Card, Orson Scott
ENDER’S GAME
Orson Scott Card
TOR Science Fiction 1985
PB 357
ISBN#
0-812-51911-6
This one's an all-nighter--you know, one of those genuine page-turners that keeps your mind spinning even after you've closed the book. Why the appeal? Well, apart from good writing with fantastic tension, Card's ENDER'S GAME is directed at the child inside each of us, yes it irresistibly pulls us on the adult level too.
Imagine saving the world at age eleven. Ender Wiggin knew from the age of six that this was his destiny, though he never dreamed it would come so soon--not that he really wanted it to happen at all. Ender just wanted to be a normal boy. It is a proven fact in our own society that young children learn faster than adults, and that gifted children pushed hard can accomplish amazing feats. And, given how well today's children do with video games, this story grabs the reader with a chilling future scenario where the salvation of Earth depends on this one gifted child's ability to learn battle games before the fleet gets to a distant star system where, with the aid of alien communication's technology stolen from the last "Bugger War", Ender is to lead the fleet in the defense of his species against aliens no one can understand.
This tale runs deep, touching on other social problems that affect Ender's life with serious consequence, like being the third born to a family in a country where legal permission must be given for every conception. Ender Wiggin was requisitioned by the fleet when his brilliant siblings didn't quite measure up to expectations! And one of these, Ender's older brother Peter, is so dangerous and his influence over Ender so strong that, because of it, Enders grows into a perfect killing tool. Tool. Under immense pressure, knowing he is being used and manipulated, unable to do anything about it, Ender grows more intelligent than the adults who teach him . . . and then they push him harder.
A thought provoking master-work, ENDER'S GAME comes highly recommended with a 10 out of 10 for all readers of futuristic and social science-fiction. The prose is clean and easily accessible for most readers age eleven and up. A sample of the text: "When you can give me back my dead wife, Ender, then you can complain to me about what this education costs you." "I wasn't trying to get out of anything." "But you will, Ender. Because I am going to grind you down to dust, if I can. I'm going to hit you with everything I can imagine, and I will have no mercy, because when you face the buggers they will think of things I can't imagine, and compassion for human beings is impossible for them."
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