Book Bearings
Ender's Game
Book 1 of Ender's Saga
- 330 pages · about 6 hours
- First published 1985
- 105 editions
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1 About this book
Ender's Game is a 1985 military science fiction novel by American author Orson Scott Card. Set at an unspecified date in Earth's future, the novel presents an imperiled humankind after two conflicts with the Formics, an insectoid alien species they dub the "buggers". In preparation for an anticipated third invasion, children, including the novel's protagonist, Andrew "Ender" Wiggin, are trained from a very young age by putting them through increasingly difficult games, including some in zero gravity, where Ender's tactical genius is revealed.
The book originated as a short story of the same name, published in the August 1977 issue of Analog Science Fiction and Fact. The novel was published on January 15, 1985. Later, by elaborating on characters and plotlines depicted in the novel, Card was able to write additional books in the Ender's Game series.
- Science fiction
- Military art and science
- Artificial intelligence
- End of the world
- Space warfare
- Child soldiers
- Automation
- Data processing
2 What to expect
Military science fiction about a gifted young boy taken from his family and trained at an orbital school to command Earth's fleets against an alien enemy. Most of the book is the training: war games in zero gravity, rivalries among the children, and the adults' deliberate isolation of the boy. It is fast and easy to read, and under the action it asks hard questions about using children, cruelty, empathy and the ethics of war.
Good for readers who want: military science fiction, a gifted child hero, and action with moral weight.
3 About Orson Scott Card
Bio adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)
4 More by Orson Scott Card
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