How far would you go to save the world? Orson Scott Card’s thrilling novel, Ender’s Game, answers just that. The young adult sci-fi we’ve all been waiting for, Ender’s Game, is told from the perspective of bullied outcast Andrew ‘Ender’ Wiggin, taking place in a future where aliens (‘buggers’) have been attacking Earth. As a counter measure, the government has created a military base outside Earth’s atmosphere, in preparation for another war. Ender and other young prodigies are trained to fight and to use their technical genius to outsmart their enemy. Rather than becoming a predictable ‘doomsday’ plot with crying, heroism, and explosions, Ender’s Game focuses on the humans rather than the aliens – how fear made ordinary people into monsters and children into malevolent soldiers.
       Constantly teased for being a third child or ‘Third’ by bullies, and abused by his sadistic brother, Ender seems to have gotten the short end of the stick in life. At least he still had his monitor – a device that reads minds and determines whether the child tests out for Battle School – in longer than Peter. Peter had his monitor removed at age five, and Valentine’s at three, so when Ender still had his at six it had been a source of pride in his family (though Peter hated him for it). After his monitor was removed he was led to believe he flunked out and feels useless, like a mistake, only to find out it has been a test to see how Ender would react to a lack of authority and surveillance. Thrust into the world of interplanetary warfare, Ender struggles to get his bearings in this entirely new and intimidating landscape, fighting to the top of the ranks.
         What really made me fall in love with Ender’s Game was Orson Scott Card’s technique. The words flow with the scene, and though it got a bit sappy at the end, his ability to make the emotions come across to the reader had me hooked! The story is told from a third person limited perspective, following Ender through the journey, though the reader can really get a feel for the character. The language is powerful, using phrasing like “home was merely dull ache in the back of his memories,” the tone conveying with great vigor and emotion how Ender had felt. Another thing that I have found particularly interesting was that Ender was victimized for being praised by the teachers, which made all of his fellow students hate him and only see him as competition. It takes an amazing author to recycle a plot as old as ‘humans versus aliens’ (buggers in this case), and still make the plot come alive.
       Despite writing in third person limited, the perspective occasionally changed to Valentine, to provide an outlook to how things were on Earth, how Peter and Valentine were. Peter, manipulative and power-hungry throughout, was prone to using his knowledge to get everything he wanted. A static character, he was willing to cross any lines and go to absurd lengths for absolute control, and this wrath terrorized Ender – both when Peter deliberately hurt him and when Ender feared he was becoming him. Valentine, on the other hand, couldn’t have been more different from Peter. Compassionate, timid, and sympathetic, Valentine had been closest to Ender and protected him from Peter, making it that much harder for Ender to leave home. Towards the second half of the book, Peter and Valentine’s roles become more important to the plot as they grudgingly worked together.
       The well written characters, realism, plot twists, and originality that were put into this book made it stand out – and people noticed. The novel’s relatability hits hard, with scenes that make you wonder if this dystopian future is truly impossible. Reviewed by big name publications like The New York Times and The Globe and Mail, Ender’s Game became an overnight sensation. Winning both Hugo and Nebula awards, it was renowned as a guaranteed crowd pleaser, and became a major motion picture event in 2013. Paving the way for three more in the series, Ender’s Game was a heart-stopping, intense roller coaster of emotions from start to finish. Get ready for a space adventure that will blow your mind (literally, if you’re a bugger).