Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
Summary
“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 the world survives, that is.”
-From Amazon.com
Review
This book was, just wow. Nothing like I thought it was going to be. I had had this book sitting on my shelf for quite some time now but when I got it, the reading level was way beyond me and I didn’t understand the book. It starts as if it is part of a series and that is what threw me off to start with. But now that I found out that there was a movie being made of it, I decided to do a little looking around and found out that it indeed was the first one of the series (only just found out that there is more than 1 book in the series.) So I started reading it.
This book is definitely off the wall. The writing style is very strange and sometimes quite confusing but you just have to push through it because eventually it all starts to make sense. This is not a book that you can just sit down and read. You really have to give yourself a little time to actually sit and think about it. Some books you can just pick up and read about 3 pages of and then come back some time later and continue reading. This you cannot. You have to really read a good bunch of pages or finish a chapter before you can put it down because otherwise when you come back it will not make any sense at all. But I have to say that it was extremely well written. It kept you thinking, wondering what would happen, and it kept surprising you with different things that happened. The characters were developed quite well as you got to understand Ender and how he acted and how he felt in different situations. You really got close to him and felt bad for him during many situations.
Honestly, there is not a whole lot you can say about this book without giving anything away as there were many details that can ruin the book for you.
I am also going to tell you that nothing it what it seems and that the end is going to be shocking and leave you sitting there with your mouth open (metaphorically – except in my case where it actually was).
But I am going to tell you this…please read this book before you see the movie because I have a feeling that the movie is going to be different. I am also going to say that you have to get into the book before it starts the flow. The beginning feels a little rough, but it will all start to make sense later on. Just dive in and get going.
Good luck, enjoy the book, and let me know what you think.
Update: There is a movie for this book out and I saw it and thought it was fabulous. It wasn’t exactly like the book…but I still defiantly recommend that you watch it. But read the book first, because after the movie, reading the book will be really difficult.
