Ender’s Game by O.S. Card

So I’ve had pretty mediocre luck with the past few books I’ve read – it’s been quite a while since I’d found one that I couldn’t put down. With all my hobbies (guitar, writing, software development, art, etc), it’s hard to find time to make it through a book. The best way to combat this is to read on my pda/blackberry/etc (whatever I have at the time). I finally found a usable book reader for my blackberry and began my quest for books that I may find worth reading.The first book I read was A Brief History of Time, and while it was good, it was more informative than entertaining.

Once I finished A Brief History of Time I browsed the selection again, and Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card caught my eye. I’d heard of the book before from Slashdot, but never got around to reading it. I’m glad I finally made the time.

Ender’s Game takes place in the future, after mankind’s first encounter with an alien life form. The chance meeting didn’t go so well, and resulted in two prior wars between humanity and “the buggers.” The buggers are seen as a threat that must be eliminated, and while humanity sends a fleet to defeat the buggers, earth’s best and brightest children are tested to see if they have the ability to lead the fleet to victory from afar.

The story follows Andrew Wiggin (who goes by his nickname, Ender). All three Wiggins children are incredibly bright, but Ender’s brother Peter is a horrible monster of a human, and his sister is simply too empathic to be a good soldier. Ender succeeds where his older brother and sister had not- he meets the profile for Battle School, and at the age of six, is flown up into space to begin his training.

His potential is immediately realized, and he’s singled out and manipulated to become the strongest leader he possibly can. Along the way he makes enemies; usually in the form of older students who feel threatened or jealous of him. Ender also makes several friends who provide him with his only remaining connection to humanity.

His training takes place in two parts: a “laser tag”-like battle simulation pitting one team against another, and a series of holographic video games that monitor and evaluate his capabilities. He quickly becomes the prize pupil of the school, much to the anger of many of his older classmates.

Years pass, and as he continues forward, he amasses a team of reliable friends who begin seeing him as less of a friend, and more of a commander. He mourns this loss, but has little time to ponder the implications as the school cranks up the difficulty of his training, eventually ruining the standards set by the school. It soon becomes clear that the school officials have placed humanities hopes on a 13 year old child. Once they realize he has peaked, his team is split, and he is told he will begin training at the next level: Command school. He is quickly flown away from battle school and on towards the next stage of training.

At command school, he is trained using a simulation to command a space battle at various levels. As becomes adept at each level, he is reunited with his comrades from Battle school, who will serve as his squad leaders in the simulations. Once they become a well oiled machine, he is introduced to humanity’s previous war hero, Mazer Rackham, who begins the final leg of his training, preparing him for the final battle with the buggers.

The book has a few rough edges- for example, the communications between the school administrators are interspersed with the rest of the story, and it’s hard to get a feel for what their place is as the story progresses. That said, it’s the *only* nitpick I have against the book.

The worst part about this book was when it ended, I bemoaned the fact that it was a single book and not part of a series. Fortunately my loving wife pointed out that it is in fact a series of several books, and that I’m just an idiot. Ender’s Game was so good that before I even began writing this review, I had already already finished the second book in the series, Speaker For the Dead.

I highly suggest this book.

Also reviewed by:
Things Mean Alot