When I (definitely) read Ender's Game as a kid, I probably thought it was a cool story about a kid getting good at war training, military moves, and strategy.
As an adult, this is what the novel starts to manifest as.
As an adult, this is definitely not what the novel is. Instead, it is a commentary about control. Control over relationships, control over people, control for the sake of control.
Ender's Game is a tale about, Ender, Peter and Valentine, three siblings. The fact that they're siblings at all is nothing short of the result of a governing force that allows their parents to have a third child, because, well; they need it for the war effort.
The war effort? Against "The Buggers!", of course, an indistinct, rarely described alien species that had their "invasion" attempt stopped at Saturn. Now, humanity waits for the next wave of an attack from an unknown force, and Ender is whisked off to a space station where he trains to become a soldier.
He has potential, he has strategy, but he also has emotions, a trait not very much desired in such mechanical human force. He's also the youngest boy there. He's also quiet, diligent, and ever so cunning.
As the story continues, it becomes densely packed with conspiracy.
I won't be saying anything else about the story but instead talk more about the themes in general.
The most uncomfortable of these is the remove of Ender's ability to make choices about his own fate. Without any agency, he is a vulnerable, broken character who many people can find meaning in, for it is easy to remember times where your ability to control the outcome of a situation was taken away, much to your own protest.
Ender's game is a book that plays tricks on you as you read it. While it won't make a coin appear behind your ear, or pull a rabbit out of a hat, it misleads you.
What starts as a story about a war for human survival turns into a story about absolute control. A story about traumatic events, and of pushing people to their breaking points, tangling their puppet-like strings until they can't take it anymore.
It hits with this meaning much more potently as an adult reader, and reminds us that we need to treat other people with compassion.
Now, there was a movie of this, but I haven't seen it. I won't see it. The book was concerning enough.
oh damn son.... you're in luck. not only are there more books, there's actually two whole separate series of books.
one where ender gets onto a space ship, and the story continues decades later (speaker, xenomorph etc) in a glaxy far far away
and whole different one, starting with ender's shadow that tells ender's game through bean's eyes, and stays on earth following bean, petra, peter and valentine etc.
ofc orson scott card is better know now as the biggest heel turn in literary history... xenomorph is probably one of the most compassionate books ever written -- by a guy who later literally made it his life's mission to campaign against LGBTQ rights. like fund raisers, marches, editorials.
I've got a LOOOOT to add to my reading lists, haha. I am keen to read more Orson Scott Card, but I might need a bit of a break. I am definitely appreciating "harder" sci-fi at the moment.
I really wish there was more exploration of Peter and Valetine's writings and how they managed to convince a planet as kids.
That level of intellect is staggering, and to me, overshadowed Ender's abilities to command forces and identify strategy. There seems to be a lot more variables in doing persuasive writing than commanding a force.
i'm so jealous, i wish i could go through them again for the first time. defo have read and re-read them several times.
the main storyline speaker/xenocide/children of the mind is certainly in the hard sci-fi vein... where ender's game is a cool sci-fi book about kids, this is about grown ender being basically a missionary -- like he sleeps on an old starship for so long that when he lands, faster ships have been invented and the legend of ender is ancient history.
the shadow storyline sticks with young peter on earth and basically all the kids from the training program, who become generals of all their nations but they're still kids... so not so much hard sci fi but very fun.
Oh cool, sounds like it has some similarities with Clarke's Rama series which I thoroughly enjoyed. I've put watches on the titles from the library, but I suspect it will be some time until I return to this universe.
I've got so many holds already, haha!
I know this post is months old now, but I gotta comment that as much as I enjoyed Ender's Game, Speaker for the Dead (the actual starting point of the writing about Ender) literally changed me. I was just at the book store the other day and picked up a copy of SftD and almost brought it home for my favorites shelf (I had read a library copy originally). Some books just sit with you for the rest of your life and that is one of them.
I was at the library last week and they had their cancelled books, $1 per book, or $5 to fill a bag. I paid $5, to fill a bag - one of the books I grabbed was Ender's Game :)
I have the other books in the series on hold at the library, so looking forward to reading them when I get up to them. I will never run out of books at the rate I am spider-webbing my author interests out :D
For me, the book that is like Ender's story for you - is probably Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by my GOD EMPEROR of sci-fi - PKD (even though its the only book of his I've read! - so far - that will change, I have two on the hallway table!) everytime I pick up that book, I end up reading it in one sitting.
BRO! PKD is my absolute favorite author. While I LOVE "Androids", there are SO many other books at least as good (if not better). Some get a little whacky (especially stuff written around or after his "religious experience") but they are all still important to read if you enjoyed "Androids".
For a real mindfuck, read Dick's short story "Waterspider" before you read any more of his stuff (or any sci-fi, really). It puts all science fiction on a whole other plane of existence. THEN go back and read old speculative Sci-Fi ("The Sleeper Awakes" by H. G. Wells, "The Machine Stops" by E. M. Forster, and "The Master Key" by L. Frank Baum to name a short list).
I have Ubik and Valis, to be precise, sitting on that hallway table of mine. I'll get to them eventually. :D
I will add your suggestions to my list :) Always looking to make my list less achievable :D
A fun fact, Orson Scott Card actually wrote much of Speaker for the Dead before he wrote Ender's Game. So your summary of the layers that exist within the book are spot on and they are essential for setting the scene for what happens next in the story of a child who is manipulated, institutionalised and exposed to extreme violence from a young age.
Oh, that's interesting indeed! I've got a few novel ideas floating around in my grey matter, and the concept of building out a character entirely is one that is very important.
Its definitely evident that Card put that thought into each of his characters in this book, as they're deep and flawed individuals, as opposed to the likes of some modern sci-fi, like the hero of Project Hail Mary (and The Martian) who may as well be the same character, as they are so one dimensional.
I really loved it as a kid, not only cause it played with expectations but because I felt it understood both the better and worse sides of human nature. The movie was exceptionally worse than the books
The second and third books were also amazing for how they challenges our ideas about what forms life and consciousness could take
Wait! These stories continue? I thought it was entirely stand alone all this time! I'm going to have to do a bit more of the "post-reading", "Reading", when I am done with my new book.
I just started on "Children of Time" by Adrian Tchaikovsky.
After that, I'm going to need to track down "Speaker for the Dead" then "Xenocide". I hope my library has them! I just checked, and sadly they don't. They have the 5th book in the series, though...
I only read the first three. Been meaning to finish it. I want to tell you about what was so fascinating about each book but any details might spoil it. All I’ll say is that each one seems to focus on a different species.
Even this review made me remember the story somewhat! It's funny how our understanding of books change on second readings as adults. 1984 read in my 30s was wildly different, for example, from my reading it at 16.
I have a copy of 1984 within a metre of where I'm sitting right now. I don't want to read it again because it will prove to be as prophetic as it always has been. I am fucking certain! That Orwell didn't intend for it to be a governance instruction manual.
Ha it's super depressing. Also a bit repetitive - I think it'd be a better book condensed a little. Still, very powerful, and yes, prophetic. The condensing of language bothers me the most. Our right to express ourselves through art, literature, voice. Is AI going to take our ability to do that? Or perhaps there's always an artist inside us who will find a way to express itself when the need is so great. Oh .. I have a story forming! I haven't written in ages... If I don't lose this idea maybe I'll write it when I get back from Bali.
Oh! And I'm reading this on Kindle ATM... It was a booker short list I think. Very interesting...might be worth putting on hold at library?
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/205673377-under-the-eye-of-the-big-bird
Yes they doo.... Its a several month wait, but I anticipate I'll still be alive then.
Fingers crossed