Book Review: ‘Ender’s Game’ by Orson Scott Card

Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card is one of the classic sci-fi books that I had been eager to read for some time. All I knew of the story was from the film adaption and I kept hearing how much better the book was. I was excited when I finally picked up a copy as I expected the novel would dramatically expand on both the characters and events of the story.

However as I was reading I realised I wasn’t enjoying the book as much as I’d expected. I think part of the problem was that, for me, the book had been so over-hyped to the point where story could never live up to my expectations.

In the book, Earth is building up to its third war against an insectile alien race. After narrowly winning the first two wars, Earth is determined not to be caught by surprise this time. The plot focuses on Ender, a young boy who is believed to be the heralded commander that will lead Earth to victory – if he can survive battle school. A born genius, Ender excels at strategy and soon proves himself in the mock team vs team battles at the orbital academy. Yet Ender’s success brings such unpopularity that some of the older cadets would rather kill him than continue to have him beat them in the rankings.

Here the book definitely gave me the expanded sequences I was expecting as we see Ender having to outsmart a variety of increasing difficult battles and opponents. The novel format also meant we got to spend more time with characters who were only seen in the background of the adaption. This greater population of characters made the enclosed world at the battle school feel more real.

That said the book was not without its problems.

The first obvious issue is with the ages of the child characters. Ender is only six when he is enlisted and ten when the war starts. His older siblings, Valentine and Peter, are eight and ten respectively when the novel begins. All of the children have a vocabulary far beyond their years. The ‘child super genius’ aspect of the plot never felt believable to me and it made it difficult to become fully absorbed in the novel whenever I remembered that much of the action was being performed by a six year old.

Another problem is with the author’s portrayal of women. I counted only five female characters across the novel – including Ender’s mother, the dead alien queen, and the unhatched female larvae who all have a very limited role and are absent for the bulk of the story. This leaves Valentine and Petra. Valentine was deemed unsuitable for battle school when she was three for being too emotional. She is frequently described as a weakness and a distraction for Ender and spends much of the story the shadow of her two brothers. It is only in the concluding chapters that Valentine starts making her own decisions. Petra is the only female cadet at the battle school. In her limited appearance she is portrayed as fickle – flipping between liking and disliking Ender. While she does join the command school as one of Ender’s trusted allies, she is the first and only named character to have a nervous breakdown due to the pressure. Women have little purpose or value Card’s world where only men and boys make good leaders and soldiers.

Ender had the potential to be a really interesting character – with the focus on brains over brawn – but his violent streak makes him a hard person to root for. There is also the issue with Ender’s perfect winning streak – he never loses. He defeats every enemy, overcomes every challenge, solves every problem. To make Ender a truly interesting character I would have liked to have seen him loose the occasional battle and watch as he learns from past mistakes to improve his strategy for the next encounter.

While I know Ender’s Game is considered an incredible science fiction classic by many, for me the book was a disappointment. Although I’m sad I didn’t enjoy the novel as much as I was expecting I’m still pleased I read it to satisfied my curiosity; however this is not a book I will be re-reading.

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