Customer Reviews

Ender's Game

5 star:		(1,400)
4 star:		(165)
3 star:		(70)
2 star:		(25)
1 star:		(38)

 

 

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.

Overall, I enjoyed this book very very much.

At first I wasn't sure it was all it was cracked up to be. It has a very interesting and strange concept, which can take a while to adjust to. It is most definitely worth reading, the main character is captivating and strangely easy to relate to. If you don't love this book by the first half, you will most likely fall in love by the end.

This book is great as a standalone, or good as a series as well. I picked up all four at once and I don't regret it.

Fantastic book, I would encourage anyone to read it.

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.

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.

This book had an interesting plot, vivid characters, and imaginative settings. However, for what I was looking for, I felt that it just had too much societal criticism in there. If you enjoyed 1984 and Farenheit 451, you will most likely enjoy this. They difference between this novel and those is that it feels as if Card is straining to make his point heard, and consequently comes of as excessive and almost sappy. Nonetheless, it is worth sifting through the garbage to read, because it does have some literary value.

I'm not a huge fan of s-f, but I have a very wide range of favorite authors/books. My favourite authors range from Tom Clancy to Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn; Chuck Palahniuk to Michael Chrichton. This book is, bar none, my favourite book ever. I first read this book 13 years ago when I was 12 and I reread it at least once a year. It is a brilliant look into the inner workings of extremely gifted children that becomes a heartwrenching portrait of a boy whose intense compassion for his enemies is both his greatest advantage and his most self-desructive personality trait. When I first read this book, it was so engrossing that it kept me, a 12 year old boy, inside for 3 days during the summer at my cottage on Lake Huron. The book was in my hand non-stop until I turned the last page. If you haven't read this book, shame on you and fork over ten bucks for the best damn read you'll have this year!

This was another book club selection. It was a quick, easy read - but left no real impact. A pure pleasure read - if you're into science fiction, that is. I thought the end was overly contrived...too cute. It was almost as is Card was getting as tired of the battle room as I was. Then, as if to suddenly try to redeem the book as more than just a video game fantasy, he rapidly ages his characters and gives them conscience struggles.

All in all, I wouldn't recommend this book. It's harmless, and there are worse books to read - but there are so many better ones out there, why waste the time? I'm just glad that I didn't shell out any money for my copy!

I read Enders Game 10 years ago and loved it! Our whole family are Orson Scott Card fans and read most of his books. He's a facinating and brilliant writer.

Just to clarify...Enders Game has four books in it's series:

Ender's Game, Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, and Children of the Mind.

Ender's Shadow, Shadow of the Hedgemon, Shadow Puppets and Shadow of the Giant, are a "Mirror" series following the same events in the first four books but from the point of view of the other characters in Ender's Game. They are totally new stories with new characters and insight. Get them all!

Like fantasy, science fiction has been plagued by dull space operas, endless descriptions of funny-looking aliens and Earthlike planets. "Ender's Game," though not the most scintillating read out there, is nevertheless a thought-provoking and intriguing read.

In the future, Earth has been attacked by the alien "buggers," which were barely repelled by a very lucky military commander. Now, as they threaten Earth again, sights are set on one boy to be humanity's new champion: Andrew "Ender" Wiggin, the youngest child of a family of geniuses. His brother Peter was rejected for being too ruthless and vicious, while his sister Valentine was rejected for being too gentle and pacifistic. Ender, the third child in a society where families with more than two children are penalized, is their hope.

Meanwhile, Ender brought to the Battle School, where careful training and interactions bring out the best and worst in him. He makes friends and enemies easily, beats seemingly unbeatable games, and his military prowess comes out into the open. On Earth, his brother and sister try to alter the increasingly unstable politics of Earth by subtle manipulation of the public, a situation that may bring the ruthless Peter into greater power. And as Ender reaches the end of his training, he faces both the buggers and the knowledge of what he is capable of.

While this was an intriguing and thought-provoking read, I felt that it could have been tightened up slightly, and it didn't grab me quite the way other original SF works such as "Fool's Run" have. Children can probably read this book, young adults certainly can; there is profanity, mild violence, and some verbal and visual crudity, but nothing too corrupting. The most objectionable element that I found was the part about Peter skinning live squirrels; that was truly disgusting and disturbing. If children do read this, parents may want to discuss elements such as the "third child" policy and the portrayal of war for self-preservation at the cost of the soul.

Ender is an intriguing contradiction, a young boy who loses his naivete over the course of the novel; ruthless but determined to not be a killer; a brilliant fighter and commander who is often being yanked by puppet strings; both a child and a man before hitting puberty. Card never overdoes the genius-child persona, which would have been easy to do. Valentine is a little too nice for my taste; Peter at first simply seems to be psychotic, but is gradually revealed to be a ruthless genius who works anything and anyone for his goals, which may or may not be self-serving. Bonzo, Bean, Alai and the others add extra spice to it, as enemies or supporters.

Dialogue is highly realistic, as is the atmosphere of Ender's vision near the end. Surroundings, such as the lakeside, are excellent in their atmosphere and feeling, as is the stark way that Card displays the growing influence of "Demosthenes" and "Locke. Truly exceptional writing comes out in the ruthless military-government's way of viewing Ender; with nothing but dialogue, Card shows how they view him and the things that are happening to him. One area in which Card fails is action, as I could visualize what he was writing, but it wasn't very well described.

On the subject of quality, I would like to advise that new readers buy the children's edition published by Starscape Books. I much preferred the "camera's eye" view of Ender and the other boys in the Battle School simulations to a rather boring generic SF cover, like the one on the adult edition. They say never to judge a book by its cover, but that is what kept me from reading "Ender's Game" for several years.

"Ender's Game" is a pretty good sci-fi adventure, with some intriguing ethical and social questions, and a good storyline that reminds us that an astounding genius is, after all, only a human being.

... you ignore what Card says makes a good leader. Ignorance, mindless aggression, never learning to deal with any challenges, being genetically superior to everyone else and being immune from any responsibility for your actions.

Hmmm, a messianic, child Hitler figure is the hero and this is ignored by all those 5-star reviews?

I'll ignore the reviewer's debate on what a 6 year old Napolean's behavior would be because who can really know. I'll ignore the predictable ending plot twist and the lack of any real conflict or character development because perhaps this was meant for grade school readers who like simple, easy to read books.

What I can't ignore is that the basic point of the book, reflected in the actions and thoughts of all the major characters, that power and brutality are noble and honorable if you are born to them.

As a summary, the plot says that it must be cool to be an amoral, semi-divine being. Somehow I don't agree.