Ender's Game

Ender's Game is the best sort of science fiction: The author uses imagination to build on the reality of his time, obeys basic physics, doesn't use "gizmos" to get himself out of corners arising from poor plots.

Start your reading of the Ender Saga here, if it is not too late. Subsequent stories... and there is a rich vein to mine... all build on the events in Ender's Game.

Started as a short story in 1976, expanded into a novel in '85 it uses a recognizable internet, tablet computers (a la iPad/ Andriod), Wi-fi, "Twitter"/"Facebook" for empowering democracy. Amazing.

His books also delve deeply, and to my understanding of the topic, into "how people work".

David S

Jul 5, 2012

Extraordinary First Novel!

This is among the best sci-fi novels ever written. Not as good as Clarke's "Childhood's End", but then no novel has surpassed it. There is an OMG about seven-eighths through that is ingenious. Then read "Speaker of the Dead". The remaining 'Enders' books are not worth bothering about.

Ellyb

Aug 6, 2010

A relevant classic

Considering I've been a lifelong reader of sci-fi, it is somewhat surprising that I've only just read this classic for the first time. I was slightly concerned when picking it up that everyone who seems to love it was introduced to it as a kid, and sometimes with certain books, the magic just isn't there for adults. Luckily for me, 'Ender's Game' is very good on its own merits. It tells the story of Ender Wiggin, a young boy who is taken from his family to attend battle school in the hopes that he might save humanity from an old enemy.
Orson Scott Card is surprisingly deft here when dealing with the war on the "buggers." This war seems to be interminable, and no one is entirely sure the enemy is even still a threat. Meanwhile, Ender is being transformed into a war machine. Or so they think. The greatest conflict of the novel is not Ender's development of military skills, but his fight to remain himself, and to keep hold of his compassion, morality, and everything else that makes him human.
I found "Ender's Game" to be a gripping read, and despite the strangeness of reading about child soldiers (of course they do exist in our time, but in more horrific circumstances), the novel does a pretty good job of portraying the kids realistically as they fight to ascend the ranks of the military.
I'm very glad to have finally read this book, and I'm especially relieved that you don't have to be a young adult to appreciate it's worth.

mountaianous

Apr 29, 2010