Friday, February 15, 2008

Ender Scores

There are not many books that truly excite a person, seduce them into a series, captivate their interest, make them crave for more. There is an even smaller number of authors who are able to put this spell upon a person.

Orson Scott Card can.

In Card's novel Ender's Game, a futuristic science fiction novel, a young boy is forced to go to a battle school in outer space. His older brother Peter was too violent to be given this honor, and his older sister Valentine was too soft. They were both close, but no cigar. So the government allowed Mr. and Mrs. Wiggin to have another kid. That's where Ender comes in.

The idea of a two-kid limit is a theme used in many books, including Lois Lowry's The Giver and Margaret Peterson Haddix's Shadow Children series, both of which were published after Ender's Game. Yet this book does not focus on that idea too much, and thus makes it very original.

So Ender is sent to Battle School with the warning that he might never see his parents again until he is an adult. But six-year-old Ender goes with many other boys, to learn how to fight, and more importantly, to win, against the alien buggers, who are coming back for another war, even bigger than the last.

The book does not portray Ender as a superhuman, mindless fighting machine, nor as an over-emotional wimp. It has very realistic characters, an exciting plot, and is filled with action and thought-provoking lines. It has spawned several sequels (the first of which is Speaker for the Dead) and parallel novels (including Ender's Shadow). In my opinion, it is one of the best books ever written. Orson Scott Card has joined the ranks of the authors who can weave the spell of captivation. Keep writing, Mr. Card, and I will keep reading.

http://www.amazon.com/Enders-Game-Orson-Scott-Card/dp/0765342294/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1203115439&sr=1-1

Grade: 9.5

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