|
| |
Ender's Game
by Orson Scott Card
One boy, one battle school, one intergalactic battle against an alien bug race.
In the future, the inhabitants of planet Earth will be at peace with each other—at least as long as there is a hostile alien bug race for them to battle against.
“Ender’s Game” follows the exploits of the little boy, Andrew “Ender” Wiggin, who is selected by the unified world government to enter an elite training school. In space! Only the best and brightest children are sent to Battle School, where they undergo a rigorous education program and play simulated battle games. In space! The point of which is to mold commanders to fight against the aliens, called Formics or “buggers,” which have nearly destroyed Earth during two previous invasions and are gearing up for a third.
Before Ender even gets to the space station where he is to be trained to fight against the evil Formics, the poor boy is singled out and immediately becomes ostracized from the rest of the children. Throughout his short education, the adult leaders of Battle School do everything in their power to make Ender’s life difficult. And yet the kid ends up at the top of his class, commands an undefeated team in the simulated zero-gravity battle game, and continues to show unmatched intelligence and innovation.
Even though Ender is a child genius who is strong enough to overcome odds that would intimidate a god, and even though he is training in a giant space station to lead the fight against a race of insect-like aliens from another galaxy, his situation is strangely relatable. He is the lonely child with caretakers who just want him to live up to his potential, but do they push him too far? And he is the isolated adult whom everyone is counting on, but what about his needs?
Ender is also a relatable character who has some serious character flaws. Despite the fact that he seems to do everything right, Ender has a violent, spiteful streak like his sadistic brother, and is at times too soft and naive like his gentle sister.
Although the novel is mainly focused on Ender, he has a group of ragtag, quirky kids that aren’t quite friends, but loyal supporters. Ender comes to rely on this group in the end, and it is only through their support that he’s able to survive.
What really stands out about this novel is Orson Scott Card’s ability to immerse the reader in a complex world and to evoke the emotions that the main character is meant to be feeling. While reading “Ender’s Game,” the reader begins to feel the heavy despair of isolation and of facing impossible odds while surrender is not an option. And while one becomes a part of Ender, sharing in his suffering and small (usually meaningless) triumphs, it is always a jarring shock when he makes a drastic decision that ends in brutal violence.
This immersion is due to Card’s use of plain style writing, in which he declines to do much describing or use much fancy language. The effect of this is to create a “bare stage” where the reader is free to imagine his or her own details. Done right, it is a very effective technique. And Card does it right.
Ender’s bouts of violence and the fact that the adults of the book are using him to fight a war against an entire alien race bring fourth a sensitive real-world issue: the training of human beings to become killers. Ender is treated terribly by the adult characters as they deliberately cut off his options and make more and more desperate situations for him, just to see how he reacts. Thus cornered, the child does some terrible things. He does get out, and he always survives, but at what cost to his humanity?
The number of themes and side stories that could be discussed here is impressive. There is the concept of genocide, the political battles waged by Ender’s siblings back on Earth, Ender’s relationships with said siblings and his parents, the inevitable war on Earth that will take place as soon as the outside threat is destroyed; it’s amazing that Card was able to squeeze all of this into just a few hundred pages. The effect on the reader is a bit exhausting, but not enough to stop reading.
Card has created a fascinating world—one that should be remembered alongside the worlds of “Star Wars” and “Lord of the Rings.” He is a master of science fiction, and any sci-fi fan’s library is incomplete without a copy of “Ender’s Game.”
Title: Ender's Game
Author: Orson Scott Card
Publisher: Starscape
ISBN: 0765342294
Review written by: Lindsey Weedston
Reviewer's Rating:9.5
Reader's Rating: 0
Reader's Votes: 0
Talk to other readers about this story.
|
|
|
|
|
|
