Review - Ender's Game

on Wikipedia
written by Orson Scott Card
published in 1985
winner of the Hugo & Nebula Awards

***

SHELF-WORTHY

Read this book. I recently decided I'm only giving books as gifts from now on. If you haven't read this yet, and you're in line to get a gift from me, go ahead and expect this. Did you like Harry Potter? You'll like this. Do you like Star Wars? You'll like this. To Kill A Mockingbird? Read Game. Basically, I have yet to find anyone who has read this book and didn't enjoy it. If you try this book out and hate it, there's probably no reason for you to come back to this blog. I don't care if you don't like SciFi. I don't care if you think aliens are silly. Do me a favor and read this book.

***

Ender's Game is set in a near-future version of our world. At some point after our time, Earth was attacked by an alien race. The attack was barely repelled, and since then humanity has joined together to carve out a place in a less-lonely world. One big part of the paradigm shift is the creation of Battle School. The International Fleet (IF) was created to protect Earth from outside forces, and the IF built a space station in Earth's orbit to train its future leaders.

All human children are now tested at an early age, and the best and brightest are sent to Battle School when they turn five or six. The curriculum consists of advanced academics as well as typical military training, modified for space. The novel's protagonist, Andrew Wiggin, is known as Ender. He has been selected for Battle School, and the story revolves around his experiences leaving home and entering the military.

I won't go any farther than that into the plot. If you want to spoil yourself, hit the Wiki link. Game is great because it doesn't assume that kids are stupid. It looks at harsh circumstances, and growing up faster than you might have planned. It also has eight sequels if you fall in love with the world or the characters. The reading sequence is a little tricky, but I'll get to that in a future post.

If you've read Game, or you read it because of this post, please post comments below. If I actually get some comments I think I'll figure out the book's "birthday", and then just post a link back to this entry every year. Sometimes people trust a crowd more than an individual.