Ender's Game (1985)
Ender's Game is a 1985 new york times bestseller book written by Orson Scott Card.
Earth has survived two wars with the Formics, an insectoid species most people call the buggers, and it is bracing for a third. The military's answer is to breed and train gifted children as commanders. Andrew Wiggin, called Ender, is six years old when he is taken to Battle School, an orbiting academy where cadets fight mock battles in zero gravity. His tactical mind marks him early. Card follows the pressure that isolation and constant competition put on a small boy who keeps getting pushed past what any child should carry.
Quick answers
What is Ender's Game about?
Earth has survived two wars with the Formics, an insectoid species most people call the buggers, and it is bracing for a third. The military's answer is to breed and train gifted children as commanders. Andrew Wiggin, called Ender, is six years old when he is taken to Battle School, an orbiting academy where cadets fight mock battles in zero gravity. His tactical mind marks him early. Card follows the pressure that isolation and constant competition put on a small boy who keeps getting pushed past what any child should carry.
When was Ender's Game published?
Ender's Game was published in 1985.
Who made Ender's Game?
Ender's Game was written by Orson Scott Card.
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Ender's Game in our writing
- Companion guide: Alien Contact
- Companion guide: Ender's Universe: The Complete Guide to Orson Scott Card's Enderverse
- Companion guide: Military Sci-Fi
- Companion guide: Space Opera
A few thoughts on Ender's Game
Readers drawn to the strategy under pressure should try Mass Effect 2, where you command a squad against an alien threat and every tactical call carries weight. For the film that puts Battle School on screen, the 2013 adaptation Ender's Game covers the same ground. Starship Troopers pairs a bug war with the same unease about what training does to the young.
Kids handed burdens no child should have to carry
Ender is six when adults decide his talent matters more than his childhood, and Card never lets the cost of that choice fade. The Giver's boy carrying every memory, The City of Ember's kids saving their dying city, Guyver's teenager forced into alien armor, The Scorch Trials' test subjects, and Shatter Me's girl controlled for a power she never chose all carry that same unfair load.
Elite training grounds built to turn recruits into weapons
Battle School runs Ender through zero-gravity war games until tactics become instinct, grooming him for a fight he never chose. Starship Troopers' boot camp turning cadets into soldiers, Mass Effect 2's squad drilled for one impossible mission, Stargate SG-1's team built to face threats from beyond Earth, and Old Man's War's recruits reforged for war all share that same machinery.
Facing down a threat too vast to fully understand
Earth has already survived two wars against the Formics and is bracing for a third it may not win, an enemy humanity barely understands. The 2013 film version, The Matrix's war against machines nobody saw coming, War of the Worlds' invasion nobody was ready for, and Avengers: Infinity War's fight against an enemy that outmatches everyone all sit in that same dread.