Summary:
Reviews the novel "Ender's Game" by Orson Scott Card. Includes a plot summary and listing of major characters. Critiques the science fiction novel.
Plot + Characters:
So what is "Ender's Game"? "Ender's Game" is science fiction novel by Orson Scott Card. It takes place in a possible future where technology is great, but life isn't as. Aliens, known as buggers, are trying to take over the planet. This isn't the first time we've been attacked though. In fact it's not even the second. A third invasion is weighing heavily on the minds of government authorities and other important people that help run the world.
The government advises a plan to train young men to grow up and beat the crap out of the aliens. Thought they have made many abortive efforts time runs short. Andrew Wiggins, also know as Ender, is their last chance. So can he really do it? Can Ender possibly be able to defeat armies and armies of alien buggers.
Before it all begins you must know that Andrews's life is anything but perfect. He excels above other students in school at basically every topic and is truly a genius of geniuses. But for being so younger and talented he is also hated and envied by many other students. Not to mention that Andrew is born a third. In the future there is laws of allowing only two children in a family. The law is to help prevent population overcrowding. Ender's brothers and sisters were also very intelligent but didn't have the characteristics to be chosen to fight the buggers. The law gave Ender's parent special permission to have a third born. Being born a third Ender is looked down upon and treated not as a human but as an animal, an outsider, and an alien.
Then we have Enders family. Peter is Ender's older brother. He is also very jealous of Ender and bad picks. Peter daunts him so constantly that Ender rarely gets a moment of peace. But regardless of all the times Peter has hurt Ender and threatened to take Ender's life, Peter truly does love Ender. His malcontent and aggression is clearly out of insecurity.
Although Ender's parents love him deeply they do not see his mistreatment. Ender's blissful personality (in front of his parents) belied a stressed out tortured little 6 year old. The only person who helps Ender get through his tough times is his affectionate sister Valentine. Valentine is the only person who sticks up for Ender and truly loves him and takes care of him like a family should.
In Ender's time there are things called monitors. They are used to monitor the thoughts, actions, and feelings of babies and toddlers. Ender, being so special and all, got his taken out 3 years late. On the day that Ender got his monitored removed there was no one to watch over him anymore. A gang leader and his crew accost Ender and threaten to beat him up. The fight was rough, though it didn't last long. Ender smashed the gang leader, named Stilson, into the ground. Ender literally beat him up. Little did Ender know he actually killed Stilson? A good thing he didn't know because the last thing Ender wanted to be was a killer like Peter.
Colonel Graff, who is the head of the battle school in space, sees Ender's talent. He knows Ender is the one who will be the next Mazer Rackham. Mazer is a guy that defeated a great fleets of buggers with very little reinforcements. Battle School is a place where they train young children, mostly males, to fight and act as an army. The teaching comes in the form of none other then games.
Ender accepts Graff's offer for him to go to battle school and is sent there straight away. He isn't allowed to see or communicate with his family until about he is 12 years old.
Ender spends his years in isolation and has few close friends. Among then are Alai, Petra, Bean, and Dink. When he finally gets to command his own army in the school all of his soldiers are abject and vulnerable. Ender whips them into shape and become the leading army. The "teachers" try to push him hard and set up the battles so the odds are way against them, but Ender prevails and beats them again. He wins until he is sick of the game and tired of the competition. Only then to they send him to Command School skipping years of pre-Command School.
At command school Ender trains in a simulator and fights visual images of buggers and their ships. Then one day Ender awake up to find an odd man in front of him. The man is none other then Mazer Rackham. Though, the 2nd invasions were many years ago and Mazer would have been an old man. The situation was that they make Mazer fly in a space ship at a relativistic speed and then much time could pass him by while Mazer only aged a bit. Mazer trains Ender to fight and understand the buggers better. And they even flew some of his old battle school companions up to command school to train with him. Then the day came when Ender was given his final test.
Climax:
Ender's army of squadron leaders and ships fly up to the bugger planet and are surrounded by bugger ships. The buggers outnumber then a thousand to one and Ender can't see a way past them. He tries his best to fight them off but he can't. The weapon he uses to fight them is called a Dr. Device. Ender's only solution is to fire at the planet itself. That is also where the queen is so if could kill the queen he could wipe out their entire race. Ender makes it close enough to the planet, he is nervous because of the judges watching him from behind the simulator.
Resolution:
He fires and the planet and in a big bang almost all the buggers are dead. Except for a few stragglers which Ender defeats anyway. Almost all of his ships destroyed Ender had beaten the buggers. He looked to see what the judges though and they were all in tears. Ender didn't understand. They were supposed to be mad. Then Mazer explains that ever since Mazer had arrived Ender had actually been fighting the buggers. Only instead of being there he commanded real fighters that were actually at the battle scene. Ender felt sick. He had just been tricked in to killing billions of lives. Not only was he sick he was outraged. But what's done was done and he had to get on with his life. Everyone on Earth had seen the footage of the battle and now there was a war going on between the different nations of the earth. But that battle quickly ended and all of Ender's friends return to Earth and their families. All of the fighters were given the accolades of receiving an honorary medal. Ender however was not allowed to return Earth because of the rules. He knew far to many things and it wasn't allowed that the information leaked. Back on Earth over the years that Ender was away Peter and Valentine and reach somewhat of a truce and together they made their way into political debates and basically were world renown. Valentine decided to join a group that was colonizing the bugger planet. Partially because she knew that Ender would never set foot on Earth again. So together they went and Ender was to run his own colonies and help set up the bugger planet so some of the population could move there and live.
When all is well, Ender discovers a secret. The people of Planet Earth and the bugger are both intelligent creatures of the universe but neither could converse with each other. The aliens communicate through thought and there was no way that they would ever understand anything about humans, as we wouldn't about them. But when the aliens figured out Earth was a place of perceptive beings it was to late. They were never going to attack earth a 3rd time but this time we attacked them and won. The bugger left an egg laid by the queen. It told Ender of all the secrets and truths that no human ever knew. They asked it of him to help revive the bugger race on another planet so they could live once again. Later Valentine and Ender decided to go off into space and fly at relativistic speed so they could live longer. Since on earth more then 50 years had past while they flew to the bugger planet at relativistic speed Peter was dead. He had been the Hegemony of Earth while Ender and Valentine were on their way to bugger planet. Before his death Peter and Ender had a chat through the assistance of technology. Ender told him everything about his years away from Earth and Peter told him how his life had been. They finally were at peace with one another. Now Valentine and Ender were flying from planet to planet. Valentine out of leisure, but Ender was secretly searching for another planet to reawaken the buggers.
"The Five Themes of Geography in Relation to Ender's Game"
Location:
One of the main locations is Battle School where, Ender is for most of the story. There is no absolute location mentioned but it is on a station in space.
Place:
The place of Battle School is very conformed. They all wear jumpsuits and eat and sleep in specified places. All the water they used is recycled over and over again and it is very odd way to live.
Movement:
Moving around in Battle school is very different from Earth because of the difference in gravity. In the battle room there is no gravity at all and you are weightless.
Human and Environmental Interaction:
The children at Battle School aren't really there to live but more like a place to fight. The environment is rough on the kids because there are certain standards to be met. Also the way you find you way around is a series of color codes in the floor. In my opinion they designed the space station very well.
Region:
The Battle School Region is very different from Earth also. They ways of living and eating and cleaning are completely different and so is the standard of living.
"Recommendation"
Rating Ender's Game I would give it a 9. It is very well written and keeps the reader in interest of what's going on in the story. The stories plot is also very plausible and the author did a good job of keeping it realistic. I would definitely recommend this book if you a fan of Science Fiction or Action because it has a lot of both involved.
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