Ender's Game

Ender's Game
by Orson Scott Card
1985
Tor Books
New York
ISBN: 0312932081

Plot Summary:
Ender is the youngest of three children. All manufactured, but for different reasons the older brother and sister did not turn out quite right--at least not for the government. Ender, on the other hand, is just about perfect. Shipped off to military training school when he is still a young boy, Ender learns early to fight back bullies, make allies with the other outcasts, and always strategize. Ender excels at battle games and in authority positions, and the military superiors decide that indeed Ender is the commander for whom they've been waiting. How Ender feels and what he ends up fighting against are rendered increasingly irrelevant by those in power.
Critical Evaluation:
Ender's Game immediately sets its tone as a post-apocalyptic suspense story. Sympathetically told, with lucid storytelling, intricately-wrought battle games, and an extremely fast pace, the novel makes for a quick, yet heartbreakingly thoughtful read.
Reader's Annotation:
One day Ender decides he's not going to take it from the school bully anymore. His action strikes the way on a course for which he will always remain uncertain.
Genre:
Science-Fiction/Post-Apocalypse
Reader Level/Interest Age:
Technically not cataloged as YA, however it reads as such.
Author Info:
Orson Scott Card is a prolific and heavily decorated science fiction author. Ender's Game won the Nebula Award for best novel in 1985, the Hugo Award for best novel in 1986, and was nominated for a Locus Award in 1986. It is the first volume in a six-volume series.
Booktalking Ideas:
*When does Ender's Game take place?
*Were Ender and his siblings synthetically made?
*Who is the world fighting against?
Challenge Issues:
Lots of detailed war games, yet sensitively told and never explicit. Challenges very unlikely.
Why Include?:
In the course of one week, it was recommended to me twice.