Ender's Game

Rating:
Summary: The next book you'll put in your top five list.
Review: Andrew "Ender" Wiggin is a government-sanctioned third child in a time in our future when population control is strictly enforced. Being quicker, smarter, and brighter than his classmates doesn't help, and when he is sent to Battle School, the elite training facility for future starship pilots and fleet commanders, being the youngest and breaking all the records doesn't win him any friends. The story follows Ender through his trials to prove his worth and be the best in a school full of people who resent his superiority, and in his unwitting battle to save the human race from destruction. This book will only make you want to read the rest of the series, trust me, this is Sci-Fi for people who don't like Sci-Fi.

Rating:
Summary: this....is a great book
Review: Ender's game is an incredibly intense emotional experience. I suspect that its popularity stems from the fact that the more one identify's with Ender, the more one appreciates the book. It is written rather simply for such a complex work, if that makes sense. Card doesn't layer his messages or put them between the lines; he lays them all out at once and lets the reader make what he will of it. While this may put off some elitist readers, I found it very refreshing. There aren't many bad reviews of this book that I have seen, but its best just to ignore those that you do see. They all are written by people who didn't relate to Ender, and as such, couldn't understand what he was going through. If you have ever been ahead of your class as a child, then you will love this book.

Rating:
Summary: Absolutely Astounding
Review: The story is simple: Earth has been attacked twice by an alien race (known as "Buggers" for their insect-like appearance). A floating Battle School has been erected in space to train the brightest children on earth for the eventual final conflict everyone knows is coming. It's not a question of if, but when, and the leaders of the world want to be ready.

The most promising student to ever come along is a young boy by the name of Andrew Wiggin, nicknamed Ender. He is a naturally brilliant tactician and he has one trait that Earth desperately needs, he knows how to win. He knows how to win not just current situations, but how to win permanently. As the book progresses it becomes clear that Earth's only hope of survival rests with this child. It's kill or be killed, and the people of Earth want to live.

The ending will shock you the first time. It will shock you even on subsequent readings. You will find yourself thinking and pondering the book for weeks. After finishing it for the first of many times the only word this reviewer could think of to describe the book was "wow". Even now, after reading and re-reading the book, I feel the same response. Wow. Wow. Wow.

Ender's Game is one of those books that will grab you and keep you in its choke-hold until you finish the book and finally come up for air. Every writer wishes they could write a book half as good as this one. This is the book that made Orson Scott Card, and it remains his best work.

Ender's game is part of a series of books called The Ender Quartet (there are four of them). The Ender Quartet is made up of two sections, Ender's Game and the other three books. Ender's Game is self-contained and does not need the other three. Speaker For the Dead, Xenocide, and Children of the Mind have their own plot arc that is wholly separate from Ender's Game. They are excellent in their own way, but they are not needed to fully appreciate Ender's Game.

In conclusion, if there is one Orson Scott Card book you will ever read, make it Ender's Game.

Rating:
Summary: BEAUTIFUL
Review: i will not be lenghthy.

a beautiful book. it explores minds, the horrible and wonderful parts.

the end blew me AWAY.

the negative review i read said (to me) the reviewer didn't care about any of the characters. pity.

Rating:
Summary: One of the Greatest SF novels of its time!
Review: ENDER'S GAME was a novel that will surely capture the minds of every one of its reader's. From the beginning Card is able to establish a setting which keeps the audience in constant suspense. Based on the rough life of a boy prodigy named Ender who is chosen to save the world. He is put through a series of training exercises along with several other young military geniuses. One of the most captivating of these exercises or games is the battleroom. Here is where the most important skills of military tactics are discovered. Card's masterpiece of a novel could please any reader. It is highly recommended to people of all ages but mostly to the teenage reader.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful and Spectacular
Review: Ender's Game was a wonderful, thrilling, and touching story. The clear writing of Orson Scott Card made the book to the point and easier to understand than it could have been. A real page turner. Ender's Game will make you think about how the future will be. Read the book and feel the thrill I did.

Rating:
Summary: Ender's Game
Review: Ender's game is about a "third", a child born beyond the legal two. He, as well as his brother and sister have been conditioned to be the perfect soldiers for an upcoming war. I have read this, as well as the books succeeding this, and i still find myself coming back to this great story, to read it again, and share in Ender's adventure. This book is the written wonderfully, and is the very entertaining as well. I started reading the book late one night for the first time, and it was so exhilerating, i finished it that night, I hardly slept. I am a great lover of science fiction, and this book has it all. Space fighting, zero gravity battlefields, and an alien enemy. I strongly encourage you to read this book, and be prepared to read the entire book in one night!:-) Orson Scott Card can creat such a vivid scene in your head, that you feel as if you are there. You cannot wait to look around the next corner, and share in Ender's hardships, and in his victories. When he wins, you feel a sense of pride, and when he loses, defeat. But don't worry, There are far more victories than defeats!!!! This book you can ginve to anyone. Even a someone with a dislike for science ficion would love it, i'm sure. That is how well it is written. If you buy this book you wil not regret it. It has been my favorite book for years now, and i see it as mine for more to come.

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Summary: The greatest book ever written.
Review: I first read this book many years ago when I was but a boy, and I can honestly say that this is the book that turned me into an avid reader. The book has obvious appeal for younger readers (Ender, and most of the main characters are children of remarkable ability), but it is by no means young adult fiction. Card uses the childrens point of view to look at humanity in a new and fresh way, in a way that escaped me until later in life. I've reread the book more times than I care to mention here, and it always provides me with new insights.

Probably the most important aspect of the novel is that it just expounds coolness. The plot is incredible and deftly crafted, the characters ring true and win the reader's heart, and every kid and adult reader wants to go to, or wants have gone to Battle School after reading ENDER'S GAME.

I've made many people read this book, and every single one of them has loved it. So now I'm making you read it, and you'll love it too.

Rating:
Summary: A geek fantasy, but without the slave girls...
Review: I hadn't read any "real" science fiction since the 'Foundation' series several years ago. Recently, I was in the mood, and 'Ender's Game' came highly recommended. After seeing this novel praised to the heavens (here and elsewhere) as a classic, I was profoundly disappointed. When referring to a "classic of the genre," one implies a creative and intellectual work on a par with those of Asimov, Clarke, Heinlein, etc. This was more like 'The Last Starfighter.'

Lest I seem deliberately contrarian, I must acknowledge 'Ender's Game' as a fast-paced, reasonably entertaining narrative that touches on several fascinating issues, including the nature and methods of leadership and the manipulation of a fragile human psyche for destructive purposes. Eventually, though, I realized that I had very little novel left, yet Ender and his "soldiers" had yet to see the enemy or fire a single shot in anger. At that point, the resolution of Ender's training, and the truth behind it, were painfully obvious. Card's attempt (in a few ponderous pages of exposition at the conclusion of his story) to transform his "shatterer of worlds" into an exploited, remorseful savior for the misunderstood species he has just unwittingly annihilated feels perfunctory and incongruous. It appears that in SF you don't make the REAL bank without sequels, so I suppose Card had to set one up somehow.

Incidentally, I find it interesting that, as Card mentions in his intro, some readers find lessons here to be learned in military leadership. While Ender's machinations as the commander of Dragon Army indeed seem perceptive and useful in the context of training, the true test of a commander is how well his soldiers perform under REAL stress, with their comrades -friends- dying around them. 'Ender's Game' never explores this, and so to the principals involved it remains a game. It's about as gripping as the "heroics" of young Anakin Skywalker in that pathetic prequel we've all seen.

Maybe, at 25, I'm just too old and jaded to be moved by all this. But at its core, 'Ender's Game' is simply a tired story. The story of a lonely boy genius, isolated by his intellect, who finally crushes the bullies, wins the admiration of the peers who resented him and the adults who didn't understand him, and saves the world by being really, really good at video games. The only thing missing is a princess to rescue.

I'll give Orson Scott Card credit for knowing how to flatter his primary audience. If I were a maladjusted 16-year-old, this novel may have resonated more deeply with me. Its final pages imply that Ender does a lot of growing up in the course of this series. Please forgive me if I don't stick around to find out.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful Morality Play
Review: This novel is one of the most intriguing examinations of the use of military force and its ethical ramifications. What is the appropriate level violence to apply to one's enemies? Is OK to manipulate your own soldiers for the good of the people? The SF plot of the novel allows Card to use the canvass of an intergalactic ware to tell his tale.

Beyond that, Ender makes for a fascinating character. The boy genius is a tortured, sympathetic hero like no other. Upon conclusion of the novel I rushed out and purchased Speaker For the Dead to follow Ender's further adventures.

Often categorized as "young adult," this is a wonderful read for any age.