Shelf Life

Card, Orson Scott. _Ender’s Game_. New York: Tor, 1994.

OK, I have a lot of favorite books but this book has such wide appeal I am listing it as my favorite. At first glance you might think this story is rip-off of Heinlein’s Starship Troopers but Card is a much better writer than Heinlein. Heinlein is too heavy-handed with his messages. Card is more subtle and better at creating believable characters.

In Ender’s Game mankind is threatened by an insect-like alien race with whom communication is immpossible. In a desperate attempt to find a leader who can lead the Earth fleet against the inscrutable “buggers,” promising children are taken from their families and sent to “Battle School”. There, they are turned into soldiers. They are tested against each other in simulated battles. Ender Wiggin is the best of the best. He is smart, charismatic, and he has a killer’s instinct.

With each victory, the adults in charge increase the pressure on Ender and his “jeesh”, his squad of child-soldiers. The odds are increasingly stacked against him, yet he keeps winning. But will the increasing pressure break Ender? Even if he doesn’t break, is he good enough to beat the “buggers”?

This is the first in a four-part series. The others are Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, and Children of the Mind. The author also created a parrallel series centered on a different character from Ender’s Game. Bean came to Battle School even younger than Ender and is even smarter than him. He is the protagonist in Ender’s Shadow, Shadow of the Hedgemon, Shadow Puppets, and Shadow of the Giant. All of the books in both series are excellent.

Mr. Doyle