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Ender's Game
  
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Ender's Game [Audio Cassette]

Orson Scott Card (Author, Narrator), Stephen Rudnicki (Narrator)
4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1,696 customer reviews)

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Formats

 Amazon Price New from Used from
Library Binding CDN $15.90   -- --
Paperback CDN $6.99   -- --
Mass Market Paperback CDN $8.99   -- --
Audio, CD, Audiobook, CD, Unabridged CDN $27.55   -- --
Audio, Cassette, December 2004 --   -- --

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Product Description

From Amazon.com

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. Back on Earth, Peter and Valentine forge an intellectual alliance and attempt to change the course of history.

This futuristic tale involves aliens, political discourse on the Internet, sophisticated computer games, and an orbiting battle station. Yet the reason it rings true for so many is that it is first and foremost a tale of humanity; a tale of a boy struggling to grow up into someone he can respect while living in an environment stripped of choices. Ender's Game is a must-read book for science fiction lovers, and a key conversion read for their friends who "don't read science fiction."

Ender's Game won both the Hugo and the Nebula the year it came out. Writer Orson Scott Card followed up this honor with the first-time feat of winning both awards again the next year for the sequel, Speaker for the Dead. --Bonnie Bouman --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

From Publishers Weekly

For the 20th anniversary of Card's Hugo and Nebula Award–winning novel, Audio Renaissance brings to life the story of child genius Ender Wiggin, who must save the world from malevolent alien "buggers." In his afterword, Card declares, "The ideal presentation of any book of mine is to have excellent actors perform it in audio-only format," and he gets his wish. Much of the story is internal dialogue, and each narrator reads the sections told from the point of view of a particular character, rather than taking on a part as if it were a play. Card's phenomenal emotional depth comes through in the quiet, carefully paced speech of each performer. No narrator tries overmuch to create separate character voices, though each is clearly discernible, and the understated delivery will draw in listeners. In particular, Rudnicki, with his lulling, sonorous voice, does a fine job articulating Ender's inner struggle between the kind, peaceful boy he wants to be and the savage, violent actions he is frequently forced to take. This is a wonderful way to experience Card's best-known and most celebrated work, both for longtime fans and for newcomers.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.
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Customer Reviews

1,696 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.7 out of 5 stars (1,696 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Rightfully considered a masterpiece, Feb 19 2006
By 
William E. Hunter "Ummagumma" (Toronto, Ontario, Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Ender's Game (Paperback)
For years I've wanted to read this book; it is considered one of the classic works of SF. Recently I did, and surprisingly enough, I wasn't disappointed.

It tells the story of Andrew Wiggin, the Third child of a family living in a future, overpopulated world where families are restricted to only two offspring; except where traits of extraordinary intelligence in the youngsters leads the government to believe that a budding military genius might be in the offing, one who can lead the armies of the Earth in a hopeless battle against a ruthless Alien species. Andrew, nicknamed Ender by his loving sister Valentine and despised by his sadistic brother Peter, shows so much promise that he is whisked away at the tender age of six to an orbiting Battle School by military men unsure whether he will even survive the training, let alone actual battle.

While author OSC maintains a sparse descriptive style with the surroundings, he concentrates on filling out Ender into a living, breathing person of many facets who we feel deeply for as he is thrown into a grinding military program out to wring the last bit of humanity from him.

I loved how easily this book read, while at the same time presenting some serious ethical issues and allowing us to truly enter the mind of a child progeny and experience his arduous journey along side him. I'm not the only one as well; my wife, curious as to what was keeping my nose in the book for long stretches at a time, perused the first few pages and then delved headlong into the book right behind me. I ended up fighting for reading time just so I could finish before her!

Ender's Game is a terrific read; being touching, rollicking, and insightful all at the same time.
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4.0 out of 5 stars Great Read, Sep 16 2002
By 
Robert E Kyte "Gimme' Stuff" (2476 Warm Spring Way, Odenton, Maryland United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Enders Game (Paperback)
I flew threw this book. I just happened to come accross this book and I am glad I did. Unlike most books this stayts with you and has you thinking about it well after you have put it down. There could of been better character development in some instances, but the main characters for the most part were well developed. The story is grand in scope, but stayed very personall which I liked. And the Science Fiction stayed light on the science so even those who are not big sci-fi fans can enjoy this book.
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3.0 out of 5 stars It's okay, but how did it win the Hugo and Nebula Awards?, Sep 10 2002
This review is from: Ender's Game: Author's Definitive Edition (Mass Market Paperback)
It's probably impossible for me to know what I'd have thought of this book when it first came out, since I knew the "punchline" to the story going in. On the other hand, a truly great novel would have a lot going for it beyond the climactic revelation, and Ender's Game, well, doesn't.

The crippling flaw to the story is that the characters (other than Ender himself) are absolutely flat as boards. None of them have any nuance or subtlety or distinction to them. Moreover, large chunks of the book (especially those relating to Ender's siblings and their machinations while he's away at school) are entirely redundant to the story as a whole. They could have been cut out completely and made the novel leaner and more focused.

So what's good about the story? Essentially, it's a series of high-pressure puzzles presented to Ender as he flies through the ranks of the military (at ages 6-to-11!), and seeing how Ender reasons out how to deal with them (whether they're regularly scheduled combat exercises, or encounters with his antagonistic fellow students) is exciting and fun. The moral dilemmas which Ender must confront - being violent when he doesn't want to be, being a leader when he's not inclined to be - are real, though they suffer greatly from lack of depth or characterization in the world around him.

Ender himself is the only character we really get to know. I never believed that he was a child - he almost never behaves like one - but that's not so bad, since it's his odyssey - not he himself - which is the focus of the book. But the potential of his character is largely unrealized, since he's generally forced into making particular choices, and we don't get to measure what sort of a person he is through his deeds, since those choices are taken away from him.

In many ways, Ender's Game reads like it was written in the 1950s, an era of flat characters and straightforward plots, which is what this novel contains. It feels primitive next to its contemporaries from the mid-80s (never mind nuanced fiction from the 70s like that from Varley or Zelazny), especially in its no-frills writing style. At this point, I don't see what all the fuss was about; it's a light read, but not a very satisfying one.

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