ENDER'S GAME (The Ender Quintet #1) by Orson Scott Card


I decided to take the plunge and see what all of the hype was about.

 Originally published in 1985.
Winner of the Nebula Award (1985).
Winner of the Hugo Award (1986).

Ender's Game is a classic and I had not read it until now. Why? I don't know. I was reading a lot of science fiction when it came out, but I just missed it. Of course, I couldn't miss all of the sequels and prequels that came in the ensuing years but I figured that I was just too far behind to catch up. 

 But, when the movie came out this fall a cousin of mine told me that he had gone to see it because he read it multiple times as a kid and loved it. So, I decided to take the plunge and see what all of the hype was about.

 The positives:

Orson Scott Card. Photo by Nihonjoe
-Orson Scott Card creates an interesting, integrated universe to tell this story. It holds together well and has a solid internal consistency.

 -The descriptions of the command school battles and the way that the command school operates are quite good - in fact, the battle scenes are excellent.

 -Considering that the book was written in 1985 (and edited a bit in 1991) Card's descriptions of the internet and internet forums and online news agencies that are reminiscent of the Huffington Post are amazing, simply amazing.

 I liked the ending with the computer game simulation - which I will not go into to avoid spoilers.

 The negatives:

 -The story line involving Ender's sister and brother, Peter and Valentine and their plot to manipulate public opinion to take over the world is weak and I found it to be an unwelcome distraction from the much more interesting Ender at the Command School story arc.

 I rate this book 4 stars out of 5.

 This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Ender's Game (The Ender Quintet)

Reviewed on December 29, 2013.

Note: this book was challenged by a parent of a 14 year old student in South Carolina. This resulted in a police investigation of the teacher for distributing pornography. In my review I mentioned nothing pornographic. From the various articles I found, the parent was objecting to curse words. See this link for more info.

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