Ender's Game

Beloved by geeks everywhere, Ender's Game is a perfect example of why I am secretly a bad English M.A. This is the ultimate underdog tale - which is exactly what high school sci fi geeks want. I fell in love with Ender, Valentine, and even the sadistic Peter. Multiple re-readings later, I felt the same way despite my more sophisticated critical reading skills. Imagine my distress when I read a rather convincing essay comparing Ender Wiggin to Hitler. Turns out Orson Scott Card might be something of a wacko conservative. I somehow managed to miss that while caught up in the space-war action. Regardless, this book will always hold a special place in my heart and I recommend it to anyone looking for a quick, fun read.

Holy cow, this book was disturbing, messed with my head, and was impossible to put down!

Psychological, military, and political thriller with a bit of a coming-to-age mixed in with a disturbing prescience at what society was going to look like with advancing computer technology and the military industrial complex.

It is like the author in the 1980s was able to accurately predict video game training for military/police/children to make humans better killers, technology like drones to kill people from the safety of your computer screen from miles away, the INTERNET/blogosphere to spread propaganda, etc.

All of this in a well-written, easy-to-read, advanced psychological thriller with fascinating characters.

My only complaint was how quickly things wrapped up after the war was over, it felt rushed to me, but maybe the other books in the series address this in a more fulfilling manner.

Ender's game is a book a read twice. Once at around twelve and I loved it still then, but I did not understand it in the depth that is deserved to be understood. I read it again a few years later in high school, where I both loved and understood it. Our ML is such a complex character, and every interaction is expressing that he's siblings are just as interesting and honestly, I could have read a story on them alone but combined as well as with the complexity of feeling from reading this book through the eyes of a child and knowing only what he knows and being just as horrified as him when it is done. I adored this book - the movies were okay; the books were transcendent.

Listened to as audiobook. Where has this book been my whole life? This book feels like a combination of 1984 and Ready Player One. I'm trying to avoid spoilers, but this is a heavy read, but I just couldn't put it down. Characters were relatable and while what Ender was going through was unimaginable, you felt like you were along for the ride the entire way.

As a note for the audiobook, the narrators were great. This was a blend of the traditional "one narrator" style and "fully acted". The narrator was typically based on the point of view of who was narrating at the moment. For example, Ender was one voice, the generals was a different one and Ender's sister was a female. There's one point near the end that was a little jarring because two narrators were "talking" to each other, but it gave a nice charm that you don't get sometimes when listening to the book that you get when you have different voices for different people in your own head.

The first half was amazing. The second half was convoluted and morally concerning without being that thought-provoking. In the end it failed its premises

I absolutely love the complexity of the plot, with Card’s ability to draw you into his world incredible. Ended is a highly believable, well-developed character, but every character in the book has a depth to them that leaves you feeling like you understand them at a deep enough level that you can almost empathize with even the villains. The story flows beautifully and keeps you wanting more and more of it, never quite sure where the book is going into it draws to a brilliant close. Easily one of my favorite books ever.

I recently watched the movie version of this with my Dad, and it intrigued me enough to pick up a copy of the book from the library.

Ender is an interesting character, and the story is completely unique and exciting. I only put this book down when I had to, and always picked it up as soon as possible.

I've already read the second book, and am going to write a review for that one next!

surprise ending really got me

The beginning of an amazing series. Ender's Shadow is my favorite.

Ender's Game was a huge inspiration to me growing up - but I liked Speaker For The Dead (Book 2) even better!