Ender's Game
by Orson Scott Card
Plot Summary:
We begin reading about Ender Wiggins, a six year old genius who lives in the future where space travel and occupation has been achieved. He is taken to a space combat academy in a space station where he and peers are trained for combat against aliens called 'buggers'. All throughout the story, his commanding officers (the adults) are setting Ender up to be the most successful and ingenious commander in history next to a legend by the name of Mazer Rackham. Ender struggles to gain respect from his peers but is able to make a few friends by showing how capable he is at strategizing. As years go by he is able to climb in rank, causing some discord with some of his fellow students. Ender is tested on his strategizing methods by the way he is able to effectively solve problems solving games and perform battle tactics in Zero-Gravity wargame rooms. Ender learns what he seems to be good for and he finds that he is being used by the commanding officers to help defeat the 'buggers'.
Personal Review:
In the beginning, the story kind of reminded me of the story by Lois Lowry, The Giver in how the community on earth begins somewhat as a controlled society. However, I could not find anything quite special about the book. It was well written and that Card showed a lot of intellect when he wrote it, but I found the story to be anti-climatic. I know that there are more to the series, but I have heard that the other books are not as good. Would I read Ender's Game again? Probably not.
Warnings: Some very crude humor (LDS author, really?) and some gory details.
Other books by the author:
The Ender Saga
The Shadow Saga (in correlation with the Ender novels)
The Tales of Alvin Maker Saga
The "Women of Genesis" series
The Worthing Series
A Planet Called Treason
Hart's Hope
Lost Boys
Treasure Box
Enchantment
