Ender’s Game, a science fiction novel, is about a genius child named Ender who is
pressured into saving the human race through fighting battles in space. Written by Orson Scott Card, this book is written from third person point of view and tells the story of how Ender came to be so successful as a leader.

This novel first takes place at Ender’s “normal” school. Ender is only six years old and is portrayed to be a genius when the teacher calls on him and he knows the answer, even though he was not paying attention. As the first chapter progresses, Ender is confronted by a few of his classmates who want to beat him up. Not wanting to harm them, but wanting to get away from them, Ender decides that his only option is to end fights from now until forever and really hurts one of them. In this early scene, Ender’s empathy and initiative to stand up for himself is clearly displayed. He is eventually recruited by the administration that runs the battle school in space once they realize that his real motivation to hurting the boys was for his own safety. Apparently, Ender is the type of commander that they want, even though he is known as “Third”. This nickname is given to him by several of his mean classmates because in this time period, every family is only allowed to have two children due to the enormous population. However, Ender’s parents are allowed to have Ender because the administration of the battle school wants a mix between his brother and sister. Why do they want a mix of his siblings? The whole point of this battle school is to train young boys in hope that one of them will show himself/herself worthy of being the leader that will save the human race from aliens. These aliens are called “buggers” and have been in war against humans twice. The battle school is looking for young children that they can raise that will maybe have the determination and creativity to end the war and save humanity. All of this hope is placed as a weight on Ender’s shoulders, who evidently commits to going to this school.

Through various games and long hours of work, Ender keeps winning and winning and winning against every person he comes across. The reader is able to interpret many themes that are portrayed throughout the story, including sacrifice, leadership, love, and bullying. Throughout all of Ender’s Game, Ender learns that sacrifices should not be regretted when it comes to winning war. On a scale of one to ten, I rate this book a nine. This novel has so many messages that range from dealing with frustration to putting others before oneself. The only reason I do not give this novel a ten out of ten is due to its genre. I am sure that most sci-fi novel lovers will absolutely adore this book, but because I am not one of those fans, I cannot say that I entirely enjoyed this book. However, I believe that every teenager and adult should read this book. It is a great read and is not too long (324 pages). It is definitely not a book one would want to pass up on; Orson Card has a gift at delivering his characters in such a relative manner.

Check out Ender’s Game from the Newport Beach Public Library.