Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
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Book Reviews of Ender's Game
Book Review: Zach T's review for Ender's Game
Summary: 5 Stars
Zach T. 5/24/08
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Enders Game is a book about a kid named Andrew (Ender) Wiggin who is six years old and has a monitor on his neck. A monitor is a device that the IF (International Fleet) put on kids to see if they have what it takes to save the world from buggers. Ender has a brother named Peter and a sister named Valentine. Ender is accepted to a special school to save the world from aliens (buggers). His brother and sister unfortunately, weren't accepted to the school. Peter gets mad at Ender because he was accepted, but he wasn't. Before Ender got accepted to the school, he hurt a child badly. When this happened Ender felt horrible. On the way to the battle school Ender figures out that if he didn't hurt the child he wouldn't have been accepted to the battle school. The battle school is in outer space. When he reaches the school he goes to his battle group called Launchies. Launchies are for beginners that are not experienced with the strategies. Ender is immediately put in a higher group called the Salamander Army. The Salamander Army fight against other Armies to see who has what it takes to save the world. In each army there is a commander who is in charge of the strategies in the battles for each team. The Salamander Armies commander was Bonzo Madrid. When Bonzo saw Ender he immediately didn't want him. He made Ender do nothing in the tournaments and waited for a team to take him. Finally a team took him. Ender didn't last very long in that group though. After a couple of days he became a commander for the Phoenix Army. When he was commander he won every game. When Bonzo lost to him he wanted to kill Ender. When Ender was taking a shower Bonzo and his friends went to the bathroom and tried t get Ender. Ender was prepared and killed Bonzo easily. After he killed Bonzo he was sent to combat school to save the world. When Ender got there he saw an old man in his room. Ender tried to get out but couldn't. Soon Ender got mad and charged at the man. The old man immediately grabbed Ender and through him. When the old man got back to his position Ender attacked again. It was an instant replay to what happened the first time. Finally, the man spoke and said he was Mazer Rackham the man who killed the buggers before.
Book Review: Ender's Game book review
Summary: 5 Stars
Ender's Game
Orson Card Scott is an expert when it comes to science fiction. He knows how to attract young readers, like myself, to a good book. In Ender's game, he has a strong emphasis on children and in order for us to grasp the main idea, he shows things from their point of view.
Card, now in his late 50's, has been fascinated by military strategies and crucial roles of leaders in an army ever since he was in high school. He has spent two years as a Mormon missionary in Brazil and attended Brigham Young University. The idea of the Battle Room came to him when he was 16, but he chose not to write about the story till years later.
The book is all based upon the concept of games. All of the important concepts in the novel are interpreted on the idea of a game. The first way a game comes into the novel is "buggers and astronauts". This is a game played by Ender and his brother, Peter. All the kids in Ender's society, at the time, played the game. However, in Ender's case the game is more than it seems, because Peter hates Ender and beats on him upon the course of the game, so that Ender never wins. Later on, at Battle school, Ender faces two different types of games, the mind game he plays on the computer and the war games that he plays in the Battle Room. The final game is the greatest one Ender plays, where he is commander of the Third Invasion. He cannot sleep, his eating is scarce and he is forced to command the people he cares for (which causes the friendship bonds to break). The writer accomplishes a goal in this book by showing how sometimes, the playing of a game can have profound impact on life, and that the game can unexpectantly become reality.
This book was very well-written and had much strength. One strength is the relationship between adults and children (respectively in this book). Although many times in the book the adults manipulate/control the children, sometimes the children take over. For example, Peter and Valentine, two kids, dominate the worldwide political systems through adults in their forums. This book has no weaknesses.
Book Review: The true heir to Heinlein's smart, likeable heroes
Summary: 5 Stars
This book is a "Starship Troopers" for the Information Age, where enemies never come within a thousand kilometers of each other, but live or perish depending on how well they play computer games.
Six-year-old Ender has his personal monitor removed after living with it for three years. Now isolated from his overseers, he's a target for the school bullies and his homicidal brother, Peter. Only after he overcomes these obstacles is Ender allowed to join the International Force's Battle School in space.
This is the beginning of Ender's real struggle.
Humanity was once almost wiped out by aliens called the buggers. Only the brilliance of a single general saved us. Now the International Force is trying to create a new general before the buggers show up again and complete their genocide.
Ender is an extremely likeable genius--the exact opposite of the clichéd 'evil genius,' which I was getting pretty bored with anyway. He's a sort of six-year-old Byronic hero, earnest and determined to succeed in spite of his new enemies (geniuses themselves) at Battle School. His new mentors immediately and publicly single him out as someone special, and as a result Ender has to break one bully's arm on the shuttle up to school.
Thanks a lot, Teach.
This book's science is plausible, the background story is interesting, the mock battles are exciting and a great device for revealing Ender's growing tactical genius. His character is strengthened through his constant struggle with his envious and sometimes sadistic classmates. I wasn't too interested in the chapters concerning his psychopathic brother and loving sister, but I suppose they're important to the numerous sequels to "Ender's Game." This book's ending is a bit contrived, its climax impersonal and deflated, but other than that Orson Scott Card treats us to brilliant science fiction that is well deserving of its Hugo and Nebula. Ender is the true heir of Heinlein's smart, likeable, believable heroes.
Book Review: Astounding, but More Suited for Older Audiences
Summary: 5 Stars
Andrew "Ender" Wiggin is six years old, a supergenius, and the world's only hope for survival against the ant-like Buggers, an alien race that has attacked Earth twice. When Ender accepts his admission to the famous Battle School, where children build their tactical prowess by participating in military-style games, he immediately demonstrates his superb logical reasoning both in and out of the Battle Room as a soldier and a leader.
But war is no game. Can Ender overcome his deep-seated fear of becoming a violent criminal like his brother and rise up to the impossible challenge of saving humanity?
Ender's Game, the first of a series by Orson Scott Card, is a masterful work of science-fiction, having won (and deserved) both the Hugo and Nebula Awards for its excellent coming-of-age story combined with Card's simple-yet-effective style of writing--a style that the author himself (presumably) explains right here on Amazon. Ender's Game is more about Ender's battle against his own tumultuous emotions in a time of impending war than the war itself, creating an expansive character-based story that'll leave you with a high sense of empathy for Ender and the other brilliantly created characters of this series.
There is one issue with the book that I take with, and that is referring to it as a child's book. The amounts of violence, swearing, politics, underlying philosophy and intense emotional situations make this a book I would wait to give to any children of mine, maybe until they were fifteen, when they could understand and appreciate the material significantly more. This is a minor complaint, however, and has no real bearing on the content of the book or the story, and so does not affect my rating of the book at all.
I highly recommend Ender's Game to anyone who enjoys science-fiction or has that one friend who needs some conversion to the genre through a very enjoyable experience.
Book Review: Thoughts of a high school freshman
Summary: 5 Stars
Orson Scott Card's books have become a staple in science fiction books. Ender's Game, being one of his more popular books, has won a Nebula, and a Hugo award, along with being a New York Times best seller.
Orson Scott Card's intriguing characters are mature and responsible; the only twist is that they are mere children. The mix of this maturity in childhood especially appeals to high school freshmen, I believe, who are somewhat in the middle of becoming mature and still being childish.
Orson Scott Card does a great job of telling the story through the eyes of a child. While many authors try to see things through the eyes of a child, few succeed. Among this elite group of authors is Dr. Seuss, Roald Dahl, and Orson Scott Card. While most of the time his character's maturity makes you forget that they are in fact children, occasionally the characters have moments of childhood; these parts were somewhat frustrating only because of the immature language. However that is, of course, a part of childhood. While that trait of the book might not appeal to older readers, I think that it is a trait that makes Ender's Game enjoyable for younger readers.
While most writers try to "dazzle" readers with vocabulary, Orson Scott Card uses far simpler vocabulary but still succeeds in transforming the words on the page into pictures in the reader's mind. While some might dislike this style, I think it is a strong point. One must remember that he is writing from the point of view of a child; no one should expect ridiculous vocabulary.
Orson Scott Card's goal was to write a Science fiction novel that captivated the minds of his readers. However, I don't believe he could have fathomed how many minds would soon be sucked into his heart pumping story line. With his complex characters and a story line that keeps the reader wanting more, he easily accomplished his goal.