Editorial Review
Winner of the Hugo and Nebula Awards
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.
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Customer Reviews
A Science Fiction Classic 
2008-06-26
The book presents a mirror through the eyes or a genius child which we use to look at our own trespasses. Is what we do to others and to ourselves really right?
This is an excellent book for young and old and I highly recommend it.
Check the table of contents! 2008-06-22
This is book one of my favorites and I've often lent it out to friends. They like it so much they lend it to their friends... so I've bought several copies over the years. This time I was unlucky: I ordered the paperback version that does NOT include the introduction. This introduction includes excerpts from letters sent to Card about their reactions to the story along with insight into the his intentions. The paperback version I'd chosen omits this, and instead puts a cheesy "reading guide" for young readers at the back. Luckily Amazon lets you glance at the table of contents -- I wish I'd checked!
great read 2008-06-20
do you like books? do you like characters with superhero-like abilities? do you like lasers that go pew-pew? Then you'll enjoy this novel.
Classic Literature 2008-06-18
What more can be said about this book that hasn't already been mentioned in the thousands or preceding reviews. The accolades are all well deserved. This book isn't just a science fiction classic, it's a classic work of fiction that transcends the genera, right up there with Orwell's 1984 and Huxley's Brave New World. A must read.
don't be scared away from reading this book. 
2008-06-18
I was compelled to write this review I guess just for the sake of writing a review. Recently I finished Ender's Game with a sigh of relief that I had finally plowed through this book and was done. I am not saying it wasn't good, just relieved of being compelled to keep reading. For me it rekindled a lost fire that had died out about a year ago after reading I am legend, I couldn't find a book that matched it, atleast in my eyes. But I picked this book up at a barnes and nobles while I was out of town and decided I would give it a try. As a reader of science fiction there is one thing that I have come to learn, to never believe the hype surrounding a book, no matter how many awards it has won, or the amount of praise it has gathered from the readers or critics. I almost let some of those critiques of the book deter me from reading it, but I read it none the less. Now that I told my story I will give you the actual review of the book from my own opinion. The book started out revealing almost nothing for the first few chapters but then I started to read it more and more until I found myself turning to the last page. It was good read and contains many different "morals" each one means whatever the reader wants it to mean. For me it was a powerful story of a the human nature and its will to survive, and in that human nature there lies within each of us the capacity for both good and evil sometimes hardly discernible until after the fact. Another moral that struck me was the fact that we aren't anything without hope and friends, we are social, and without those elements in our life we would give up and stop caring. The ending for me, left me with a slight feeling of unfinished business if you know what I mean thats why I give it a 4 out of 5 but other than that I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. Also one thing you must remember if you do see any similarities between this book and some other book just let it be know that this was written in 1985 I believe, I have read some readers think this is just harry potter in space but what they don't understand is that harry potter is ender wiggins with magic.
Ambivalent Reaction to an Ambiguous Book 
2008-07-18
This book has been recommended to me by various people for the past fifteen years. The main reason is something like this: the Battle Room is really cool, and wouldn't it be fun to be a child military genius? My answer to that is no, not really.
The setup for ENDER'S GAME is something like the Third Punic War. Earth has already fought two wars with the unfortunately-named buggers (insectoid hive-minded aliens), and after winning both by the skin of their teeth they've sent an invasion fleet to wipe the buggers out. The galaxy's not big enough for the both of us, apparently. Don't be fooled: the stakes in this book are NOT the survival of the human race. That's a big fat lie spread by the military leaders in the novel, and propagated by the five-star reviews on this site.
Ender Wiggin is a six year-old genius who is taken away from his family to the orbital Battle School, where other child geniuses are trained to become the admirals and generals of the future. Ender, though only six, proves himself to be smarter than just about everyone else. He fights repetitive laser-tag games in the zero-G Battle Room, and demonstrates innovative strategies that might be clever for a child, but should be obvious to everyone else. He quickly rises through the grades of the school, playing ever more challenging and complicated games, until he becomes the supposed savior of all mankind. A subplot involving Ender's genius siblings basically taking over the world with the equivalent of political blogs is thoroughly unconvincing.
The main body of ENDER'S GAME is the dehumanization and manipulation of the child hero. He is made to suffer from age five up until he turns eleven at the book's climax. Only at the end, when he expresses remorse for all the terrible things he's done, does he actually become sympathetic, but by then it's too late.
The emphasis is on action, in and out of the Battle Room. Ender doesn't want to fight, but he always finds himself in situations where he has to, and the reader is exploited into rooting for Ender just as Ender is exploited into using his killer survival instinct for the benefit of others. The book ends just when it starts to grapple with the ethical issues it has conjured up, which for me was just when it started to get interesting. The worst people are let off the hook, and Ender is set up to be the next Messiah.
Card's style cuts out every adverb and adjective that might get in the way, leaving his prose spare and efficient and utterly devoid of personality. It's easy to read, but not particularly enjoyable. The dialogue is an especially irksome feature, considering it takes up a very large part of the text. The children of Card's world do not speak like children of the real world, even allowing for the fact that they're all meant to be child prodigies of limitless intelligence. Ender and his friends are effectively mini-adults, acting and speaking in adult ways. Card assumes that if a child has a genius IQ, he therefore also has the emotional maturity of an adult. The dialogue given to actual grown-up characters is no better.
ENDER'S GAME is disturbing rather than fun. The simplicity of its style betrays the complexity of its subject. What worries me most is that the book's appeal might be founded entirely upon the premise of violent child geniuses waging sophisticated wargames against each other. According to the five-star reviews and the endorsements I've heard, that might not be far from the truth.
Enders Game 2008-07-17
Enders Game is a great book about the struggles of a young boy to come to terms with his specific set of abilities. This book should be in every school across the country.
Simplicity can be a beautiful thing..... 2008-07-17
There is little I can say about such a classic book that hasn't already been said by others, but after reading it for a second time with my brother, I just have to share a few thoughts.
Ender's game is not by any means a perfect piece of literature. It has it's flaws, and imperfections, and they are occasionally noticeable. Fortunately, these are vastly overshadowed by one of the most well thought out characters and stories I've come across in years. Ender feels very real and there are many times where it felt less like I was reading a book and more like I was experiencing it.
I'm a finicky fan of Science fiction. I love many aspects of the genre, but many authors have a tendency to get so caught up with the details or ideas about the future that I have trouble relating to the story. Ender's game isn't that way. It has a lot of futuristic Science fiction ideas, but they're done in a way that is fairly believable, but more importantly, the focus remains squarely on Ender's thoughts and feelings throughout the book. It's one of the few books I can recommend to friends that don't like Sci-fi.
AMAZING! 2008-07-06
Orson Scott Card is a GENIUS! Ender's Game was fast-paced and vividly detailed. It was so realistic, but had just the right amount of detail to keep you hooked. Never bored me at all. I loved it in 6th grade and still love it all these years later. This book converted me to a science-fiction lover, even though I didn't like to read much before. Wow! Definitely a 5-star book!
Favorite Book 2008-07-02
This is my favorite book! i read again in 2 days recently and i still picked up new things from it. its a great read for people of all ages younger people will like the action while as you get older you can appreciate the fine lines of an ethical struggle between the sacrifice of one for the good of many, and who decides what the good is. Hightly recommended!
