Rating: 
Summary: Change your Life Forever
Review: This is the best book ever written and if you read it carefully it will change your life forever. You can reread this book whenever there is a crisis in your life and I guarantee it will get you back on track. I don't recommend the books connected to this book because this book in and of itself is a complete masterpiece. The great thing about this book is that it is a great idea and well executed. The reason its so good is because the book tackles a HUGE philisophical problem but doesn't even mention what that problem is. Everything is subtext. Can you figure out what the philisophical question behind the book is? Read and find out.
Rating:
Summary: A Masterpiece of Focused Goal Efforts
Review: When the fate of humans is at stake, Card pulls no punches in a realistic effort to duplicate what desperate measures call for - an early identification of a master strategist who refuses to accept defeat. Through Ender's story, and the men monitoring him, we learn all the lessons of strategy and command; and how to grab every available resource. At first, he realizes gravity has no meaning in a null-gravity situation. Upon promotion and denied an opportunity to learn, he trains with a sub-class, defying convention. When he first disobeys stupid commands, he turns defeat into stalemate. When a sub-leader recognizes his value, but the commander doesn't, he turns a suicide mission into a strategic advantage for his army. When he is finally given command, he throws out the rulebook in favor of what works. Ultimately, his genius is not just by understanding strategies and tactics that work but also how to utlitze other people in his favor. He trains his subcommanders how to lead and recognize strategic and tactical opportunites, but also gains their respect as a commander. When the wargames are rigged more and more against his favor, he simply responds by adopting new, innovative, and effective methods against his enemeies. I found the end-game predictable, but beyond the military victory, I found a kind of solice. Ender never really wanted to beat an enemy; he wanted them to stop fighting and live in peace. Perhaps that is the true genius of Ender's Game - he never wanted war, but when forced into it, he played to win the war forever. I haven't read the sequels, but I hope in them Ender focuses his mind toward creating peace instead of war. There is just as much strategy in winning a cold war and living in peace as there is to a hot war and fighting with many dead on each side.
Rating:
Summary: Decidedly Engrossing
Review: This book is very well-written, if not a bit formulaic in style. The story is original and the author presents a very interesting idea about space combat that I'm surprised hasn't made it's way into a cheap video game yet. Unfortunately, the author spends too much time alluding to some commonly-addressed problems with humanity and much of the conversation sounds contrived. Happily, none of these things detract from the entertainment value of the book.
Rating: 
Summary: Sci-Fi With a Surprise
Review: This was another book club selection. It was a quick, easy read - but left no real impact. A pure pleasure read - if you're into science fiction, that is. I thought the end was overly contrived...too cute. It was almost as is Card was getting as tired of the battle room as I was. Then, as if to suddenly try to redeem the book as more than just a video game fantasy, he rapidly ages his characters and gives them conscience struggles. All in all, I wouldn't recommend this book. It's harmless, and there are worse books to read - but there are so many better ones out there, why waste the time? I'm just glad that I didn't shell out any money for my copy!
Rating:
Summary: If you want to win don't play the enemies game
Review: The experiences of Ender Wiggins hallmarks the strategy concepts surrounding decisive warfare wins; through out the book Ender wins against Stilson, Bonzo, the teachers, and the buggers; early in Ender's young life, ender learns how to kill; Ender's circumstances of killing were observed by the I.F, who did not intervene to prevent the homicides; instead the I.F learned Ender's isolation, desire to win, and creativity could be harnessed for their own purposes. Nevertheless, Ender is a killer, a dark character, darker than Peter. The buggers view humans as not intelligent and excessively brutal and violent. The Buggers attack earth and start a war. The buggers could have originated from earth, are mentally connected, and travel the space distance faster than the speed of light. Peter is the antagonist. However, Peter never kills, he manipulates, threats, and twists both Valentine and Ender to conform with his plots. It is Ender's desire to receive Peter's love. Peter and Ender divide as brothers with Ender becoming a great general and Peter the controlling political force of earth. Peter becomes Locke and Valentine, Demosthenes using their father citizen key to gain access to the nets. Locke and Demosthenes are recognized as great political writers controlling the minds of people of the earth; Locke supports the Warsaw pact and Demosthene a moderate view appealing to the common man for the war. After Ender destroys the buggers, Locke ostracizes Ender to the Bugger world. In the last effort repudiation of Peter, Valentine leaves with Ender to the Bugger world. Ender will arrive at the bugger world in two years, realize familiar scene from the desktop, find a the queen hive, and desire to restore the buggers. Interestingly Ender never realizes, he has killed both Stilson and Bonzo, instead he believes his victories are a product of superior intelligence, remorse is never a part of the experience; the I.F carefully controls Ender to produce an objective killing machine. So, Ender believes pain is good and pain can be used to control or defeat enemies. Even after being betrayed by the I.F, Ender realized he was glad too be a survivior and rejoices in not being killed by the buggers with his friends. Ender's soldier revered him as their commander. General Pace and Colonel Graf careful protected Ender and manipulated him into becoming the supreme commander of the I.F forces against the buggers. Ender training forms him into a fanastic commander, order intricate battle advancements, sacrifices, and surprising offensive tactics. Ender learns to always win, sometimes breaking the rules to win, but always winning. The game becomes reality. Ender learns from Maser Rankham the first bugger victory came when Rankam surprised the buggers by attacking the queen ship, apparently the bugger never thought such an attempt could be done and once the queen was dead the drones were helpless because the collective mind links were useless and so they eventual all died. The supreme command had to be young. Ender was young, seven when he entered the academy and twelve when he lead the I.F forces against the buggers. Youth allowed Ender's inhibitions to act too remain at a minimum; he was willing to take risks and adapt with creative strategies and attack patterns; the result being defeat of all the training armies in the school: fatique odds matching him unevenly against multiple armies, unfair advantages, and eventually 1000 to 1 game scenerios were all part of the game. Ender learns the Greek warfare lesson, "if you want to win, don't play the enemies games." In the case of 300 Spartians depending a narrow pass against hundreds of thousands of Persians with kill ratios around 15,000 men to one Spartian. Decisive victories with limited resources, this is the brillance of Ender Wiggin. Ender's grooming by Maser Rankham and taught him how to use the Dr Device weapon, a weapon that can cause molecules to disperse, a weapon used to destroy the home of the buggers. Ender realized the game was real, Ender realized he did not want to destroy the buggers, Ender realized the system used him to eradicate all the buggers, and in the end just one soldier in the war, his opinions didn't matter. The true power remained in the hands of the politicians and Peter controlled the politicians.
Rating:
Summary: An unchallenged masterpiece
Review: When I first found that book I wasn't sure if I should actually buy it or not. The abstract of Ender's Game reads more like a military sci-fi story which I usually don't like. However, having read incredible good reviews of this book I decided to give it a chance. The story is set in the future when humans had already fought their first war with an extraterrestrial species called the Buggers. Constant fear of another Bugger attack forces the world government to develop a strong military scheme which identifies and trains highly talented and intelligent young kids to be the military commanders of the future. Deprived of their childhood, these kids are put into battle games to improve their tactical and analytical skill sets. Ender Wiggin is the genius among the youngsters. He wins all the battle games and gets ready for the final encounter with the Buggers. This book is one of the best sci-fi books I have ever read and definitely plays in the same league as Ubik by Philip K. Dick or other master pieces. The book is rich of character development which is kind of unusual in the sci-fi space. In fact, Orscon Scott also published a textbook on character and viewpoint for novel writers. Ender's game delivers such great insights into the psyche of these highly talented kids and also doesn't fail to deliver great story twists and suspense. I have also recommended the book to non-sci-fi friends of mine and they all loved it. However the only drawback I noticed is the rather awkward integration of the 'speaker of the dead' character. I am very sure that Orson Scott did that to have a smooth transition to the sequel of this book. He may have even added that part after the book was finished. In my opinion, this particular bit of the book doesn't work out properly.
Rating: 
Summary: The proverbial "page-turner," but could have been more.
Review: 3 stars is the lowest rating I have ever assigned, and although admittedly I have only written 11 reviews, I still feel guilty. Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card, was engaging and more than adequate as science-fiction fodder...and although I'm sure there are some obtuse reviewers here who wrote something along the lines of "if you didn't see the ending coming you're a moron!" I concede that I did not see the ending coming, although I felt I should have guessed it.
In any case, the novel Ender's Game focuses around Andrew "Ender" Wiggin, an extremely precocious child who is sent to Battle School alongside other bright children. The setting of the book is the future, as with so many sci-fi novels, and aliens known as "Buggers" for their insectoid features (This would later be changed by Card in one of his later novels to "Formic," a more intelligent, less juvenile name...but that is neither here nor there) have invaded Earth twice. The second invasion was barely stopped, and the Battle School is now being utilized to train new commanders for the next encounter.
Battle School revolves around a game which essentially translates to zero-gravity laser tag, although far more complex. The teachers and staff use the battle room to gauge the pupils' leadership ability and command skills- here Ender finds his calling. Despite being small and initially ridiculed, Ender works his way to the top.....but Battle School is just the beginning.
This book did not make me want to hole up in my room and read it all in one day, but it certainly was an engaging story...however, it is certainly not without flaws. For one, Ender is not terribly likeable, and also some of his actions in the novel are understandable, they merely serve to make us like Ender less. Moreover, Card juxtaposes Ender's story with the story of his sister and brother on earth, manipulating people on the home planet to go to war with Russia. Not only is the cold-war paranoia (in 1979) misplaced and ill-addressed in a book concerning mankind's battle with aliens, but the scenes are poorly paced and bring the narrative to a halt. The reader craves more time in the battle room with Ender. Lastly (ironically enough) the ending is absolutely abysmal, the only thing worthy of praise being that Card somehow, someway manages to go from a Deus Ex Machina to a feel-good ending to a Deus Ex Machina to a sappy, ham-handed attempt at social commentary. He should be commended for pulling off such a bile-inducing conclusion.
Despite my complaints, I still recommend this book...although more for a long plane ride then for an evening at home.
Rating:
Summary: An Original Classic
Review: Ender's Game is probably one of the most acclaimed Science Fiction books ever written. It also somehow manages to evade a large amount of readers, mainly because of 2 misconceptions. The first, and most common, is that this is a children's book. Some schools have even picked up on this, choosing it for 7th or 8th grade classrooms. Many people choose not to read it because of this, without realizing that it was never meant to be a children's book. Yes, the main character is a child, but the characters and subject matter are much more suitable for an adult novel, and the writing style is clearly more adult oriented, without the simple plotlines most carry. The existential undertones also bring this out of the realm of children's books. Unfortunately, many people don't realize and just say "Eh, it's a kids book, why bother?" The second main reason people don't read this book is because "It's Sci-Fi, and I don't like Sci-Fi." What they don't realize is, yes, it's sci-fi, but it's more than that. A very little bit of science fiction is actually in this book. It is, for the most part, an examination of childhood innocence, the true meanings of right and wrong, and the mental struggles of pressure. This book is much more psychological than Science Fiction, as the emphasis is constantly put on the mental state of Ender Wiggin, other than alien killing and the usual Science Fiction fare. In all honestly, this book would be just as effective if it weren't science fiction at all. The idea of simulated wars and children being trained as soldiers could be set in modern times or the past just as well. I would challenge anyone who doesn't like Science Fiction to read this and not like it. Once you get past those two misconceptions, you get to see what a wonderful book Ender's Game really is. The concept is intriguing, the characters, especially the main character, are superbly developed. The ideas about war, peace, existance and willpower will certainly get you thinking, and the ending will leave you wanting more. Thankfully, there are plenty of sequels. One last note, if you read this book, I would highly reccomend you read Ender's Shadow as well. It gives valuable background information and character development which can make the original all the more enjoyable.
Rating:
Summary: Cute story
Review: This book will keep you reading, the story of the space war is not new but is kind of different, the way that the Generals made that Ender fight the war and the way they trained him is excellent, it has many things that doesn't have to be written, for example that 6 years old kids didn't wanted to be naked, I think that it doesn't have to be any kind of nudity in this book, another thing is that even if Ender and everybody in that school were geniuses I think that they couldn't work so hard with any mental illness after that work.
The book is predictable in many parts, so if you read this book only to have a good time, like watching toons is ok, if you expect anything else, just skip it.
The end of the book is a little bit long.
Rating:
Summary: Man This One Blew Me Away!
Review: I read this novel for a college class in young adult literature, and when I began it, I wasn't just thrilled. I thought this was the basic science fiction novel that I had read dozens of times before. There wasn't going to be anything special here. But, I went on, and it didn't take very long to convert me. This is a special book that captivates you, and if you look deep enough, has the power to change you. The plot centers around Ender, a child genious charges with the task of developing his mental abilities into military skills to defeat an alien race who had attacked the earth years before. This novel presents his years in school, playing inventive warrior games in space, and his attempt to save the world. He struggles with relationships with the other students (since he is a genious), with the powers trying to manipulate him, and with the intense need to succeed at war games. The plot is so exciting and entertaining, but the novel also raises a lot of questions. There are the ethical questions about war and power, and there is a strong message about love and empathy. The novel also examines the life of children who are smarter than their peers, and it roles of teachers in students life. There is also an insightful discussion about "games" and reality. Lastly, there is Ender's struggle to obtain freedom from the forces manipulating him. His sister Valentine makes the claim that he can't obtain true freedom except by accepting the roles offered to him by the people who love him. He does choose to serve the people he loves and gains some purpose and happiness. I thought it was a powerful message from a truly wonderful novel.
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