This book became one of my favorite books of all time before I had reached page 100! I only read it about 23 years after it was first published, and imagine that this could have been a major influence on the way I think if I had only read it two decades ago. The story is great, and the characters are very well done, but what really makes this a great piece of art is what takes place in the mind of the main character, Ender.

Ender is a child chosen to be the new leader of Earth's armed forces against a race of aliens whom the various societies of Earth feel is technologically superior and will eventually try to destroy us. Military scientists hypothesize that every 100 years or so a great military mind, like Napoleon, is created. The military wants to find the next ‘Napoleon’ and nurture him as quickly as possible to lead the interstellar fight. Ender is chosen because he exhibits both the genius and emotional balance that the great leaders always seem to possess.

There is a much shorter parallel story followed on Earth between Ender’s two older siblings. The middle child is his sister, Valentine, whom showed genius, but far too much kindness. His older brother, Peter, showed some of the genius, but seemed far too hostile and self absorbed to be a great leader of men. However, on Earth these two eventually work together to take over the governments. That actually is too brief of a description of what transpires. Peter, horribly cruel, but aware of his superior intellect realizes that there is an opportunity during a time of transitioning governments to become a true leader. Using Pericles, Lenin, Hitler and Napoleon as examples, he convinces his sister that when and if the war with the aliens ends, there won’t be much of a reason for the world governments to remain united, and in the chaos someone with brilliance has a chance to rise to power. Peter thinks he has convinced his sister to help him, although in reality she helps him in order to help control him. Peter

I'm extremely impressed that the author came up with a futuristic version of something that is very similar to the Internet, well before it existed in the minds of most people. In a recent interview in Yahoo Magazine, Orson Scott Card commented on how he thought it was only natural that there would be a global bulletin board system that people would voice their political views on.

This global bulletin board system is something like a giant Usenet group, and it is here that the two children rise to anonymous fame as two separate writers arguing opposing political viewpoints. Peter cleverly decides that his character will be the thoughtful left thinking kind orator, and his sister will be the right wing conservative extremist. This way both sides are tempered with viewpoints of the others, and they have to help one another with each posting. Their anonymity and fame works, where even their parents eventually are commenting around the dinner table about their articles without knowing they are sitting with the writer’s themselves.

There is one very interesting line in the book that deserves mentioning. Peter is trying to convince Valentine that they could influence the world with their writing. Valentine tells Peter that there is a word for what they are, “children”, and they are treated as mice because of it. Valentine says “Peter, you are only twelve.”. Peter says, “Not on the Nets I’m not.”. This is almost twenty years before the famous New Yorker cartoon was released with the dog on the computer saying “On the Internet no one knows you are a dog.”.

However, the majority of the book takes place following Ender. Peter and Valentine really don’t make any true contact with Ender for the rest of the book, but they are always there in Ender’s mind. I cannot get the image out of my mind that they are almost the good angel and bad devil sitting on each of Ender’s shoulder’s while he is making decisions. After Ender is chosen, he is torn away from his family and placed in an odd training world where children are forged like pieces of metal to be the ultimate fighting machines mentally. (As opposed to physically, like in the Kurt Russell movie "Soldier".) He and other young children who would probably be best described as ‘runner-ups’ are trained in an orbiting space station. From the beginning we are shown that Ender’s training is going to be both mental and emotionally. Ender’s teacher purposely sets him up so that he will not be able to become too friendly with any of the other kids. Fully understanding the bullying nature of children, they set up Ender to be a figure of admiration and of envy, with no adults to lead him.

The teachers want him to be isolated. To never be able to think that someone else will ever be there to help him. They feel that they are hurting Ender, but if the aliens were to come to Earth, then everyone would be suffering worse than he would be during his several year training. The teachers have a specific mental plan for how they want Ender to turn out. They need him isolated from the others, and somewhat from their training regimen. They know that he is not to be just a brute soldier but instead must be kept separate from the training in order to remain creative. But he cannot remain alone, because he will need to be a leader. And not just a leader of men, but a leader of subordinate leaders as well. Ender is purposefully put in dangerous situations where he has to earn the right to ‘take command’ over already established leaders. The trainers are clearly stacking the deck against Ender, but it is only because they know that he will eventually handle these situations and grow as a military genius because of them.

The primary training involves a game in a zero gravity square room with random non-moving obstacles. The children were suits and are given special guns. These guns will freeze an opponent’s limbs if hit making that appendage useless and eventually making the solder ‘technically’ dead when all he can do is float motionless until the match is over. Teams are set up where the children are to work together to get to the opponents side of the room and exit through their doorway. This sounds simple, and it is in the beginning. The game becomes more and more complicated as Ender, and others, come up with new strategies and ways to play the game. What is amazing is that I can almost feel the author coming up with the new concepts with the game as Ender does. I wouldn’t be surprised if he just put himself into the mind of the character and played it out until he came up with the new ideas to put into the book. I was amazed more than half a dozen times at how much the game changed due to strategies learned and adapted by the children.

While Ender is going through all his training, there is also an interesting computer game that he plays on his private ‘laptop’. This game set in a fantasy world apparently analyzes things his mind is thinking of, and responds based upon his emotional states. Even the trainers are surprised at some of what his computer does to him. The game is full of symbolism that Ender, his trainers and ourselves have to slowly realize so that we understand what emotional problems are arising with him next.

Ender’s training will eventually take him to a new game in a new environment surrounded by some of his best sparring partners and subordinates, all children. The children in the book are all still pre-teens. This bothered me a little bit, because they seemed to be acting at a more mature level than I think they should have. I suppose putting them at a teenage level would have added emotional complications considering puberty and the roles of the men and woman in combat, but it might have been more appropriate.

There are actually some more subplots in the story. A minor character in the book, but a major one in Ender's world is Mazer Rackham. This was the original military genius who rose to power and chased off the aliens decades earlier. There is actually some great depth to his story that is a wonderful read as well. The primary trainer of Ender is not even mentioned by name until more than half way through the book, but he is always there in discussion with other military leaders insisting that he knows what he is doing, regardless of how cruel or dangerous it seems. He doesn’t have much of a story, per se, but is still a fascinating character.

The author has a true knack for describing thoughts in a way that gives us a sense of discovery with the character, and explains the logical solutions as Ender does. Ender’s thoughts about strategy are where the book truly shines. This book is a MUST READ for anyone who enjoys playing strategy games, or even reading about military history.



Recommended: Yes