Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card [book]

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card [book]

New York : Tor, 1985, 1994, c1991
xxvi, 324 p. ; 18 cm

ISBN: 9780812550702 : 0812550706

Plot Summary:
Ender (Andrew) Wiggin is the youngest in his family and in a world where children are bred for the military and their mental prowess. Ender is inevitably chosen for Battle School because of fight that he gets in with a boy at school that is more powerful (he kills him, but it unaware that he had done so) and beats him with his stimulator removed. Battle School is situated in space around earth's orbit and is meant to train cadets in battle with simulations and mental ability games. Ender is recruited by Graff, and immediately Graff begins to seclude and isolate Ender from his peers by setting him apart. Ender is confused, he is young made to stand out amongst people he would like to get along with. Eventually Ender does make friends when he is put into battle formations and simulations with a squad, in which he starts to win the games and develop tactics that have never been seen before. Ender has many tribulations with other leaders of squads because of his ability and one of the fights ends in another death by Ender's hand.
Not wanting to allow Ender too much comfort, Ender is soon transferred to command school many years before he actually should have been. Throughout the story you learn that they are battling Formic aliens for earth in order to keep their world (or so they tell the cadets). When Ender is transferred he begins tutelage under a former battler of the aliens and is again isolated and put to more demanding game simulations. In the end Ender is put into one more game simulation as his final test, and in it he breaks the rules that the commanders have given him and wins the battle, effectively destroying the entire race of aliens. After the game Ender is told that it was no game and that everything that happened was real, and the battle was over and won by Ender. Back on earth Ender's siblings have started a political uprising through a myriad of essays on politics and although all Ender wants is to return to his family, they cannot allow him to do so because of his new found glory and power and what that would do to the political unrest of earth. Ender is sent to another planet in which he finds traces of the alien race that he killed, and attempts to gather what is left and send it to another place to repopulate because he thinks that that is what is right in the end.

Critical Evaluation:
This book is very well written and carries themes of being an outsider, genocide, and what the military can really mean for our population. Ender is such a good character to follow because he wants to do what is right but cannot figure out what the right choice is amongst people that are trying to control him. He is never fully aware of his power, but always attempts to do what is right. I thought it was such a good twist in the end of the novel that Ender attempts to save the aliens after he has destroyed them unknowingly. It showed that even though he did the wrong thing, he attempted to make it right. I also thought the dual story line between Peter and earth was a good touch to the story showing that even though Ender was going through such turmoil in space, there was a war going on on earth with political figure heads and children encouraging the hierarchy of war.

Reader's Annotation:
In the future Ender, a young boy, is chosen by the military to train for an upcoming war against invading aliens on the planet. He is put through rigorous training through video games and secluded with a group of almost equally gifted peers, but not everything is at it seems in the fight for the future.

Websites to look Into:
http://www.hatrack.com/

Awards:
Nebula Award, 1985: Best Novel
Hugo Award, 1896: Best Novel
SF Chronicle Award, 1986: Best Novel
Hamilton-Brakett Award, 1986

Similar Books:
"Ender's Shadow" by Orson Scott Card
"Speaker for the Dead" by Orson Scott Card
"Harry Potter" by J.K. Rowling

Booktalking Ideas:
Discussion of video games and how the novel is still pertinent to these landscapes

Genre:
Science Fiction/ Fantasy

Interest Age:
13-19 yrs.

Challenge Issues:
Violence
This book does deal with bullying and violence in the war games and tactics that Ender must endure, but I would combat this with the fact that he is playing video games and that war is a very real thing in our world and our culture. Ender also deals with jealousy issues from his classmates and bullying, but he stays true to himself and in the end saves all of them, so I think that it shows young adults that they are stronger than they may think in maintaining who they are through struggle.
Why this Book?
I love this book, and I feel that it has a strong following. Even though it was written in the 80's it is still very relevant to the way that people play video games and it was extremely intuitive for Card to have written this unaware of what the future would hold.