Ender's Game
by Orson Scott Card

STARSCAPE Books, 1977, 324 pp., $5.99
ISBN-13: 978-0-7653-4229-4

In Ender’s Game, Orson Scott Card weaves a story that will draw you in, and won’t let go of you until the end! Ender Wiggin, smart, ruthless, and even a genius, may be the only hope for mankind. When Colonel Graff, a man who works for the military comes and asks him to attend battle school at the age of six, Ender knows that he must go. So he takes a shuttle, heads out into outer space, and starts his journey to become a commander with the goal of later leading an attack against the alien race known as the buggers. In the battle school, Ender goes through many hardships, but eventually becomes the most respected, and hated, of all the students. Students and teachers alike think that their only hope against the buggers is Ender Wiggin.

Ender is a mix of his older siblings, Peter and Valentine. Valentine is the compassionate one, and without her Ender probably wouldn’t have gotten through battle school or even survived through his childhood. And then there’s Peter, the evil one. He kills animals and even threatens to kill his own sister and brother; he, too, is a genius. Like Peter, Ender learned algebra when he was 4, and put a kid in the hospital for trying to beat him up. In battle school he comes up with new military tactics and becomes a strong leader who is kind to his team. But being isolated by the teachers has made Ender lonely, and over the years, this affects him in different ways. He starts having horrible dreams, becomes a nervous wreck, and starts doubting the battle school, its teachers, and himself.

There are many themes in Ender’s Game. One of them is fate. Ender was smart and ruthless before the battle school, so he was destined to go there and becomes a great commander! A theme of self-reliance also runs through the story. Ender is isolated from students and even from his family, which makes him learn that he can trust no one but himself. In addition, the teachers constantly give Ender challenges, from making him outnumbered in a battle, to giving him a useless army. The teachers always seem to have it in for Ender Wiggin! And then there’s violence and death, which isn’t the main theme, but comes up frequently in the story.

In the end, Ender must decide whether to kill an entire alien race to save his own. But deep down he knows that the guilt of doing so would haunt him, and wonders how far he should go to save humanity. He knows that he must become a stronger person to be able to overcome the obstacles that are in his way, and that he must have enough compassion to understand his enemy, but not so much compassion that he can’t destroy them.

The narrator switches from Ender’s perspective, to what the teachers are thinking, to what’s happening on earth while Ender is in the battle school. So while Ender is thinking that the teachers will protect him, the readers know the teachers decide not to help, knowing that Ender is so smart and so capable that he must be able to handle all situations on his own. They do this so that Ender learns to rely only on himself.  It goes back to Ender’s perspective, who then hates the teachers for letting the situation get so out of hand because they didn’t help. And meanwhile on earth, Peter is devising a way to actually take over the world, with Valentine’s help!

I absolutely loved Ender’s Game. From the way it was thought up, to the fascinating characters, and to the shocking twists. I couldn’t put down the book until I read the ending, which had me in awe. If you’re a person who likes a book with violence, strategy, and even aliens, you’ll love Ender’s Game and will remember it for the rest of your life!

~ reviewed by Aaron C.