a person Ender really is. “Welcome to the human race. Nobody controls his own life, Ender. The best you can do is choose to fill the roles given to you by good people, by people who love you.” ( Card 104). One of the teachers explains the importance of following orders. ” Listen Ender, commanders have just as much authority as you let them have. The more you obey them, they more power they have over you.” (Card 97). Enders friend Dink, shows him how much authority authority actually has over the soldiers. “But orders were orders, and Ender had promised to obey them.” (Card 262).
Ender realizes himself the importance of orders and that he needs to finish what he started. My first impression of the book was it was going to be just a normal science fiction book about an alien-human war. My impression was definitely changed, the book is more than that. Ender’s Game shows on many different levels how good all that good and evil isn’t all that evil. I do feel that I’ve proven that this is a very interesting book to read. In many ways, yes this book was similar to the last book I read, because of all the space adventuring. The flow of the book was done incredibly well. The books strength was its description and how easy it was to picture everything. The weak parts was how the book had so many different stories to tell. I would definitely recommend this book to everyone, because it takes you on an adventure. The one thing I would have changed from the book would be cutting out the side story. I give Ender’s Game a 5.
