Ender's Game

Brilliant. Brilliant brilliant brilliant brilliant brilliant brilliant. I could simply end the review there, and that would be a completely accurate assessment of this novel. But that's not how I work.

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card, winner of the Nebula and Hugo Awards in 1985 and 1986 respectively, is a science fiction novel telling the story of Andrew "Ender" Wiggin, a child genius who was born for one purpose: war. A population limit is in effect that bans families from having any more than two children, but Ender is a third, an exception to the rule. The military takes exceptional children to participate in Battle School, to train future commanders to fight against the alien Buggers; Ender's older siblings were both exceptional, but had their flaws: Peter was too violent, and Valentine was too timid. The military asked Ender's parents to have a third child, to be the middle-ground between Peter and Valentine. And, after monitoring Ender's growth for awhile, they decide he is that middle-ground they need him to be, and a man named Colonel Graff comes to ask him to leave his family and join the Battle School. Caring deeply for Valentine, but being bullied by Peter and shunned by other children his age for being a third, Colonel Graff manages to convince him. He takes a shuttle to the Battle School, and his real troubles start.

Ender is an amazing protagonist—he is at times extremely sympathetic, a young boy thrust into a situation no child should be subject to, with all the emotional trauma involved; and yet at other times he can be shockingly brutal, retaliating against his enemies in ways that no normal child would. And he is always genius, and expert at strategy and improvisation, surpassing all the other students at the battle school, earning both ire and respect. He makes friends, he makes enemies, he divides and he unites. And the Colonel Graff, the administrator of the Battle School does all he can to keep Ender isolated, to turn him into a somebody who can order soldiers to their death in order to accomplish any mission.

He goes through hell, and his reward for it will shock the hell out of you. My jaw was open for a good five minutes when the climax resolved. The big reveal, done perfectly.

But enough about Ender. My favorite character is actually Colonel Graff, despite his time on stage being relatively limited. He is resolved to make Ender the best commander he can, but is tortured by it at the same time. He does cruel things, for the sake of humanity, and his personal battles are portrayed very well.

The prose is nothing special, but not flawed in any way. The dialogue is fantastic, especially when the children use their own slang amongst each other.

Some people might be put off by the graphic level of violence portrayed, especially because it is a novel marketed towards teens, and is between children; really though, its no worse than a lot of the stuff on television nowadays.

Overall, excellent book. Despite being published in the mid-eighties, none of the science seems particulately outdated (apart from the "nets"), and there are no over-the-top space-opera-esque scenarios that would make an over-analytical cosmologist or physicist shake their heads in disbelief.

Those awards are well deserved.

Rating: Awesome