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| Edition: | Starscape (Paperback) |
| Author: | Orson Scott Card |
| Published: | February 2002 |
| Pages: | 336 |
| ISBN 10: | 0765342294 |
| New: | $3.14 (62) |
| Used: | $0.07 (125) |
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Ender's Game (1985) is the best-known novel by Orson Scott Card. It is set in Earth's future where mankind has barely survived two conflicts with the Formics (an insectoid alien race also known as the "Buggers") and the International Fleet is preparing for war. In order to find and train the eventual commander for the anticipated third invasion, the world's most talented children, including the extraordinary Ender Wiggin, are taken into a training center known as the Battle School at a very young age and trained in the arts of war through increasingly difficult games. Its sequels, Ender in Exile, Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, and Children of the Mind, follow Ender to different worlds as he travels far into the future.
The book originated as the novelette "Ender's Game" published in the August 1977 issue of Analog Science Fiction and Fact. Card later expanded the novel into the Ender's Game series, dealing with the long-term effects of the war. A slightly updated version was released in 1991 to keep political facts accurate (such as the decline of the Soviet Union).
Synopsis
Setting
In the book, mankind has had confrontations with a largely unknown alien race that nearly wiped out humanity called the buggers or Formics. As a result, mankind entered into a shaky truce to help combat the Formics, and an international military unit was formed called the International Fleet (IF). In the futuristic setting, mankind has developed interstellar travel, faster-than-light communication, various new weapons and defense mechanisms, and control over gravity. Earth is governed by two separate bodies, the Hegemony and the Polemarch which compete for dominance during the war.
Most of the story focuses around the Battle School, a military training program for children located in the outer space. All children on earth are tested by the IF and the brightest are taken here for military training. Students are organized into 41 man armies that fight each other in null gravity and upon graduation they move on to either Tactical School, Command School, Combat School, or Pre-Command School. The Battle School was formed in response to the need of highly skilled officers for the wars against the Formics, and most of the officers in the IF passed through the school at one time.
Plot summary
Ender Wiggin is approved by the government for training at the elite Battle School to combat the Formics. Upon departure for Battle School, Ender is immediately singled out by the administration as the most intelligent student, causing other students to dislike him. Ender gains the reputation of an elite soldier and becomes ranked top of all the soldiers in battle school. He seeks refuge from his isolation and frustration in various ways, though is unable to be comforted until his older sister Valentine writes a letter to him, reminding him of the reason he went to battle school in the first place.
After the realization that he is at battle school to protect his sister, Ender is quickly promoted to commander of a brand new Army in the school's zero-gravity wargame league. He quickly molds his young soldiers into an unbeatable team despite being given what appears to be a completely inexperienced army. Ender implements never before heard of strategies and abolishes old methods including the use of formations in the battle room.
Ender is then promoted to Command School ahead of schedule. In command school, Ender is instructed in a game very similar to the Battle Room, only this time instead of commanding soldiers, he commands ships in a 3-D space battle. His subordinate officers are fellow students advanced early from the battle school who later become known as "Ender's jeesh." Each day the games become more and more grueling, and Ender slowly worn down to exhaustion. Waking and sleeping blend together as Ender nearly loses his sanity, but he maintains his military brilliance.
Ender's "final exam" consists of Ender's forces outnumbered 1,000 to 1 near a planetary mass. When the planet is finally in range, Ender orders the use of a special weapon, Dr. Device, against the planet itself, destroying the simulated planet and all ships in orbit. Ender makes this decision knowing that it is expressly against the respectable rules of the game, hoping that his teachers will find his ruthlessness unacceptable and remove him from command, and allow him to return home.
After he destroys the planet it is revealed to Ender that all the simulations were real battles taking place in Bugger space as the human ships sent long ago reached their destinations. Ender realizes that he had just ordered the actual destruction of an entire race, and the guilt of the massacre forces him into a coma.
Ender is convinced, after his recovery, to leave on the first colony ship to another world. On his colony, Ender discovers an unborn Formic queen who can communicate with him through a psychic link. She tells him that her race was not aware that humans were sentient creatures. It was through their defeat in the Second Invasion that forced them to realize humanity's true nature; and had resolved to never attack the Earth again. He decides to atone for his destruction of the Bugger race by finding a place to resurrect the queen, bringing the alien race back into existence. Ender writes a book under the pseudonym "Speaker for the Dead" entitled The Hive Queen, wherein he tells of the compassion and pain of the Bugger race. At Peter's request he also writes The Hegemon to tell the truth of his brother's troubled life.
