fairy skeletons.: Book Review: Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

from indiebound.org

In order to develop a secure defense against a hostile alien race's next attack, government agencies breed child geniuses and train them as soldiers. A brilliant young boy, Andrew "Ender" Wiggin lives with his kind but distant parents, his sadistic brother Peter, and the person he loves more than anyone else, his sister Valentine. Peter and Valentine were candidates for the soldier-training program but didn't make the cut—young Ender is the Wiggin drafted to the orbiting Battle School for rigorous military training.

Ender's skills make him a leader in school and respected in the Battle Room, where children play at mock battles in zero gravity. Yet growing up in an artificial community of young soldiers Ender suffers greatly from isolation, rivalry from his peers, pressure from the adult teachers, and an unsettling fear of the alien invaders. His psychological battles include loneliness, fear that he is becoming like the cruel brother he remembers, and fanning the flames of devotion to his beloved sister.

Is Ender the general Earth needs? But Ender is not the only result of the genetic experiments. The war with the Buggers has been raging for a hundred years, and the quest for the perfect general has been underway for almost as long. Ender's two older siblings are every bit as unusual as he is, but in very different ways. Between the three of them lie the abilities to remake a world. If, that is, the world survives.

Wow. Just... wow. This book was so deep and powerful that I cannot say anything. And yet I must. For the sake of my readers... or lack thereof.

Ender - it's impossible to describe Ender. I don't want to say that I love him, or pity him, or hate him, or anything. I just connected with him so well that I can't say anything but that - I am Ender. Everything he felt in the book, I have felt, maybe less drastically but still, at one time in my life. Orson Scott Card has truly done an amazing job at creating a person who is so like a person that it made my heart just.... ache.

The premise is also very well-done. I mean, it's creative, even by today's standards! The Battle Room was an amazing thing to imagine and... wow... I mean, it's serious. Seriously amazing. Awesome. Whatever.

I'm on vacation so my brain has been turned off, pretty much. One thing - read it now, please.