Ender's Game By Orson Scott Card

Ender’s Game
Orson Scott Card

Ender’s Game is a thrilling Sci-Fi novel by Orson Scott Card, which takes place in about 200 year in the future. Orson is well known all around the world for Ender’s Game and other books. At the age of six, Andrew Wiggin is sent to battle school, an isolated training ground for young soldiers, to prepare for the Buggers third invasion. He is forced to put his whole past life behind him. Everyday, he pushes himself to be his very best in the limited, tiresome military training program, under the supervision of strict commanders. Ender makes incredible progress and always thinks of new strategies and finds innovative ideas to motivate his peers to do well at the brutal institution and fight in Zero-G battle rooms.
The games are intense, and the authorities find new ways each and every day to challenge the students, mentally and physically. The story is always told in third person, but does not always speak from only one point of view. Each chapter starts with recordings from the Colonel Graff and Major Anderson’s conversations, but then it goes back to Ender’s perspective. Once, we get to see from the viewpoint of Valentine, down on Earth, and after that, we see from Bean’s perspective. It gives a bigger idea instead of leaving it limited to only Ender. While the most important part of the story is Ender’s adventure, we must not forget that just because he went to Battle School and left memories of Earth behind, it does not mean that his family is not experiencing their own adventure. Throughout the whole story, Ender’s goal is always to move forward and to do better.
He starts off on Earth, with a monitor in his neck, which determines whether he is a valuable soldier. He is then given an opportunity to attend Battle School, which he takes and succeeds immensely at learning to be an accomplished fighter. At the age of 8, he is assigned his own army, where he leads them in each game to victory. By then, everyone has heard of him because his soldiers are at the top of the leaderboards. His way of thinking is rare, and the IF intend on using it for the humanity’s sake. He is graduated early to attend Command School on the planet Eros, to prepare for the Buggers’ third invasion. There, he is trained by Mazer Rackham to use his skills efficiently and to cooperate well with his army. As he goes through a series of simulations and killing becomes a lifestyle, Ender begins to lose his mind. When Ender thinks that this episode is about to draw to an end, he is informed about a Final Examination, which evaluates what he has learned. During the battle, he has no motivation to keep going, and he is outnumbered. He still wants to win this unfair battle than to lose. He conqeurs by completely destroying the planet. When he takes his headset off, he hears cheers from the examiners and it utterly confused. Mazer reaches out and explains. “Ender, for the past few months you have been the battle commander for out fleets. This was the Third Invasion. There were no games,
the battles were real.” He felt manipulated and vulnerable. After his miraculous defeat, he was kept on the planet Eros because Earth was not yet safe for Ender. Peter had risen to power, and wanted Ender there to be his pawn. Valentine needed to protect him, and persuaded him to stay on Eros. “Welcome to the human race. Nobody controls his own life, Ender. The best you can do is choose to fill the roles given you by good people, but people who love you.” Ender explores the world of the Buggers, and finds a path left for him, an identical replica of the mind game he used to play at battle school. At the end of the path, he finds an egg that speaks to him. It is the egg for a Queen Bugger. She shows him pictures of the battles and what she needs to live again and tells him that the Buggers did not know that humans were thinking beings, and when the realized that, they didn’t plan on attacking again. Later on, he writes a book, Speaker of the Dead. He tells the entire bugger history and explains the sadness that the two races could not understand each other. He then spends his days traveling between world, trying to find the perfect place for the Bugger Civilization. Ender, the protagonist, is an incredibly smart boy.
He has a strong mind and a good understanding of the Buggers, making him a suitable commander for the invasion. Even though he is tough and strong, he is also vastly empathetic and emotional. He does his best to reach his potential and to never give up, no matter how tired or homesick he is. He always finds new ways to surprise the opponent and win the battle. His sister, Valentine, is the only person that he truly loves and cares for. She has always been there for him when he needed, especially when his older brother, Peter, taunted him. She was deeply saddened when Ender had to leave for Battle School, but still remembered to celebrate his birthday, even when he wasn’t there. Later on, Peter comes to her, with an idea he has to conquer the world. He pleads and begs her to join her, to crowd the nets with their essays and ideas, and she gave in. “You’re so clever, Peter. You saved your weaknesses so you could use it to move me now. And yet it did move her.” Valentine was always the kind one and the smart one. It wasn’t like her to give into Peter’s selfish acts, and she hated herself for it. Together they took the pen names Demosthenes and Locke, and spoke from different standpoints and with different objectives. Many hear about these two and are threatened by them; they don’t know that behind the pseudonyms lay two 10 and 12 year old siblings. Still, everyday she thinks of him, and finally, when the war is over, she
gets to live with him on the planet Eros. I really enjoyed reading this story. It has great imagery and keeps the reader involved and excited. The thing I liked most about the story was the connection between the characters, how strong it was, especially between Valentine and Ender. I would recommend this story to anyone that is fascinated by theories of what overpopulation might lead to, or is generally interested in the future. It is truly an amazing and attention-grabbing novel that never fails to disinterest the reader.