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Summary: Awesome book
Review: this is the best book i have ever read. not only is it very entertaining, it is a very deep. I recommend this book for everyone.
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Summary: Playing For Keeps!
Review: Ender Wiggin is one of the children chosen by the world government of Earth. For the last three years, from age three to six, he's worn a monitor-a device designed and used to watch him day and night, so finely tuned that he'd started to believe that it could read his thoughts. Then, when he was six, the device was removed. Ender's whole world changed. Hated by his brother Peter, loved by his sister Valentine, Ender suddenly became prey for the bigger boys at his school. After an altercation in school and a display of viciousness and cold cruelty on Ender's part, he's told he made the program for the International Fleet, the first line of defense against the Buggers, an alien enemy encountered nearly fifty years ago that came short of destroying the planet. Graff, the man from I.F., tells Ender that he qualified for the Battle School program, where Ender will learn how to fight Buggers. The downside is that he won't get to see his family for ten years. And Battle School doesn't turn out exactly the way Ender had envisioned it would.Orson Scott Card is an award-winning science fiction and fantasy writer. In addition to the Ender Wiggin series (ENDER'S GAME, SPEAKER FOR THE DEAD, XENOCIDE, CHILDREN OF THE MIND, ENDER'S SHADOW, SHADOW OF THE HEGEMON, and SHADOW PUPPETS), Card has also written the Homecoming series (THE MEMORY OF EARTH, THE CALL OF EARTH, THE SHIPS OF EARTH, EARTHFALL, and EARTHBORN) and the Tales of Alvin Maker series (SEVENTH SON, RED PROPHET, PRENTICE ALVIN, ALVIN JOURNEYMAN, and HEARTFIRE). HOMEBODY, TREASUR BOX and LOST BOYS are three of his works that heavily involve the supernatural in today's world. He's also written two novels about women from the Bible (REBEKAH and SARAH), and several stand-alone novels and other trilogies. ENDER'S GAME is a wonderful read for old-time science fiction fans that cut his or her teeth on Robert Heinlein. The same depth of character in a young protagonist that Heinlein was noted for is present, and the world-building skills are sharp. At the same time, Card embraces the younger readers of SF by laying much of Ender's story in action and gameplay. Every young reader out there is living in an SF world when he or she plugs into a PlayStation game, and Card entices those players by showing how much fun his vision of the future is with null-gravity and gameplay. Ender comes across always as a real person with real problems. The pacing is quick, always pulling the reader into the next situation, providing tidbits of information that locks in the bigger picture by the time the reader gets there. Card's creation of words, situations, and tech-and the ease with which his characters (and the readers!) interface with it-is amazing. This book is heartily recommended for readers already familiar with SF through Heinlein and Asimov, and to new readers who want a deeper and more immersive experience than the world presented by the latest video game. Well-written books are the closest things to virtual reality that exist at this time, and ENDER'S GAME is one of the best.
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Summary: Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever
Review: SUPERB! There is no other book like it. The development of the caraters, AWSOME. The Novel keeps you guessing untill the very end. I wish I could go back and read it for the very first everytime, and I have read the book 8-12 times thus far. And I will read it again and again and again. A must buy. 3 thumbs up.
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Summary: A Proteus Among Books
Review: Besides the brilliant writing and beautiful plot of this incredible story, I was struck by the hundreds of angles from which it can be seen. Every time I read it, it's something different -- a psychological chiller, a classic space adventure, a social criticism, a haunting love story... The things you can get out of this book are endless. Nobody I've talked to can agree on what it's about, much less what it means! But one thing is sure: once you read "Ender's Game," you will never see things quite the same again.
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Summary: One of the great classics of sf
Review: I know this is heretical, but in terms of sheer enjoyment I actually prefer some of the sequels. The mood of _Ender's Game_ is a bit oppressive, and as a former homeschooler who has never fit in well to conventional peer groups I find the social world of Battle School frightening and even repulsive. Of course, that's the point--the book appeals precisely to nerdy people like me who identify with Ender's anxiety and isolation. We would love to think that, like Ender, we are brilliant heroes on whom the world's salvation depends. And that's where the book gains its power. It sucks us in by making us identify (in wish-fulfillment) with Ender's brilliance and his unique role in history, and then it clobbers us with the realization of the horrific cost of being a hero. _Ender's Game_ is the answer to the legions of juvenile books in which young heroes, "just like us," solve the unsolvable mystery or stop the evil treasure-hunters or save the universe from the forces of darkness. Card says, in effect, "So you enjoy imagining yourself a hero? What if, suddenly, you found out that what you had been imagining was real? What if the heroic games you play really resulted in the deaths of millions, in the extinction of a sentient species? How would you feel then?" Yet _Ender's Game_ is no simple morality tale. There's plenty of morality in it, but it can't be expressed in a formula (which means that the preceding paragraph is only partially accurate). Card brings this home in the sequel, in which we see how from idolizing Ender humans come to hate and despise him (ironically through his own writings and those of Valentine), and yet neither response really fits the reality of what he did. For Ender cannot be reduced to a stick figure, unlike most characters in sf. The great strength of _Ender's Game_, the reason it is one of the greatest books of its genre, is the characterization of Ender. This is not without flaws (does anyone really believe, imaginatively, that Ender is quite as young as Card would have us believe? This will be a strength when the movie comes out, since the movie will almost certainly have to add a few years to Ender's age), but it is one of the great triumphs of sf, a genre not known for its characterizations. _Ender's Game_ is not primarily an adventure story or a novel of social criticism; it is above all the story of Ender's struggle to save his soul, to develop his gifts without destroying himself and those around him. Does he succeed? Read the book and decide for yourself.
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Summary: Gripping
Review: This book is an excellent book! With a gripping tale, a heartwarming protagonist and descriptive narration, it's not a tale to be forgotten. Ender is brilliant(ly written). His character has been fully fleshed out, and indeed he seems so real, you share his every heartache and his every pain. There've been loads of issues that have been dealt with by the author, but I'm not here to make an analysis of style, character or theme, so suffice it to say that this story is so unstorylike and yet so fantasylike that it will capture your imagination and take you on an emotional rollercoaster like no other. and if you're only in it for the action and gory, well, there's plenty where that came from.
I picked this book up by accident at a bookstore and I've read it and reread it a thousand and one times, it's THAT good.
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Summary: Had to finish this in one sitting!
Review: 1) I'm reading a non-fiction book about training your children to become geniuses so the timing of this novel was uncanny. It really put a lot of things into perspective for me when it comes to making kids perform above their peers and what kind of skills they will need in order to continue to excel vs. survive...both of which are hard to seperate most of the time.
2) Fabulously engrossing story and characters
3) Non-stop tension and suspense from the first through the last chapters.
I didn't even try and figure out what was going to happen in the coming chapters and how things were going to work out because each page keeps you glued to the point that you loose yourself in what is occuring in the "now".
4) A book that entertains but REALLY makes you think when you stop long enougth to figure out what was just communicated. A book with a lot of depth.
5) Definitely in my all time top five novels!! I'm re-reading this again...probably sooner than later. :-) I'm told to skip the rest of the series and head to Ender's Shadow...I did and that one isn't nearly as good as this one. This is still the best. A true classic.
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Summary: Amazing!
Review: Our family chose Ender's Game for one of our summer meetings. My son wrote the following mini-review: Taken from his home on Earth, Ender Wiggin is shuttled off to battle school, where young boys and occasionally girls are taught the ways of warriors and trained to fight in the war between humans and buggers. The children are separated into armies and thrown into mock battles in a special room in which they become weightless. Ender swiftly moves through the ranks and soon leads an army of his own. Only later does he learn that the commanders of the school are training him to lead the humans to victory during the Third Invasion. What I thought was going to be an "easy" Star Wars type of book was actually a book that turned me into an upright, wide-eyed, page-turning mad man; Ender's Game could not be left untouched for long. My favorite scenes took place in the battle room. I wondered, What new tactics will Ender come up with this time? And the ending! Wow, was that a shock... for Ender and the reader. JFS
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Summary: Really good
Review: There's no way someone would not be atracted by this book. I had never read anything by Orson Scott Card and now I'm looking for almost everything he's written. "Ender's game" is the story of a boy, who is possibly Man's last hope. In a long war against a not well known adversary, the insect-like "buggers", Ender Wiggin, a six year old child, is taken to the Battle School to learn the tricks that maybe will lead humanity to its survival. He can have no friends, no grown-up will be there to help him in his personal struggles against older boys filled with envy, he's taken from his family and his beloved sister... This could be a terrible life, but Ender's sense of responsibility always drags him back to his supposed duty. Orson Scott Card was able to create a sci-fi story in the middle of a, let's say, story of a life. The reader will always stay with Ender (except in the chapters when we are told Ender's brothers lives, but that helps to understand his relations to his family and some of what happens to him when he's away in Battle School, and some of what happens near the end of the book); we will see him become a master of military strategy, and we will see him abandon everything he holds dear in order to achieve a greater feat. There were parts of "Ender's game" that reminded me of other books, such as "Lord of the flies", "Starship troopers", and some others, and I think that's a high compliment. This is not your common sci-fi book, it is something much more subtle and has many levels of meanings, but can be read just as a good entertainment, so enjoy. Grade 9.5/10
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Summary: This book is a must have!!!
Review: This book is the best because it is so addicting!!! I read it in one day because I just couldn't put it down! If you don't like to read, buy it!!! I you do like to read, buy it!!! You will like it!
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