The plot itself is rather simple, a young boy (only six) is taken from his home to be trained by the military to fight the “Buggers,” an alien race that attacked the earth in the past and who the government is afraid will attack again. The earth managed to defeat the “Buggers” in the previous war due to the leadership of one space ship captain, but there is currently no military leader capable of devising a plan and leading an army that can defeat the enemy in another war. The government believes that Ender Wiggins has the empathy, intelligence, creativity, and courage that will make him the brilliant commander they need to defeat the “Buggers” once and for all.
What makes Ender’s Game a difficult read then isn’t the plot. It’s the ideas and violence that drive the plot that disturb the reader. Taking a young child from his home and guiding his development with one particular career / goal in mind whether this is what that child would have freely chosen or not, causes the reader to pause and think about his or her own choices and how they might affect their eventual career or even life. How does our upbringing make us into the people we are as adults? The extremely strict stucture and violence of the military training especially when it involves such a young child makes the plot and this question even more disturbing. This is not to say that the book is not suitable for younger readers, I think it is, but only for those who truly enjoy the genre or who are mature enough to handle the depictions of violent fights and battles.
I didn't care for most of the characters in the novel, but I did like Ender. I can't say that I liked all of the decisions he made throughout the novel, but I did understand how he was manipulated into making those decisions. The blame for those decisions lies not with the young Ender, but with the adults who created the situations that Ender found himself. The path that Ender must walk throughout the novel is not one that I would have liked to trod, for I am not sure that I would have behaved any differently.
Ender’s Game is a book for readers who love science-fiction or war stories. It is a traditional sci-fi novel and does not have the cross genre appeal of The Hunger Games series or Divergent. It is a worthy read, however, especially for students who would like to broaden their reading background in preparation for middle school.
Read the first chapter of Ender's Game on Orson Scott Card's Website.
More Ender’s Game:
- The Enderverse Books and Stories
- Ender's Game Series
- Ender's Game
- Speaker for the Dead
- Xenocide
- Children of the Mind
- The Bean Quartet
- Ender's Shadow
- Shadow of the Hegemon
- Shadow Puppets
- Shadow of the Giant
- Additional Spinoffs
- A War of Gifts
- Ender in Exile
- Shadows in Flight
- Shadows Alive (Forthcoming)
- Card has also written several short stories set in the Enderverse.
- Other Reviews
- Mentions on Prominent Book Lists
- Ender's Game #3 on NPR's All Time Favorite Sci-fi/Fantasy Novel List
- Note: Not all of the titles on this list are appropriate for younger readers.
- 1999 American Library Association's Outstanding Books for the College Bound
- Ender's Game The Movie (to be released 2013)
- Harrison Ford (Hans Solo, Indiana Jones) is playing Colonel Graff.
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