Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card

Ender’s Game

(Spoilers)

Ender’s Game is a book about a boy named Ender which takes place in the future. The book is told in a third-person perspective and mainly focuses on Ender but the narrator also jumps to other places far away from Ender, such as his home. The book also makes the reading think about the plot by including parts of dialogue that never say who is talking and not giving away much detail. This feature made the book a page-turner by building suspense in a unique way.

In the book, humans have discovered alien life through space travel. The aliens are not so nice and humans go to war with them. At the beginning of the book, the story goes into Ender's early life as a kid. From when he was born ender was already somewhat special as there was a two-child policy on Earth and his family already had a son and a daughter. The reason Ender was born was not because his parents were breaking the law but because his siblings had shown promise in the battle school (a school where they teach kids to become commanders for the current war with the aliens). As a result of Ender's siblings showing promise the government allowed Ender's parents to have Ender. 

At battle school, located in space, Ender starts to show a lot of promise, succeeding in tasks much older students failed to complete. He quickly becomes the top student at battle school. At battle school Ender and the other students do simulations to practice fights a create strategies. Ender quickly becomes the best at this. After a long time at battle school, Ender is sent to a military base farther in space. There he does more simulations. One day Ender is asked to do one more “simulation”. This is one of the biggest plot twists in the book as no one is expecting what happens. In the simulation, Ender is far outnumbered by enemy ships. Ender sacrificed all of his fighters to destroy the planet behind the enemy ships. Ender made this move thinking that it was only a simulation. After Ender won the battle he is told that the simulation was real. This was also the first time the reader learned about the simulation not actually being a simulation. After the battle, Ender feels terrible as he sacrificed a bunch of people and committed a mass genocide to defeat the aliens. Ender is depressed but also mad about the "simulation".

A little later in the book, humans try to colonize the alien planet. Ender and his sister go to the planet and Ender becomes the leader. On the planet, they discover an egg from the aliens. Ender and his sister leave the planet and go try to find another planet to put it. The egg will create a whole civilization of aliens.  

Overall I would rate the book a 9/10. The book was very good and unique from other books. It was a different read from my usual nonfiction books. The author, Orson Scott Card, built the suspense in the book quite well. As I mentioned earlier there were parts of dialogue that did not give away who was talking and were vague. Although they were vague they gave just enough information to build the suspense and keep you turning the page. The narrator additionally did not give much insight into the feeling of the character but instead showed it through their actions. This kept the reading thinking which was nice as it was not just a mindless read. If you are looking for a good book with an unpredictable plot I would recommend this (even though I just gave away the plot).

-Ross