Ender's Game (by Orson Scott Card)

This is a classic Sci-Fi novel that anybody with a Hunger Games or space book cravings would enjoy. Yes, people kill each other and 8-year-olds swear constantly, but overall it is a great book.

My name is Jamie, I am seventeen years old and a junior in High School. I was motivated by my English teacher to start reading this book and throughout the book I was required to write notes, complete quizzes, and have class discussions which proves that I have a commendable understanding of the novel The things I liked about the novel is that it portrays emotions such as anger, love, and hate. Examples of this are the love between Ender and Valentine, the anger between Ender and his competitors, and the hate between Ender and his brother Peter. I also like how Card goes in to detail about the events happening such as war, violence, and competition for power. Some examples of this is the wars between the buggers and humans, the violence Ender has to go through against other boys, and the competition that the armies have against each other. I liked this because these emotions and events that occur in the book take place in our lives every day. I only disliked a few things throughout the story such as Ender and his siblings being most intelligent children and the things they did at such a young age. I also disliked how Ender was sent to battle school at the age of six, and the fact that he became a commander and the world was relying on him at such a young age is pretty bizarre. The pacing of the story was great, there was never a time that I wasn’t guessing what was going to happen next. Card used great foreshadowing to create suspense throughout the novel. I thought the character development was great especially for Ender because as a young boy he was very kind and loving but as he got older he developed evil and cruel characteristics like his brother which he hated. The sentence structure was mostly in third person perspective told by the narrator with the exception of the discussions at the beginning of each chapter. I feel a connection with this novel when Card displays many examples of competition because I am a very competitive person and this made me get into the book better. I liked some of the literary techniques that Card used throughout the novel. My favorite was the foreshadowing at the beginning of each chapter because it hinted that there was something exciting going to happen later in the chapter which made me want to keep reading. The foreshadowing also gave me a better understanding at the end of the chapter. People who enjoy science fiction would definitely love this book and even people that aren’t science fiction fans because the novel has a lot of action, drama, and suspense. I recommend the novel Ender’s Game for people of ages above thirteen and for people that enjoy genres such as action, suspense, thriller, and drama. The book does contain some profanity so I recommend a parent reading it before allowing their child to read it.

This book was one of the greatest I have ever read. I love Orson Scott Card and this is the book that launched my love for his novels

My name is Rebecca and I’m a Junior at a high school in San Diego. IMy English teacher had us read this book in order to analyze the themes and characters of the novel. I have been doing this for the past 3 years of high school with every book I have to read so I have had many years to practice this, which makes me a very qualified individual. I found this book to be rather interesting, although I don’t really read science fiction or fantasy. The story was at first, weird, because of the age of the kids and the situation that they were put in. as you get further into the novel, the children are put in very violent situations which makes the story very hard to believe. Also, in the beginning the author is rather vague in his description of what is going on and it took me a couple pages to finally understand what was happening with the characters. I liked how Ender is so shy and sweet in the beginning but eventually turn very violent around the end. One of the things I enjoyed were the description of the “games” that Ender has to play and the action that takes place in the Battle Room. It is very clear how much emotional difficulty Ender goes through whenever he has to engage in combat, and violence, everything that is against his nature. Card also shows very well the change the children have from being playful to hardened mini-adults after so many battles they had to endure. Sometimes, I even forgot that the main characters were young children. A Despite the confusion in the beginning, Orson Scott Card’s writing is very engaging, once you get what is happening in the story. His writing style wraps you up and the chapters tend to flow together nicely. The author also uses a lot of symbolism and foreshadows many future events that will eventually happen to the characters. . I think young children might not be able to completely get the message of the book, and the violence may be a little too much for some. I would recommend this book to anyone that would like an action filled story with a deep message to humanity. Anyone in middle school and above would enjoy this story well and might even get turned on to more science-fiction books.

I read this as an adult having heard about it from a friend. Fantastic science fiction and I immediately passed it on to my son. It is brutal in places but there is extensive discussion of moral issues throughout, and it's deeply relevant to my son's kind of thinking these days. Can't recommend it enough.

I am currently a Junior at a high school in San Diego, California. Surprisingly, in our American Literature class, (a.k.a. English), our teacher assigned us this book to read and analyze. Having done this with every book I have been assigned, I was pretty confident in my abilities. Having said this, I was not particularly thrilled by the idea of reading Ender’s Game, although I had heard of Orson Scott Card, and his series, I am not as fond of the science-fiction genre as others. Despite my apprehension, I found the book to be quite engaging and easy to get in to, except for the first 2 chapters of the story, where you are introduced to the novel as if you knew what was going on, when in fact you don’t. The plot of the story is quite simple, where the initial bad guy good guy storyline is played, but with a deeper message at the end. Despite the high critical acclaim of the novel, the greatness of Ender’s Game does not lie in the initial plot, but more so in the concepts and themes the author brings forth, such as tolerance, (or lack there of), and the constant human habit of assuming to be the elite class in all the universe, among others. Although I quite enjoyed these hidden morals, ideas, such as, young genius children being sent out for training to save the world seemed a little too far-fetched and sometimes interrupted the illusion of Cards writing. The characters develop nicely throughout the book and Cards ability to portray Ender’s emotional turmoil, for example, and the transformation from children to tough soldiers, is admirable. The author also uses plenty of foreshadowing in his writing and, surprisingly, unexpected twists were nicely weaved into the book to make it seem rather unpredictable. In the end I was rather surprised at the depth and even more so, at the pleasure I had in reading the novel. I would recommend this book not just to science-fiction lovers, but to anybody due to the important message the book has to give. Although the book is recommended for Harry Potter audiences and such, the story does contain strong violence, which may not fall to the liking of a guardian that may feel uncomfortable that their 8year old is reading about some 6 year olds fighting to death. But quite frankly children younger than 11 may not understand the concepts presented in this story and should wait until they can fully appreciate this book.

Clearly (from some of the reviews on this site) this book and its intricacies may be beyond the mental maturity level of some younger readers as well as others. This is one of those rare books that is very complex in areas of theme and character development, yet is on an easy enough reading level that struggling high school readers won't become frustrated. Every detail in this book, from the jokes, to the nudity, to the need to have a child lead the International Fleet, is very well and appropriately placed. This is also an excellent book to use for encouraging open discussion on many topics as well as for helping students to understand deeper levels of fiction and human nature than they usually see in print.

Ender's Game was, in my opinion, an amazing story. The way Card (author of Enders Game) depicts human behavior is a real eye opener. His writing has a sense of excitement that just made me want to come back for more. When reading from the perspective of Ender you don't just read about the choices he makes but Card takes you through the process of how Ender thinks. This perspective of not only choice but thought brings you closer to Ender as a reader and allows you to perceive Enders choices in a way you may not have before. Aside from amazing description Enders Game is a bit of a dark story. Throughout the book there are examples of manipulation and violence from both main and supporting characters. Violence in combination with brief, however present, sexuality requires a bit of maturity from the reader. Granted this is no Steven King horror novel, however for these reasons i suggest readers of Enders Game be of age 15 or older. Suggestions and ratings aside, Enders Game is an amazing story full of description, action, mystery, and drama. To those of you who have or choose to read this book, you understand what i mean when i say. This book will make you love reading. Related books include: Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, Children of the Mind, and Ender in Exile.

awesome!