Ender’s Game

By Orson Scott Card

This is the first book that my youngest brother fell in love with. Up until the point of this book, he had only read two other books in his entire life. After this, he wanted to read the sequel, he asked for the third one for Christmas. What made this book so special? Why didn’t he react this way to Treasure Island or The Outsiders?

Because this is the ultimate “male” book.

By male, I mean written by, for, and like a man. This is how a man thinks. It is action upon action upon action with very little ruminating. Not that Ender Wiggin doesn’t think, no he thinks a lot. He thinks about his family, about the Battle school, friends, combat training. But the difference is that Ender thinks AND acts. He doesn’t think and then act. He doesn’t act and think later. The two are the same. The action is immediate. Constant.

So why Ender’s Game and not Treasure Island, which is rumored to have the same thing, action and thinking? I think that in truth, the action isn’t constant enough. Too much talking in Treasure Island. Talking and not doing. Sure there is action, but there are also long drawn out conversations and eavesdropping. Ender’s world is always in the now and it makes for a riveting story.

I’ve never been a huge fan of Orson Scott Card, especially his more recent books, and I will probably never finish reading the series, because for all the action and twist ending, I found I could only take so much Ender Wiggin, who was never a pure genius to me. Smart for sure, but he was a kid, a military kid trained to the point of insanity, but a kid nonetheless. I also found the constant action, the never ending battle training to be boring after a while. Like reading a sports novel with one game after another. But again, those may be the very things that make guys love this book.