Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card

Ender’s Game is a 1985 military science fiction novel by American author Orson Scott Card. The book originated as a short story of the same name, published in the August 1977 issue of Analog Science Fiction and Fact. The novel was published on January 15, 1985.

Reception of the book has been mostly positive. Ender’s Game was recognized as “best novel” by the 1985 Nebula Award and the 1986 Hugo Award in the genres of science fiction and fantasy.

Book Summary

This is a story about a boy named Ender who lives with his mother, father, and two older siblings, Peter and Valentine.  All of the children are intelligent, but Ender, unlike his siblings, seems to have the potential to be a brilliant military leader. As a result, he is taken away to be trained by Colonel Graff for the war against the buggers, an alien race looking to invade Earth.

When Ender arrives at battle school, he is put through a series of tests and introduced to various battle simulators, video game-like simulations of space battles.  He performs excellently and is assigned to one of the several armies. He is initially advised to remain out of the war games, but he discovers a superior winning strategy. Despite his success as a tactician, Ender is despised even more, but he does teach those who want to learn from him on the side.

Meanwhile, Peter and Valentine create fake personas and begin political discussions on the net.

After graduating early from battle school, Ender is trained on a dedicated battle simulator.  And when that becomes too easy, he trains with Mazer Rackham, an old war hero.

Under this new training, Ender is pushed to the limit and nearly breaks down as his battle simulations become increasingly more difficult.  

Ender finally has one last battle simulation that involves a planet and several thousand ships.  He wins the game, but then is told that all of it was real.  That he was commanding real ships in what he thought was a simulation.

Ender is proclaimed a hero, but still fears Peter, who has great political influence on Earth.  In the end, Ender finds a bugger cocoon and takes it with him as he travels in space with Valentine.

Analysis

There’s a lot to say about this story, but what draws my interest and attention is the idea of using children in intergalactic war.

Throughout the story, it is sometimes difficult to remember that most of the main characters are children.  In Ender’s society, children are often forced into maturing quickly for military endeavours.  

But why children?  Isn’t it more practical to train more physically mature people to fight? The explanation given is that the military wants individuals who are willing to react to situations without thinking about the consequences.  Children are able to act this way because they haven’t lived long enough to understand the scope and bigger consequences of their actions.  

While cruel, this type of thinking is valuable and necessary in the battle against the buggers because of how the buggers learn and adapt.

Also, a lot of the battles are battle simulations, or at least perceived as battle simulations to the children.  It’s this perception of a game that allows the children to learn, strategize, and take risks that would not be possible had they known it was happening in real time, which says a lot about how children learn and how humans learn in general.