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Enders game

Front cover of an edition of Ender's Game.

Ender's Game is a science fiction novel written by Orson Scott Card. It was first published in 1985. It is a novelization and expansion of, "Ender's Game", a short story originally published in Analog Magazine in 1977. A film based on the novel was released in 2013.

Plot[]

Ender Wiggin was born into a future Earth who was fighting an insectoid alien race called the Buggers. He was the third child of the family, which is unusual because of strict population control laws set by the government. Because of this he has infrequently bullied by his brother and classmates. Eventually one of these encounters becomes violent and Ender seriously injured a school bully. Based on Ender's actions, the governmental organization, the International Fleet, comes to take Ender away to Battle School, a space station millions of miles away from earth where the most potential children on earth are trained to become commanders of Earth's fleets.

At Battle School, Ender initially is intentionally singled out by the staff, but he soon gains respect and moves through the ranks. The International Fleet pins all of their hopes to Ender and soon Ender finds school to be progressively harder, but he simply passes all of the tests imposed. Throughout the book, the children are trained by playing games, such as a zero gravity arena where children use fake guns, Ender thinks that they are just games, but are they really?

Awards[]

  • Hugo Award for Best Novel
  • Nebula Award for Best Novel

Praise[]

  • "Card understands the human condition and has things of real value to say about it. He tells the truth well -- ultimately the only criterion of greatness. ENDER'S GAME will still be finding new readers when ninety-nine percent of the books published this year are completely forgotten." - Gene Wolfe
  • "A gripping tale of adventure in space and a scathing indictment of the military mind. Recommended." - Library Journal
  • "The games are fierce and consistently exciting. The cast...offers memorable characters....And the aliens leave an intriguing heritage to mankind." - Locus
  • ". . . an affecting novel full of surprises that seem inevitable once they are explained. The key, of course, is Ender Wiggin himself. Mr. Card never makes the mistake of patronizing or sentimentalizing his hero. Alternately likable and insufferable, his is a convincing little Napoleon in short pants." - The New York Times Book Review

External links[]

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