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Summary: Ender's Game
Review: This book is without a doubt a great read. Card tells the life of an amazing young boy living in a time where the world is at war with another species. Ender, genius of the geniuses, finds himself suddenly confronted with an option to stay or leave his home, family, and planet and battle the alien species which threatens the future of Earth. Little did he know what he was actually getting into..This story keeps its action and surprises you after every page throughout the entire book, never slowing down, and never getting boring. Once you pick it up, you'll only put it down if your house is on fire! You will care for Ender, feel his pain, cry for him, fear for him, and much more. This story literally takes you into the life of this fragile character.
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Summary: A True Classic
Review: Orson Scott Card has written many fine novels, but this will always be by far my favorite. Many other reviewers go into depth about its content: a young boy, Ender Wiggin, trains at Battle School to defeat the aliens and save humanity. This bare-bones summary cannot possibly convey the multi-layered depth of this extraordinary tale. Many readers do not like sci-fi because they feel there is a lack of characterization, little grounding in reality, and an over-emphasis on unlikely technology. These criticisms are valid for a number of books in the genre, but do not hold true for Ender's Game. Ender's Game is not perfect. The age of the children, even though they are the smartest children on Earth, is still a bit unbelievable. Some say Card's prose is not flowery enough, although I find his style refreshing and particularly appropriate for a book with a high degree of military content. These small issues, however, are beside the point considering that in overall plot, originality, characterization, and themes, Card pulls together a story that is read over and over again because, quite simply, it appeals to almost everyone. You may not like sci-fi, you may not like the idea of small children fighting a war, but you will probably love this book, and you will love Ender Wiggin. His story is a classic of the genre, and a favorite in many readers' hearts.
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Summary: It's okay, but how did it win the Hugo and Nebula Awards?
Review: It's probably impossible for me to know what I'd have thought of this book when it first came out, since I knew the "punchline" to the story going in. On the other hand, a truly great novel would have a lot going for it beyond the climactic revelation, and Ender's Game, well, doesn't. The crippling flaw to the story is that the characters (other than Ender himself) are absolutely flat as boards. None of them have any nuance or subtlety or distinction to them. Moreover, large chunks of the book (especially those relating to Ender's siblings and their machinations while he's away at school) are entirely redundant to the story as a whole. They could have been cut out completely and made the novel leaner and more focused. So what's good about the story? Essentially, it's a series of high-pressure puzzles presented to Ender as he flies through the ranks of the military (at ages 6-to-11!), and seeing how Ender reasons out how to deal with them (whether they're regularly scheduled combat exercises, or encounters with his antagonistic fellow students) is exciting and fun. The moral dilemmas which Ender must confront - being violent when he doesn't want to be, being a leader when he's not inclined to be - are real, though they suffer greatly from lack of depth or characterization in the world around him. Ender himself is the only character we really get to know. I never believed that he was a child - he almost never behaves like one - but that's not so bad, since it's his odyssey - not he himself - which is the focus of the book. But the potential of his character is largely unrealized, since he's generally forced into making particular choices, and we don't get to measure what sort of a person he is through his deeds, since those choices are taken away from him. In many ways, Ender's Game reads like it was written in the 1950s, an era of flat characters and straightforward plots, which is what this novel contains. It feels primitive next to its contemporaries from the mid-80s (never mind nuanced fiction from the 70s like that from Varley or Zelazny), especially in its no-frills writing style. At this point, I don't see what all the fuss was about; it's a light read, but not a very satisfying one.
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Summary: A great story that happens to take place in outer space
Review: I started to read Speaker for the Dead before I realized that it was a sequel to Ender's Game. I liked the writing style so much that I went out and bought Ender's Game immediately. OSC has a way of telling the story from the point of view and feelings of Ender that is magical. I truly felt for Ender Wiggin and rooted for him the whole way. This was a wonderful story.
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Summary: Awesome book
Review: this is the best book i have ever read. not only is it very entertaining, it is a very deep. I recommend this book for everyone.
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Summary: Playing For Keeps!
Review: Ender Wiggin is one of the children chosen by the world government of Earth. For the last three years, from age three to six, he's worn a monitor-a device designed and used to watch him day and night, so finely tuned that he'd started to believe that it could read his thoughts. Then, when he was six, the device was removed. Ender's whole world changed. Hated by his brother Peter, loved by his sister Valentine, Ender suddenly became prey for the bigger boys at his school. After an altercation in school and a display of viciousness and cold cruelty on Ender's part, he's told he made the program for the International Fleet, the first line of defense against the Buggers, an alien enemy encountered nearly fifty years ago that came short of destroying the planet. Graff, the man from I.F., tells Ender that he qualified for the Battle School program, where Ender will learn how to fight Buggers. The downside is that he won't get to see his family for ten years. And Battle School doesn't turn out exactly the way Ender had envisioned it would. Orson Scott Card is an award-winning science fiction and fantasy writer. In addition to the Ender Wiggin series (ENDER'S GAME, SPEAKER FOR THE DEAD, XENOCIDE, CHILDREN OF THE MIND, ENDER'S SHADOW, SHADOW OF THE HEGEMON, and SHADOW PUPPETS), Card has also written the Homecoming series (THE MEMORY OF EARTH, THE CALL OF EARTH, THE SHIPS OF EARTH, EARTHFALL, and EARTHBORN) and the Tales of Alvin Maker series (SEVENTH SON, RED PROPHET, PRENTICE ALVIN, ALVIN JOURNEYMAN, and HEARTFIRE). HOMEBODY, TREASUR BOX and LOST BOYS are three of his works that heavily involve the supernatural in today's world. He's also written two novels about women from the Bible (REBEKAH and SARAH), and several stand-alone novels and other trilogies. ENDER'S GAME is a wonderful read for old-time science fiction fans that cut his or her teeth on Robert Heinlein. The same depth of character in a young protagonist that Heinlein was noted for is present, and the world-building skills are sharp. At the same time, Card embraces the younger readers of SF by laying much of Ender's story in action and gameplay. Every young reader out there is living in an SF world when he or she plugs into a PlayStation game, and Card entices those players by showing how much fun his vision of the future is with null-gravity and gameplay. Ender comes across always as a real person with real problems. The pacing is quick, always pulling the reader into the next situation, providing tidbits of information that locks in the bigger picture by the time the reader gets there. Card's creation of words, situations, and tech-and the ease with which his characters (and the readers!) interface with it-is amazing. This book is heartily recommended for readers already familiar with SF through Heinlein and Asimov, and to new readers who want a deeper and more immersive experience than the world presented by the latest video game. Well-written books are the closest things to virtual reality that exist at this time, and ENDER'S GAME is one of the best.
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Summary: Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever
Review: SUPERB! There is no other book like it. The development of the caraters, AWSOME. The Novel keeps you guessing untill the very end. I wish I could go back and read it for the very first everytime, and I have read the book 8-12 times thus far. And I will read it again and again and again. A must buy. 3 thumbs up.
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Summary: A Proteus Among Books
Review: Besides the brilliant writing and beautiful plot of this incredible story, I was struck by the hundreds of angles from which it can be seen. Every time I read it, it's something different -- a psychological chiller, a classic space adventure, a social criticism, a haunting love story... The things you can get out of this book are endless. Nobody I've talked to can agree on what it's about, much less what it means! But one thing is sure: once you read "Ender's Game," you will never see things quite the same again.
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Summary: One of the great classics of sf
Review: I know this is heretical, but in terms of sheer enjoyment I actually prefer some of the sequels. The mood of _Ender's Game_ is a bit oppressive, and as a former homeschooler who has never fit in well to conventional peer groups I find the social world of Battle School frightening and even repulsive. Of course, that's the point--the book appeals precisely to nerdy people like me who identify with Ender's anxiety and isolation. We would love to think that, like Ender, we are brilliant heroes on whom the world's salvation depends. And that's where the book gains its power. It sucks us in by making us identify (in wish-fulfillment) with Ender's brilliance and his unique role in history, and then it clobbers us with the realization of the horrific cost of being a hero. _Ender's Game_ is the answer to the legions of juvenile books in which young heroes, "just like us," solve the unsolvable mystery or stop the evil treasure-hunters or save the universe from the forces of darkness. Card says, in effect, "So you enjoy imagining yourself a hero? What if, suddenly, you found out that what you had been imagining was real? What if the heroic games you play really resulted in the deaths of millions, in the extinction of a sentient species? How would you feel then?" Yet _Ender's Game_ is no simple morality tale. There's plenty of morality in it, but it can't be expressed in a formula (which means that the preceding paragraph is only partially accurate). Card brings this home in the sequel, in which we see how from idolizing Ender humans come to hate and despise him (ironically through his own writings and those of Valentine), and yet neither response really fits the reality of what he did. For Ender cannot be reduced to a stick figure, unlike most characters in sf. The great strength of _Ender's Game_, the reason it is one of the greatest books of its genre, is the characterization of Ender. This is not without flaws (does anyone really believe, imaginatively, that Ender is quite as young as Card would have us believe? This will be a strength when the movie comes out, since the movie will almost certainly have to add a few years to Ender's age), but it is one of the great triumphs of sf, a genre not known for its characterizations. _Ender's Game_ is not primarily an adventure story or a novel of social criticism; it is above all the story of Ender's struggle to save his soul, to develop his gifts without destroying himself and those around him. Does he succeed? Read the book and decide for yourself.
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Summary: Gripping
Review: This book is an excellent book! With a gripping tale, a heartwarming protagonist and descriptive narration, it's not a tale to be forgotten. Ender is brilliant(ly written). His character has been fully fleshed out, and indeed he seems so real, you share his every heartache and his every pain. There've been loads of issues that have been dealt with by the author, but I'm not here to make an analysis of style, character or theme, so suffice it to say that this story is so unstorylike and yet so fantasylike that it will capture your imagination and take you on an emotional rollercoaster like no other. and if you're only in it for the action and gory, well, there's plenty where that came from.
I picked this book up by accident at a bookstore and I've read it and reread it a thousand and one times, it's THAT good.
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