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Title: Ender's Game
Author: Orson Scott Card
Genre: Sci-fi
Rating: 5/5
# pages: Audiobook
Date read: April 2006, July 2007, June 2012, August 2018, June 2025
Summary: In order to develop a secure defense against a hostile alien race's next attack, government agencies breed child geniuses and train them as soldiers. A brilliant young boy, Andrew "Ender" Wiggin lives with his kind but distant parents, his sadistic brother Peter, and the person he loves more than anyone else, his sister Valentine. Peter and Valentine were candidates for the soldier-training program but didn't make the cut-young Ender is the Wiggin drafted to the orbiting Battle School for rigorous military training.Ender's skills make him a leader in school and respected in the Battle Room, where children play at mock battles in zero gravity. Yet growing up in an artificial community of young soldiers Ender suffers greatly from isolation, rivalry from his peers, pressure from the adult teachers, and an unsettling fear of the alien invaders. His psychological battles include loneliness, fear that he is becoming like the cruel brother he remembers, and fanning the flames of devotion to his beloved sister. Is Ender the general Earth needs? But Ender is not the only result of the genetic experiments. The war with the Buggers has been raging for a hundred years, and the quest for the perfect general has been underway for almost as long. Ender's two older siblings are every bit as unusual as he is, but in very different ways. Between the three of them lie the abilities to remake a world. If, that is, the world survives.
Review: In his afterword, Card declares, "The ideal presentation of any book of mine is to have excellent actors perform it in audio-only format." I agree completely. I read the book last year sometime, and loved it then too, but it made an even bigger impact on me this time around, listening to it.
I loved hearing about all the tactics that Ender thought out and felt absolutely terrible for him when he was forced to be more violent than he felt acceptable.
On my first read-through I found the ending a bit disturbing, but this time around, I can see how they didn't have much of a choice.
Book List
Author: Orson Scott Card
Genre: Sci-fi
Rating: 5/5
# pages: Audiobook
Date read: April 2006, July 2007, June 2012, August 2018, June 2025
Summary: In order to develop a secure defense against a hostile alien race's next attack, government agencies breed child geniuses and train them as soldiers. A brilliant young boy, Andrew "Ender" Wiggin lives with his kind but distant parents, his sadistic brother Peter, and the person he loves more than anyone else, his sister Valentine. Peter and Valentine were candidates for the soldier-training program but didn't make the cut-young Ender is the Wiggin drafted to the orbiting Battle School for rigorous military training.Ender's skills make him a leader in school and respected in the Battle Room, where children play at mock battles in zero gravity. Yet growing up in an artificial community of young soldiers Ender suffers greatly from isolation, rivalry from his peers, pressure from the adult teachers, and an unsettling fear of the alien invaders. His psychological battles include loneliness, fear that he is becoming like the cruel brother he remembers, and fanning the flames of devotion to his beloved sister. Is Ender the general Earth needs? But Ender is not the only result of the genetic experiments. The war with the Buggers has been raging for a hundred years, and the quest for the perfect general has been underway for almost as long. Ender's two older siblings are every bit as unusual as he is, but in very different ways. Between the three of them lie the abilities to remake a world. If, that is, the world survives.
Review: In his afterword, Card declares, "The ideal presentation of any book of mine is to have excellent actors perform it in audio-only format." I agree completely. I read the book last year sometime, and loved it then too, but it made an even bigger impact on me this time around, listening to it.
I loved hearing about all the tactics that Ender thought out and felt absolutely terrible for him when he was forced to be more violent than he felt acceptable.
On my first read-through I found the ending a bit disturbing, but this time around, I can see how they didn't have much of a choice.
Book List
