Book Babblings

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card 

The Nitty Gritty: the world has changed. Bugs attacked the Earth and we barely survived. Bugs muscled their way into Earth's air space and it was one bloody battle after another but we pushed them back. We are still left standing, but no one knows for how long.

That is where Andrew "Ender" Wiggen comes in. He is humanity's last hope and he is only 6. If Ender can't win the war against the bugs it can't be won and we are all screwed seven ways from Sunday.

Opening Line: "I've watched through his eyes, I've listened through his ears, and I tell you he is the one."

What's the 411: Before Katniss was the girl on fire we had Ender Wiggen killing his way through his competition to get to the top of the mountain. Though no one told Ender he had to kill his other space cadets to live to see another day.

He was just a little boy trying to stay a step ahead of the bullies. A little boy that wanted to survive the day to just play and laugh with his older sister Valentine. I mean its a dream that all children should have and we adults try out hardest to make sure that our kids don't have anything to worry about other than who they are going to play with today.

That is not the world in the Enderverse. Children have become commodities to wield like the weapons the adults want them to bo. To the adults Ender is not a child, he isn't even a human being. He is a weapon they need to sharpen so he can defend the world. Whether he wants to be that weapon or not.

They turn the very real and very deadly art of war into a game. Children like games, they can identify with games. So the adults give them a game. Though they call it Battle School. After all children understand they have to go to school to learn and be taught.

Ender's Game is a story about children. Plain and simple, but at Battle School these children transform into elite soldiers battling each other for the chance to go into space to kill buggers. We start to think of them as adults and out brains see them that way. They certainly see themselves as tiny adults, bu just when out hearts get on board with that train of thought Card smacks us in the face with the their innocence. I believe that is deliberate and brilliant on Card's part. He is making us as readers superimpose the actions and reasonings of an adult on top of the body and thoughts of a child.

Soon the thoughts of the child fade away and nothing is left but the body. Everything else has moved on and matured in the adult weapon Colonel Graff needs them to be. Its gone beyond a want at this point. They need Ender to be that weapon.

Graff throws out all the rules to shape Ender. He even goes against the wishes of his superiors to see his goals achieved. Is it madness or just the fight or flight response in high gear? Not sure how to answer that.

The Good: Kids killing kids always a cringe fest for most people. Kids are supposed to be skipping through the roses popping their doublemint. Any time kids step out of that image we have a problem with it. Its hard for us to believe it. Some even refuse to believe it.

However in the Enderverse its the kids that humanity puts all its bets on. The adults have tried and they barely survived. Now its up to the ankle bitters to have a go at saving the world.

I love how that the child like innocence is completely absent from this book. Well that isn't entirely true. Its sprinkled here and there to remind us that these are in fact children, but those instances are few. From the very beginning. Ender sounded and acted as we would expect an adult to act. We expect children to only live in the now of their lives. However dealing with the bully at school Ender knows that if he doesn't end the fight once and for all he will be subjected to the taunts the rest of his life. That is a very adult way of thinking. And boy does Ender really end that bully. Later in the book its reveled that he actually killed the child. I take that as the final say on the matter.

The threat of the buggers was all in the head of the humans. Igor in Van Helsing said it best "Do unto others before they do unto you," and I think Card was exploiting that human trait. We have never played by the golden rule. Its just a cute little saying we tell children so we can make them do what we think they should be doing, but as adults its all about getting them first before they can do something nasty to us. And that is one of the flaring themes in Ender's Game. We have to wipe out the buggers before they wipe us out. o chance for a sit down, no quarter will be given. Nothing short of utter annihilation will be acceptable.

And I love that the innocent Ender is the one to bring out the genocide of the buggers and that Peter the sadistic older brother ushers in a period of peace on Earth after the Bugger War ends. The fate of the world rests in the hands of the Wiggen children, and they don't even know about Peter and Valentine. They are the power behind the throne before they can stay up past 8 o'clock. I would have love to have seen more of Peter in his later years in this book, but the title is Ender's Game so yeah.

The Bad: There is a lot of explanation missing from this book. What brought the humans to the buggers attention? How the hell did worker ants build space jumping ships? The book is mostly about Ender, but Peter and Valentine play a big role on Earth and we are left to guesstamate what the hell the Polemarch and the Hegemon are.

Yes I know the definitions of those words, but what do they mean in the Enderverse? What is the Warsaw Pact they keep talking about? Is is the actual Warsaw Pact that existed in the 1950s? Or is it some Scott invention simply for Ender's Game? Beats the hell out of me because he never explains it! No I am not looking for an exhaustive back history, but a little would have been nice. I hate reading books where I've got more questions than the book answers.

There are only two girls in this entire book. Valentine (hate that name. Thank you Cassandra Clare for that) and Petra. I sort of feel like this book would have had more of a impact if Ender and Peter had been girls. Not only is there this taboo that exists about girls being violent there is a taboo about women in combat. This would have just blown minds worldwide if Ender had been a chick and kicking butts like Ender did. Maybe this is just the feminist in me but I want to see female characters shattering the glass ceiling and taking women to new heights and deeper depths. And that fact that it would have been girls and now women I think that would have been the bee's knees. But like I said that is just me.

My Final Thoughts: I know this is now a series, but I think I'm going to stop with the first book because I really only cared about Ender to be honest. So I will be seeing the movie when it cones out and I just hope that they keep the magic alive.