Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card (I have never gotten his name right...)

“When you play a game of thrones you win or you die.” ― George R.R. Martin, A Game of Thrones

t is hard to read Ender’s Game and not think you are reading about a twenty something year old until his early forties. As a young adult book, I would only recommend this to very mature and very emotionally stable readers.

The book starts off the reader with Ender being six years older. He is being sent to a school in orbit around Earth called the Battle School. Once there, his teachers set him up to be isolated from the other students. He is moved up through the ranks very quickly and makes and loses friends just as quickly. He is very intelligent and it is hard to determine his mental age. He doesn’t think like someone who has yet to make the double digits. The only thing that would make him seem to be younger than his mental age is when he is playing a fantasy game and gets caught up over an image of his insane and abusive older brother.

I am pretty sure this is what he sees in the mirror when he gets to that part

 

Ender keeps getting pushed beyond human capabilities, which is why I would only recommend this to emotionally stable readers. I went through a bad trauma a few years ago that nearly broke my mind and reading this book brought me closer to the edge than I have been since. Students who read this book may believe that this could actually happen to them and I (personally) do not want to answer the question of human mental stress capacity.

When Ender graduates to go onto Command School, four years earlier than others and at the tender age of ten, he is close to being burnt out. A three month vacation on Earth has him staying at an isolated lake house where his sister comes and helps him realize how much he is needed. At Command School, Ender is once again isolated from his peers and spends most of his time in a simulator to practice against the enemies he will be fighting once he graduates. He soon becomes bored and mentions it to a teacher… and that is when things actually get interesting.

From that point on, I could read the book easily. It was eye opening and as someone with a very vivid mind when reading, I had to put the book down to watch the action in my head for a few moments after the climax.

Damn the torpedo's and full speed ahead! Wait, we don't have torpedo's?

If someone were to ask me if this a kind of book that could go from science fiction to science fact, I would say that it is already science fact.

Yep, we are creating future Ender’s if we believe violent videogames create violent children. The book isn’t called Ender’s Life as a Killer, it’s called Ender’s Game. When this book was published, I think the only violent videogame out there was… Pong? Now, I am not taking a stand and saying that violent videogames create violent children. Violent videogames being used to create violent children… Ender isn’t purposely a violent child, is he? He doesn’t mean to kill and many times in the book he mentions how he loves his enemy.

This is the kind of book I grew up reading, only this is the first Orson Scott Card book I have read. For a student who likes this book, but isn’t a fan of science fiction, I would recommend reading the Among the Hidden series.