TBR Wednesday: Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

Ender's Game Orson Scott Card Science Fiction  1977 Rating: B

Ender's Game has been in my TBR pile for quite a long time.  I picked it up at a garage sale, I think.  I'd heard good things about it, but really had no idea what it was about, so it sat on my dresser for many months, ready for the right reading moment.  I'm not entirely sure this was it, but it certainly was an out-of-the-ordinary read, at least for me.  

Ender Wiggin is a third, a child allowed to be born because of the extraordinary genetic ability of his siblings, Peter and Valentine.  Both Peter and Valentine are brilliant, but neither of them has what it takes to make it in Battle School, according to those who monitor children as possible enlistees for the International Fleet (IF).  Peter is too cruel and sadistic, and Valentine is too kind-hearted.  Having monitored him for years, the IF determines that six-year-old Ender has what it takes only after he manages to take out a bully with extreme physical punishment.  Ender is taken by space ship to Battle School and his education is directly supervised by Colonel Graff who decides that isolating Ender from his peers will create in him a leader who is capable of fighting the buggers - a race of aliens who have attacked Earth twice and whom humans have only barely succeeded in fending off.  

So begins Battle School.  Ender is immediately singled out by Graff as being the most brilliant and promising of his peers which sets him up for a new round of bullying.  When that fails to destroy him, he is promoted to work with older kids far ahead of him in training.  Each time Ender succeeds, he is thrown into a new challenging and brutal situation to test his abilities of strategy and leadership.  And he does succeed.  He has a knack for seeing possibilities, using non-traditional strengths, and for working with people of all abilities.  But with each round of "promotion," he grows lonelier and more weary, as it becomes clear to him that he can never win a game where the rules change constantly to suit the purposes of the IF.  Ender also grows to despise his own abilities when they result in violence, even when the violence is inevitable and not of his making.  He can't help but wonder if it is worth becoming a leader capable of saving humanity if his own personal humanity is destroyed in the process.

Ender is a sympathetic protagonist.   It perhaps strains credulity to believe a six-year-old is capable of the analysis and decision making Ender displays, but then he is a genius, and this is science fiction.  It is easy for the reader to sympathize with his numerous predicaments because bullying is so universally experienced, as is the experience of being in over one's head.  Ender just deals with it all so much better than anyone else would.  He is a very strong character and his observations about dealing with peers, with authority, with entrenched hierarchical systems seem wise and true.  He behaves the way we all wish we would if we were thrown into such a terrible trial - without resorting to bullying, respecting the weak, acknowledging authority while at the same time holding a mirror up to its innate flaws.  It is quite satisfying to see him always ahead of weaker people in positions of more power.  

However, despite how interesting Ender's education is, it also has a very dark side.  As Ender learns to lead, he becomes capable of almost mechanically destroying anything threatening him.  While he knows survival is an innate urge, he also sees what this process is doing to him and begins to hate himself and wonder if he is not like his older brother Peter inside - cruel and frightening.  At a certain point in the book the reader learns how successful Graff et. al. have been, and it is a bit of a shocking realization what they have done to a nice little boy.  From there the novel only gets darker and darker as Card examines what price winning wars extracts from the winners.  

The violence in Ender's Game is not graphic, but since it frequently involves children, it is disturbing and sad.  This is an engrossing read, but it's certainly not light and does provoke a certain amount of uncomfortable thought.  As the plot progresses and Ender's sanity is further and further strained, it becomes harder and harder to read.  I can recommend Ender's Game as an original novel with a subject worthy of contemplation, but it's unlikely that I will re-read it or go on in the series. 

tags: books  science fiction  tbr wednesday