Thoughts on Ender’s Game

I just finished listening to Ender’s Game, a book I read at some point probably in middle school that I partially remembered.

I was a big fan.

The Sci Fi

There are many components I enjoyed from the book, one of which is the science fiction nature.

Orson Scott Card creates a futuristic world where humans interact with another species that they begin calling the Buggers.

It feels like a world that could very well happen if we reached interplanetary travel and encountered another species. The book mentions, mostly tangential to the main plot, various events taking place on earth as well that come as a byproduct of the times.

This new reality poses many ethical and philosophical questions — like the fact that the Buggers tried to wipe out humans and failed, so what should humans do next?

The alternate reality, despite this book being written in 1992 still feels very possible and real in today’s world (maybe even more so). It allowed for fun thought experiments about how we might handle such events taking place in the world today, and it serves as another useful reminder of how small we really are in the grand scheme of the universe.

More ethical and philosophical thoughts

Ender, essentially, is born for the sole purpose of fighting for the earth (not too big of a spoiler, it’s revealed pretty early on). He’s forced to do things one could argue no kid should have to do.

His own life, as well as the way that the entire command school is run poses many ethical/philosophical arguments that got me thinking about what’s fair and reasonable and what is not.

Leadership

Throughout the book Ender grows a lot as an individual, and as a leader. Orson Scott Card paints a strong picture of what it might take to help someone develop into a leader (commander), that I found noteworthy.

For example, by isolating him from his peers, he was forced to focus more on his studies and intellectual/tactical growth as opposed to ‘having fun’ or something with potential friends.

He was forced at various points to be the center of attention which pushed him to learn how to handle it, and he was taught to never fully count on other people so that he would always have to fend for himself when needed.

Page turner

The plot, the stakes in the book and the way it was written made me want to continue reading page after page.

Overall, it was an exciting, energizing and thought provoking story.

I’m looking forward to continuing on in the series

Thoughts on this review/the book in general? Comment or send me a note :)

Full reading list here