Ender's Game: A Book Review

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Ender's Game: A Book Review

    For this week's blog, I will be writing about one of the most popular science fiction books ever, Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. Set in the future and told from the perspective of a young child, Earth is at war with an alien race who are attempting to terraform planets for survival. This book deals with many deep themes, from politics to morality in interspace warfare. There is much going on in this complicated book, and it is definitely targeted at an adult audience.

    The protagonist of this book, Ender, is a prodigy handpicked by the governments of the world to prepare to fight the aliens. These prodigies are all trained in one spot, a large space station called Battle School. Ender is 6 years old when he is first sent here. All of the other trainees are also extremely young. While at Battle School, Ender is taught a traditional education, except highly advanced and skewed towards military subjects. All of the trainees were divided into "armies" of 40 people each so that they could learn how to simulate and practice real battle scenarios. The competitions between these armies were very fierce, and much of the early parts of the book were driven by the fighting.

    It is really interesting watching the characters grow and develop, as this book is set over multiple years. There are large amounts of emotional growth between characters, and many relationships are formed and collapse soon after. One of my favorite relationships was between Ender and Bean, a smaller character in this book. While there were not enormous amounts of interaction between the two, every moment was extremely impactful. There are also multiple other books in this series written from Bean's perspective. 

    I think this book is very well written, and I really enjoyed reading it. While the reading level is definitely much higher than some other books, and there are many dark, highly psychological moments, this book is just a lot of fun to read. I have heard that the sequels are also very good, however I have not read theme. Every time I reread this book, there is another highly interesting thing I find that I had missed every time before. From cover to back, this is one of the best books I have ever read.

- Collins

Comments

  1. Alan ChenJanuary 15, 2022 at 6:24 PM

    So basically a main character that goes to war with an alien race by training in an academy. I'm sold. I've read many books of this genre and I readily finish all of them. Nice book review. *Ender.....endermen*

    ReplyDelete
  2. Claire HobsonJanuary 31, 2022 at 9:27 AM

    This is a great book review! I have only seen the movie version of this, though I do plan on reading the book sometime soon. I enjoyed how you included why you liked certain parts of the book and certain characters and their relationships with each other. Great job! - Claire Hobson

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  3. Dan RosuFebruary 5, 2022 at 7:11 PM

    I've only ever seen the movie for this book, and when I saw it I didn't even know there was a book, let alone a series from Bean's point of view. I think Ender and Bean's dynamic is intriguing, so this is good news for me. Your descriptive review has convinced me to read the other books in the series, Collins!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Ansh SinghFebruary 7, 2022 at 5:35 PM

    This book seems quite interesting. When you mentioned the division of armies in the school and how they would compete against each other, it completely spiked my interest. I really enjoy the idea of growing up and dedicating yourself to education while also competing against the other classes (or armies). How you describe this book as, "one of the most popular science fiction books ever" and "one of the best books I have ever read" really drives me to read this book myself.

    ReplyDelete

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