Ender's Game

Orson Scott Card

Apr 2010 · The Ender Saga Book 1 · Sold by Macmillan

About this ebook

Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game is the winner of the Nebula and Hugo 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.

Ender's Game is the winner of the 1985 Nebula Award for Best Novel and the 1986 Hugo Award for Best Novel.

THE ENDER UNIVERSE

Ender series
Ender’s Game / Ender in Exile / Speaker for the Dead / Xenocide / Children of the Mind

Ender’s Shadow series
Ender’s Shadow / Shadow of the Hegemon / Shadow Puppets / Shadow of the Giant / Shadows in Flight

Children of the Fleet

The First Formic War (with Aaron Johnston)
Earth Unaware / Earth Afire / Earth Awakens

The Second Formic War (with Aaron Johnston)
The Swarm /The Hive

Ender novellas
A War of Gifts /First Meetings

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Ratings and reviews

I really want to read this book. I really do! But I also have to limit my spending. So, I decided to try to read JUST the first chapter, see if I liked it. Well, unfortunately, the sample/preview only encompasses the introduction. So I couldn't even get a feel for the book. I'd really like to read it. I just don't like reading introductions because they don't tell me if I'll like the author's style. That's all.

This book was pitiful. I mean really, I can't believe this gets the ratings it gets. I have so many complaints about this book I won't fit them in merely a 1000 more characters. To make it short: Character development is ridiculous--none of the characters develop at all. AT. ALL. There is no true internal conflict in any of the characters. Mostly just confusion, and it's really the author's confusion bleeding onto the pages, not the main character's about what's happening to him...Another thing: training is done very 2 dimensionally. Too bad we're creatures who utilize 4 dimensions and another faux - dimension--the mind. Touch is explained very often, but almost never what is being thought, only occasionally what's being seen, never what's smelled, tasted, or heard...it's truly pitiful. There is some fiction including science, but this is by no means science fiction. There were no scenes where I had even an inkling of stress--as though my back was against the wall or even where I found the situation intense...even the fighting scenes are boring. Even as a fledgling author, this work is less than garbage, one of the worst novels in the realm of fiction I've ever read.

Card is a terrible human being whom I have the displeasure of knowing in real life. He is a homophobic, racist, downtalking bigot who is not deserving of the fame and accolades he is afforded. Giving this man your money is like handing your wallet to Bill O'Reilly: you may get an entertaining book, but the devil has your dollar.

About the author

Orson Scott Card is best known for his science fiction novel Ender's Game and it's many sequels that expand the Ender Universe into the far future and the near past. Those books are organized into The Ender Saga, the five books that chronicle the life of Ender Wiggin; the Shadow Series, that follows on the novel Ender's Shadow and are set on Earth; and the Formic Wars series, written with co-author Aaron Johnston, that tells of the terrible first contact between humans and the alien "Buggers".

Card has been a working writer since the 1970s. Beginning with dozens of plays and musical comedies produced in the 1960s and 70s, Card's first published fiction appeared in 1977--the short story "Gert Fram" in the July issue of The Ensign, and the novelette version of "Ender's Game" in the August issue of Analog.
The novel-length version of Ender's Game, published in 1984 and continuously in print since then, became the basis of the 2013 film, starring Asa Butterfield, Harrison Ford, Ben Kingsley, Hailee Steinfeld, Viola Davis, and Abigail Breslin.

Card was born in Washington state, and grew up in California, Arizona, and Utah. He served a mission for the LDS Church in Brazil in the early 1970s. Besides his writing, he runs occasional writers' workshops and directs plays. He frequently teaches writing and literature courses at Southern Virginia University.

He is the author many sf and fantasy novels, including the American frontier fantasy series "The Tales of Alvin Maker" (beginning with Seventh Son), There are also stand-alone science fiction and fantasy novels like Pastwatch and Hart's Hope. He has collaborated with his daughter Emily Card on a manga series, Laddertop. He has also written contemporary thrillers like Empire and historical novels like the monumental Saints and the religious novels Sarah and Rachel and Leah. Card's recent work includes the Mithermages books (Lost Gate, Gate Thief), contemporary magical fantasy for readers both young and old.

Card lives in Greensboro, North Carolina, with his wife, Kristine Allen Card, He and Kristine are the parents of five children and several grandchildren.