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I've been meaning to read this one for ages now. I bought it back in the 90s, but it's been sitting on my shelf since. But with the movie coming out soon, I decided I'd better read it first. Besides, it's a Hugo and Nebula award winner; I should read it just for the good of my soul, right? That's why I bought it way back when.
The premise (which probably everyone knows) is that Earth was attacked twice by an alien race called buggers. We barely defeated them, and now we're hoping to attack the buggers at their home world. In order to do this, we need to find someone to command our forces, already en route, when they get there. So a Battle School was created and there children are trained to see if they can handle the demands of command. Ender Wiggin is selected for the school (in some sense, bred for the school), and Ender's Game is his story as he's trained--including the friendships, hatreds, and manipulations he's put through during the grueling process.
The book is almost instantly engaging, drawing you into Ender's struggles as he's first tested by the removal of his monitor on Earth and forced to deal with the regular kids at school and his own brother's viciousness. Only his sister really keeps him together. He's then taken off to the Battle School in space, where he ends up meeting fellow students who will become his commanders . . . if he survives the rigorous and ruthless teachings and those students who resent him. I thought the descriptions of the training and the interactions with the other students were completely believable, while the situations and set-ups--the actual battles and the training--were still relevant for today's high-tech world. There is a flavor of the science being outdated, but you aren't reading the book for the science. You're reading because of Ender and the other characters. And the feel of the Battle School is timeless, in that everyone has been in such a situation, with a group of peers, some bullies, others allies, etc. In that sense, the story itself is timeless.
I can't write this review without addressing the controversy brought out by the author and his personal and political beliefs, which he has made abundantly clear online and elsewhere. I knew of these beliefs before I started reading the book, but consciously attempted to read the book without taking his expressed views into account. I will say that the book stands on its own. Yes, there are hints of Card's beliefs in this book--how could there not be?--but the story itself does not suffer from this. The book is good, and should not suffer from whatever opinions Card has expressed elsewhere.
So, definitely something people should read, even with the slight outdated feel of some of the science and computers. I can't wait to see what they do with this for the movie.
The premise (which probably everyone knows) is that Earth was attacked twice by an alien race called buggers. We barely defeated them, and now we're hoping to attack the buggers at their home world. In order to do this, we need to find someone to command our forces, already en route, when they get there. So a Battle School was created and there children are trained to see if they can handle the demands of command. Ender Wiggin is selected for the school (in some sense, bred for the school), and Ender's Game is his story as he's trained--including the friendships, hatreds, and manipulations he's put through during the grueling process.
The book is almost instantly engaging, drawing you into Ender's struggles as he's first tested by the removal of his monitor on Earth and forced to deal with the regular kids at school and his own brother's viciousness. Only his sister really keeps him together. He's then taken off to the Battle School in space, where he ends up meeting fellow students who will become his commanders . . . if he survives the rigorous and ruthless teachings and those students who resent him. I thought the descriptions of the training and the interactions with the other students were completely believable, while the situations and set-ups--the actual battles and the training--were still relevant for today's high-tech world. There is a flavor of the science being outdated, but you aren't reading the book for the science. You're reading because of Ender and the other characters. And the feel of the Battle School is timeless, in that everyone has been in such a situation, with a group of peers, some bullies, others allies, etc. In that sense, the story itself is timeless.
I can't write this review without addressing the controversy brought out by the author and his personal and political beliefs, which he has made abundantly clear online and elsewhere. I knew of these beliefs before I started reading the book, but consciously attempted to read the book without taking his expressed views into account. I will say that the book stands on its own. Yes, there are hints of Card's beliefs in this book--how could there not be?--but the story itself does not suffer from this. The book is good, and should not suffer from whatever opinions Card has expressed elsewhere.
So, definitely something people should read, even with the slight outdated feel of some of the science and computers. I can't wait to see what they do with this for the movie.
