Winner of the Hugo and Nebula Awards 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.
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. Back on Earth, Peter and Valentine forge an intellectual alliance and attempt to change the course of history.
This futuristic tale involves aliens, political discourse on the Internet, sophisticated computer games, and an orbiting battle station. Yet the reason it rings true for so many is that it is first and foremost a tale of humanity; a tale of a boy struggling to grow up into someone he can respect while living in an environment stripped of choices. Ender's Game is a must-read book for science fiction lovers, and a key conversion read for their friends who "don't read science fiction."
Ender's Game won both the Hugo and the Nebula the year it came out. Writer Orson Scott Card followed up this honor with the first-time feat of winning both awards again the next year for the sequel, Speaker for the Dead. --Bonnie Bouman
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.5 / 5.0
great book I bought this book for my boyfriend, because he's just starting ot get into reading. But I read it before him! It was great!
An excellent young-adult (and adult) sci-fi work. 'Ender's Game' was written by Orson Scott Card and first published in 1977. It has won both the Nebula and Hugo Award for Science fiction novels. I picked up this book after some discussion with another amazon friend who was a great fan of this series (now at 6 books, I believe). This recommendation turn out to be a good piece of advice as I enjoyed reading this work. The tale was well thought out and superbly written; the story itself was intriguing, with enough action and interesting events to... more info
great sci-fi military novel Have you ever wondered what it is like to have an army or have to freeze your own legs to pass a school test? In Ender's Game, Ender does that and much much more, all before he's 13! At age 6 Ender left his family to go to the Battle School. From the very start older kids hated him because he could beat them at all the games in the game room. After only a couple of months, he was put in an army, but could not participate in training, and during battles he was not to enter the fighting. Not long after, he... more info
Great book I bought this book after I watched 'Benders Game', the 3rd Futurama movie. I knew it had nothing to do with the movie but after reading some Wiki I thought it sounded like a good read.
I shouldn't have read so much Wiki about it, almost ruined the book for me, but not quite. It is well written and is a great story. At times I felt like the book was much mor erecent than it is, with the way they descibe the computer networks used, seemed like the internet in the not so distant future. I really liked... more info
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