Ender's Game (Ender, Book 1) (original 1985; edition 1994)

Oh my goodness did I struggle reading this book. It was like torture and I spent a lot of time contemplating whether or not to give up and read something else but I am glad that I preserveered. I don't want to give too much anyway and it's a tough read but it is well worth the while ( )

Very good story. I listened to the audiobook and the only negative thing I could say about the audio version is that there are to many different narrators. Otherwise this is a great story, great layout, has good surprises, everything is a recommend. In my top 5 of my all time favorites. ( )

Following a war with alien creatures, nicknamed "buggers," government agencies select certain gifted children to train to be soldiers and leaders when the buggers attack again. One of these children in Ender, a very young (he's only six when we first meet him) and very intelligent boy, who is expected to be the ultimate commander who will save the world with his ability to strategically plan attacks.

It's easy to feel empathy for Ender, after all he's just a little kid with a hell of a lot of pressure on his shoulders. And yet, none of these kids act very much like kids; they have been bred and trained to be soldiers from a very young age and so they act accordingly. It's kind of an odd thing, because sometimes you forget that these are kids and it's a bot jarring every time you remember they're only seven, nine, ten years old. The result was that while I felt empathy for Ender, I also felt a bit distanced from him.

A lot of the tension in the book is created by the conversations different teachers and military leaders have with each other at the beginning of each chapter. With no descriptions, just dialog, these people are faceless menaces actively manipulating and cruelly driving Ender forward toward their goal. Even as they express compassion for the boy, they still push him and throw him into nasty situations and offer no salvation, no way out.

In fact, the manipulation and threat from the teachers and fellow students is far more intense than the supposed threat from the buggers. The buggers are just a distant enemy, light years away, and sometimes it seems they are so distant, it's as though they don't even exist. However, the teachers and the bullies are very real and very present.

While Ender's Game is a fast read, easy and full of tense action, there's not much to sink your teeth into intellectually. The twist ending might have been surprising, if I haven't heard Ender's Game talked about a million times over, and the denouement was a bit too much of a neatly wrapped little bow, so tidy and clean (especially coming after war and knowing what we know about Ender's vicious brother). In fact, the denouement was so neat and clean, I'm amazed Card was able to continue the story line.

So final summation? Very enjoyable, but doesn't make me want to eagerly run off and grab the next book in the series. ( )

Engaging about child prodigy Andrew "Ender" Wiggin. ( )

As good as this was, and it was extremely good, I have a strong feeling that I'm not going to fully appreciate its power until I've read the series. There's a lot more exploring to do of the threads that have begun here. Ender has been established as a genius and a hero and his hold on sanity is tenuous enough for it to work very well and seem very real in my mind. But of the several plot lines introduced here his initial conflict is the only one that was resolved and even that was only resolved on the surface, in the eyes of most of the population, the ones that don't know. Very suspenseful opening to what promises to be a very good examination of many things human hiding inside an exciting epic story. ( )