Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game
When humanity is under threat from an alien race, Ender Wiggin, at the age of six, leaves his family on Earth to journey to the Belt. There he enters the Battle School, where his life is strictly disciplined by mind games and computer mock-battles fought in deadly earnest.
Instinct, compassion and genius make Ender unequalled. But while he trains, the invasion approaches fast. And Ender will be pushed to the limits of endurance, for his is a unique destiny…
When I attended Conflux last September, I took a fantasy writing workshop with Karen Miller. She conducted the entire workshop with a lot of passion, but one of the things she said with absolute authority was, “If you haven’t read Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game, then you need to go out and read it.”
I finally got to reading it and I’m so very glad I did.
Orson Scott Card creates a world that is so very different to the one we know, and yet it all seems so possible that it doesn’t stand out as being unrealistic. While it takes a while to understand how the world is working, the not understanding doesn’t take away from the first section.
I found the amount of psychology in this book amazing. What happens when you ‘break’ someone? How far can you push a person until s/he ‘breaks’? Can we truly ‘condition’ a life, ruling out the nature of nature versus nurture?
This is truly a superb book filled with psychology, politics, what makes humans ‘human’, how we communicate, whether age truly make a child or an adult, and many other things. If you open your mind to possibilities, this book can very well cause you to examine the world and how it works closer.
I highly recommend this book to everyone, even if you aren’t a big fan of science fiction. This book is so much more than its genre. If you are a writer, you have even more reason to read this book because it is an excellent example of letting go of loving your characters and learning to put them through the worst of everything.
*If you liked this review, check out my interview with author Dwayne Anderson
January 4th, 2008 at 12:03 am
[...] for the Dead did not set my mind spinning like Ender’s Game did, but I still enjoyed thought-provoking storylines. As I expected, Card made me think long after [...]
January 5th, 2008 at 11:20 am
Ah! One of my all-time favorites! The Tour Manager turned me on to it while we were dating; he buys lots of copies because when he loans them out, they have a habit of not returning…