Ender's Game (Ender Saga, #1)

by Orson Scott Card

From New York Times bestselling author Orson Scott Card, Ender's Game is the classic Hugo and Nebula award-winning science fiction novel of a young boy's recruitment into the midst of an interstellar war.

In order to develop a secure defense against a hostile alien race's next attack, government agencies breed child geniuses and train them as soldiers. A brilliant young boy, Andrew Ender Wiggin lives with his kind but distant parents, his sadistic brother Peter, and the person he loves more than anyone else, his sister Valentine. Peter and Valentine were candidates for the soldier-training program but didn't make the cut--young Ender is the Wiggin drafted to the orbiting Battle School for rigorous military training.

Ender's skills make him a leader in school and respected in the Battle Room, where children play at mock battles in zero gravity. Yet growing up in an artificial community of young soldiers Ender suffers greatly from isolation, rivalry from his peers, pressure from the adult teachers, and an unsettling fear of the alien invaders. His psychological battles include loneliness, fear that he is becoming like the cruel brother he remembers, and fanning the flames of devotion to his beloved sister.

Is Ender the general Earth needs? But Ender is not the only result of the genetic experiments. The war with the Buggers has been raging for a hundred years, and the quest for the perfect general has been underway for almost as long. Ender's two older siblings are every bit as unusual as he is, but in very different ways. Between the three of them lie the abilities to remake a world. If, that is, the world survives.

Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game is the winner of the 1985 Nebula Award for Best Novel and the 1986 Hugo Award for Best Novel.

THE ENDER UNIVERSE

Ender Quintet series
Ender's Game / Ender in Exile / Speaker for the Dead / Xenocide / Children of the Mind

Ender's Shadow series
Ender's Shadow / Shadow of the Hegemon / Shadow Puppets / Shadow of the Giant / Shadows in Flight

Children of the Fleet

The First Formic War (with Aaron Johnston)
Earth Unaware / Earth Afire / Earth Awakens

The Second Formic War (with Aaron Johnston)
The Swarm /The Hive

Ender novellas
A War of Gifts /First Meetings

• ISBN10: 0812550706
• ISBN13: 9780812550702
• Publish Date: 5 April 1996 (first published 12 September 1985)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 8 November 2022
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Tor Books
• Edition: Revised Mass Market ed
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 375
• Language: English

Reviews

[Leigha]

Ender Wiggin must play the game of his life in order to save the world in Card’s all time science fiction classic.

This is my fourth (maybe fifth?) time reading Ender’s Game. I listened to the audiobook in a record four days while on a long distant trip for work. FOUR DAYS – I’ve never listed to a book that fast. I don’t remember my age the first time I read it, but I remember the impact the story had on me. From the richly drawn characters to the stunning conclusion, it engrossed me from beginning to end.

Ender’s journey is quite frankly heartbreaking. As a little boy, he is pulled into a complex world of war. It’s a study in psychology, on how much one person can take before breaking under extreme pressure. The people in his life, from his enemies to his friends, are rich foils shaping his world view. Probably his most notable interaction is with Colonel Graff, the gruff superior officer destined to make Ender into the world’s best general. I came to both understand and hate Graff’s treatment of Ender.

While the characters are richly drawn, the story feels lacking. Time is spent on Ender, Valentine, and Peter’s journeys, but it feels like not much actually happens within the story…until you read the end. It takes a turn I completely did not expect, but truly loved. It’s Ender and the ending that keeps me coming back time and time again.

tl;dr An amazing main character and a stunning conclusion keeps this on the top of my all time list.

[Amber (The Literary Phoenix)]

Ender’s Game is one of those books that I’ve been aware of for as long as I can remember, but I’ve never read it. I’ve been reading science-fiction for just about as long as I’ve been reading anything. I was raised on Star Wars and Star Trek and Logan’s Run and Planet of the Apes. Give me 70s and 80s sci-fi until the day I day and I’ll be happy as a clam (problematic bits aside, see: Logan’s Run). In the last few years, I’ve revisited a lot of the older-style science fiction that I loved when I was younger… and I’ve been disappointed.

So, Ender’s Game worried me.

Then I saw the movie when it came out back in 2013. It’s an adaptation of a much loved science fiction book – of course I saw it! And then… I was disappointed. Based on my faltering faith in old school sci-fi, Ender’s Game went on my “low priority” list.

And that was dumb.

Ender’s Game is fantastic. It was not what I expected. I prepared myself for something violent, possibly with lines of sexism and racism, and I didn’t find it. There are no graphic scenes in this book. There’s women in positions of influence and power, and there’s people from all over the world at Battle School and Command School. Ender’s Game is representative of all sorts of people, and it tells a fantastic story. This is a bildungsroman and a dystopia and a war story and a space opera and a boarding school story… it’s just REALLY good. There’s so much to it, and it’s effortless.

It’s easy to love all the characters. Bean, Elia, Petra? They’re wonderful. Ender and Valentine are perfect enigmas and I was never really show whether they were going to truly be good or evil. The twists I wanted were there with them. And the villains, like Peter, are fantastic. The science is fascinating without being over the top, and because Ender is so young, there’s no romance.

Ender’s Game circles around a little boy who, at his oldest in the heart of the story, is about twelve? But it is so accessible that I can see this being a good book for almost any age. It’s accessible for middle grade readers while still being fascinating and relatable to adults. I never felt that there were overly mature passages or that the author had included offense content. I’m actually amazed by this – so many books written 30+ years ago are riddled with problematic content… and Ender’s Game isn’t. It’s such an example of how to speak to the human spirit. Not cater to a certain age or to the privileged – anyone can read this book and enjoy it.

Well, anyone with a vague interest in science fiction. Though honestly? It’s so accessible, you don’t need to love sci-fi. You just have to be okay with outer space and some advanced tech. Honestly.

I just… I loved Ender’s Game so much, guys. I thought it would be slow, but it swept me up. I thought it would have problematic bits, but it was lovely. I thought it would feel outdated, but it’s very present. I thought it would be boring and it was amazing. Ender’s Game surpassed all my expectation and I can’t recommend it highly enough.

[angelarenea9]

This review is full of spoilers.

I think it's important to mention that before I read this book I saw the movie adaptation and absolutely loved it; so naturally, when I heard it was a book series first I jumped on them! I never read much science fiction before, but recently I've sort of been breaking through the mental block and exploring some, and I'm really glad I did for this book.

I thought that the idea for this book was a really interesting one. I wasn't sure if the children were somehow genetically different than the other children or if Orson Scott Card just wrote them a little older than their ages. I thought that the game, both the simulation and the battle game, was really interesting and I enjoyed reading about it.

I thought that Peter was a very frustrating character because all that we saw was a jealous and angry young boy, and I would be interested to see what made him the way that he was. I though that it was really interesting how when he and Valentine were writing, he got her to help him write the more humanitarian views, almost like he was trying to force her to teach him to be better. Or maybe that is just me wanting him not to be not all bad.

I felt terrible for Ender the whole way through the story, because he was thrust into situations far outside the range of emotional stress anyone, particularly a child, should be expected to endure. I think that Graff was a terrible man for making Ender believe it was all a game, knowing that he would live with the stigma forever, even if others treated it like a badge of honor. In my opinion, if he wanted to kill the Buggers, he should have done it himself.

I think that this was a really great novel that, while it's childish humor (what little there is) and language may appeal to younger readers, the heavy, somewhat dark plot, and almost philosophical feel to the story has something to offer readers of all ages!

[mrs_mander_reads]

Definitely a worthwhile read for any age group, and either sex. The story is fast-paced, and believable. I think that my favorite character is Bean, because he has so much gumption. Most of the book, I felt incredibly sorry for Ender, amd the whole age thing is maybe a tad much, but I just tried to ignore it.

[Vicki]

3.5 stars

[dokie80]

I listen to the audiobook for this book.
Always love a story with genius kid, combined with sci-fi, then it's a BOOM! I like the story, the school, the war games, the deception.
Listening this book feels alot like reading [b:The Hunger Games|2767052|The Hunger Games (The Hunger Games #1)|Suzanne Collins|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1358275334s/2767052.jpg|2792775] for the war games, [b:Firstborn|8562526|Firstborn|Brandon Sanderson|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1328340261s/8562526.jpg|13430971] for the sci-fi and the war games, and some other books that use school environment in the story.
And btw, this book is written in 1985. Should've read this when I was 5.

[violetpeanut]

This was on my TBR list fooorrreeeeveeerr! I don't know why I waited so long to read it. Maybe because sci-fi isn't usually my thing. Especially when it's space and alien related. But this was really good. Probably because it's about the boy and manipulation and motivations and being "human" rather than the aliens.

I really enjoyed it and I'm sure I'll read more from this series in the future.

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This book was very good.

I couldn’t stop reading. There was something about the story that had me hooked, I just wanted to keep reading to see what happened, to see what Ender would do. In saying that I did enjoy this book a lot but for me it had a bit too much politics in it which made me skim read a few parts and only because I’m not that interested in the type of politics that was in this book. It went straight over my head actually.

The writing was good and Ender was a very interesting and likeable character. I didn’t like the way he acted sometimes but I could understand why he was the way he was. Scott created an interestingly strong character, intellectually and mentally. The story was pretty interesting because of Ender. He made up the story.

We saw everything from Ender’s eyes so a few things that were revealed near the end were surprising because as smart as Ender was he hadn’t yet grasped the situation. I liked that.

I will definitely be reading the sequel at some point!

Miss J
x

DNF. Guys, I tried. I really did. And I may give this a chance...eventually. I'm over 100 pages in and just feeling meh. I can see why people like it and it's thought provoking, but.....not really doing it for me. Full review to come. Because I didn't finish the book because I loathed it, I won't rate this one.

Full review to come.

[mitabird]

Re-read: 2/27/14 - 3 stars

Original read: Dec 2005 - 5 stars