Ender's Game - A Review

 

It seems appropriate that my first real post be a review of my favorite book.

Ender's Game. How did you know?

This year, there was a new movie BASED on the book. I capitalize “based” because it really, really, failed to capture the imagination of the story. You see children being swept away to a school in the sky, a school where they are trained to be soldiers. They are preparing to combat an insectoid, hive-minded alien race called the Buggers.

From the outside, a pretty typical sci-fi.

The book offers a much more personal account from right inside the main character's head, where it’s most interesting. Andrew Wiggin. Also called Ender. He’s a boy-genius with an emphasis in strategy and social manipulation, but he also possesses something that many of his peers lack: a strong moral compass. Throughout the novel, he struggles to live up to his potential, but also to stay faithful to his morals within a system that is, by nature, cutthroat and unforgiving.

One of the main plot devices is the Battle Room, which is a unique concept that Orson Scott Card, the author, developed while imagining how one would train for zero-gravity combat. The team rankings and individual statistics each player earns during the mock war are the core of Battle School, and so they occupy a large portion of the book. The thing is, the physical play-space is always changing, so it never gets old to watch and feel through Ender’s strategic perspective.

A personal favorite quote of mine:

“In the moment when I truly understand my enemy, understand him well enough to defeat him, then in that very moment I also love him. I think it’s impossible to really understand somebody, what they want, what they believe, and not love them the way they love themselves. And then, in that very moment when I love them.... I destroy them.” – Ender

Ender’s older brother, Peter, is also a genius, but he was rejected from Battle School because of his inborn cruelty, which Card gives us a glimpse of pretty early on. He tells Ender to play “buggers and astronauts,” but is really just looking for an excuse to beat him up. Not even forest animals are safe – Peter has a disturbing habit of capturing and impaling squirrels on sticks.

Ender frequently compares himself to his brother and even cries when he matches up too well. It really gives you a sense of how profoundly sensitive he is, a nice contrast to the cold-killer-face he puts on in order to fulfill his duties as a soldier.

The whole story is a wonderful blend of emotion, adventure, and philosophy. If you haven’t read it yet and are into science-fiction…

Read it. There’s really no excuse not to.

Oh, and just a side-note. I haven’t read a lot about Orson Scott Card, but people tell me he’s got some whacked-out politics. DON’T LET THAT STOP YOU. I promise – there’s not any evidence of that in his books (at least the ones I’ve read).

Besides, good lit is good lit, right?