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Ender's Game

by Orson Scott Card

A young recruit shaped by an interstellar war

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Awards & Recognition

  • Award recognition

    1985 Nebula Award for Best Novel winner

    The source identifies Ender's Game as the winner of the 1985 Nebula Award for Best Novel.

  • Author recognition

    New York Times bestselling author

    The source describes Orson Scott Card as a New York Times bestselling author.

AlbakiReads Editorial

A young recruit shaped by an interstellar war

Set against a long-running conflict with an alien species, the novel places military training in the hands of children selected for their abilities. Ender Wiggin’s education at an orbiting Battle School combines mock combat in zero gravity with pressures that reach beyond the training exercises: isolation, competition, adult expectations, and his fear of becoming like his cruel older brother. His siblings also figure in the larger question of who might shape humanity’s future. The result is a science-fiction story that links the search for a military leader to questions of childhood, family bonds, and the personal costs of preparing for war.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • Science-fiction readers interested in interstellar conflict and military training
  • Readers drawn to stories about gifted young characters under pressure
  • Readers interested in sibling relationships alongside large-scale conflict

Themes

Childhood and militarizationIsolation and rivalryFamily bondsLeadership and the costs of war

Based on publisher information and book metadata.

Book overview

From New York Times bestselling author Orson Scott Card, Ender's Game--adapted to film starring Asa Butterfield and Harrison Ford--is the classic Hugo and Nebula award-winning science fiction novel of a young boy's recruitment into the midst of an interstellar war.

In order to develop a secure defense against a hostile alien race's next attack, government agencies breed child geniuses and train them as soldiers. A brilliant young boy, Andrew "Ender" Wiggin lives with his kind but distant parents, his sadistic brother Peter, and the person he loves more than anyone else, his sister Valentine. Peter and Valentine were candidates for the soldier-training program but didn't make the cut--young Ender is the Wiggin drafted to the orbiting Battle School for rigorous military training.

Ender's skills make him a leader in school and respected in the Battle Room, where children play at mock battles in zero gravity. Yet growing up in an artificial community of young soldiers Ender suffers greatly from isolation, rivalry from his peers, pressure from the adult teachers, and an unsettling fear of the alien invaders. His psychological battles include loneliness, fear that he is becoming like the cruel brother he remembers, and fanning the flames of devotion to his beloved sister.

Is Ender the general Earth needs? But Ender is not the only result of the genetic experiments. The war with the Buggers has been raging for a hundred years, and the quest for the perfect general has been underway for almost as long. Ender's two older siblings are every bit as unusual as he is, but in very different ways. Between the three of them lie the abilities to remake a world. If, that is, the world survives.

Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game is the winner of the 1985 Nebula Award for Best Novel and the 1986 Hugo Award for Best Novel.

THE ENDER UNIVERSE

Ender series
Ender's Game / Ender in Exile / Speaker for the Dead / Xenocide / Children of the Mind

Ender's Shadow series
Ender's Shadow / Shadow of the Hegemon / Shadow Puppets / Shadow of the Giant / Shadows in Flight

Children of the Fleet

The First Formic War (with Aaron Johnston)
Earth Unaware / Earth Afire / Earth Awakens

The Second Formic War (with Aaron Johnston)
The Swarm /The Hive

Ender novellas
A War of Gifts /First Meetings

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Customer reviews

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Malaika Taylor

I highly recommend to for anyone looking for inner clarity

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Great service and fast service

Great shopping experience! The book arrived quickly, was well packaged, and matched the description perfectly. I would definitely shop with you again

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Smooth.