Published: 1985
Pages: 324
Source: Borrowed
Rating: 2 Stars
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.
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.
In short: Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card is WAY overrated.
For one, Ender's Game is poorly written and the pacing is very slow. Events at Battle School repeat ad nauseum and for a premise that promised to be riveting and interesting, it sure got tedious fast. In the last few pages we finally see the climax, but the ending struck me as very anti-climactic in the way in which Orson Scott Card chooses to tell it. Furthermore, the characterization was very shallow. Yes, the characters are children, but they're geniuses and act like adults and yet they come across as very two-dimensional.
I had expected to love Ender's Game because it is supposedly Sci Fi 101 and I LOVE modern sci fi, but this one missed the mark for me. To be honest, I can't rule out that I may have been predisposed to dislike Ender's Game because I am no fan of Orson Scott Card's values (made all the more disturbing by the fact that Ender's Game is laced with prepubescent homoerotic undertones - ICK!). So it's possible that I am biased in some way... but I also feel quite strongly that I would have disliked Ender's Game, even if I was unaware of Orson Scott Card's feelings on homosexuality, for the reasons stated above. Feeling very disappointed right now!
Author Links:
Website
