Ender's Game
For the short story, see Ender's Game (short story). For the series, see Ender's Game (series). For the comics, see Ender's Game (comics).
| Ender's Game | |
|---|---|
 1985 first edition (hardcover) | |
| Author(s) | Orson Scott Card |
| Cover artist | John Harris |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | Ender's Game series |
| Genre(s) | Science fiction |
| Publisher | Tor Books |
| Publication date | 1985 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover &Paperback) |
| Pages | 324 |
| ISBN | 0-312-93208-1 |
| OCLC Number | 22909973 |
| Followed by | Speaker for the Dead |
Ender's Game (1985) is a science fiction novel by American author Orson Scott Card.[1] Set in Earth's future, the novel presents an imperiled humankind who have barely survived two conflicts with the Formics (an insectoid alien species also known as the "Buggers"). These aliens show an ant-like group behavior, and are very protective of their leader, much like Earth ants protecting their queen. In preparation for an anticipated third invasion, an international fleet maintains a school to find and train future fleet commanders. The world's most talented children, including the novel's protagonist, Ender Wiggin, are taken at a very young age to a training center known as the Battle School. There, teachers train them in the arts of war through increasingly difficult games including ones undertaken in zero gravity in the Battle Room where Ender's tactical genius is revealed.
The book originated as the short story "Ender's Game", published in the August 1977 issue of Analog Science Fiction and Fact.[2] Elaborating on characters and plot lines depicted in the novel, Card later wrote additional books to form theEnder's Game series. Card released an updated version of Ender's Game in 1991, changing some political facts to accurately reflect the times.
Reception to the book has generally been positive, though some critics have denounced Card's perceived justification of his characters' violent actions.[3][4] It has also become suggested reading for many military organizations, including the United States Marine Corps.[5] Ender's Game won the 1985 Nebula Award for best novel[6] and the 1986 Hugo Award for best novel.[7] Its sequels, Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, Children of the Mind, and Ender in Exile, follow Ender's subsequent travels to many different worlds in the galaxy. In addition, the later novella A War of Gifts and novel Ender's Shadow take place during the same time period as the original. Ender's Game has been adapted into two comic series.
A film adaptation of the same name directed by Gavin Hood and starring Asa Butterfield as Ender is planned to be released on March 15, 2013.
[edit]Creation and inspiration
The original novelette "Ender's Game" provides a small snapshot of Ender's experiences in Battle School and Command School; the full-length novel encompasses more of Ender's life before, during, and after the war, and also contains some chapters describing the political exploits of his older siblings back on Earth. In a commentary track for the 20th Anniversary audiobook edition of the novel, as well as in the 1991 Author's Definitive Edition, Card stated that Ender's Game was written specifically to establish the character of Ender for his role of the Speaker in Speaker for the Dead, the outline for which he had written before novelizing Ender's Game.[8] In his 1991 introduction to the novel, Card discussed the influence of Isaac Asimov's Foundation series on the novelette and novel. Historian Bruce Catton's work on the American Civil War also influenced Card heavily.[8]
[edit]Synopsis
Ender's Game series chronology |
|---|
Earth Unaware "Mazer in Prison" "The Polish Boy" "Teacher's Pest" "Pretty Boy" "Cheater" Ender's Shadow A War of Gifts Ender's Game Ender in Exile Shadow of the Hegemon Shadow Puppets Shadow of the Giant Shadows in Flight Ender in Exile (continued) "Investment Counselor" Speaker for the Dead Xenocide Children of the Mind Shadows Alive |
In the far future, humanity has discovered interstellar travel and faster-than-light communication enabled by ansibles. In exploring the galaxy, they encountered an alien race known as the Formics, derogatorily dubbed "buggers" due to their insect-like appearance. The Formics attacked the humans and the two races enter into a series of wars. Despite political conflict on Earth between three ruling parties, the Hegemon, Polemarch, and Strategos, a tentative agreement was reached to create the International Fleet (IF) to combat the Formics. In addition to a selective breeding program, the IF monitors the children of Earth via implanted devices to find the best and brightest to enter Command School and enlist in the fleet.
Andrew "Ender" Wiggin is the youngest sibling of Peter and Valentine, and part of a Earth program to produce brilliant officers; despite this, Ender is teased as a "third" under Earth's two-child policy. After the IF removes Ender's monitoring device, possibly ending his chances of getting into Command School, he gets into a fight with a fellow student, Stilson. Ender brutally harms Stilson who later dies from the wounds, though Ender is unaware of this. When explaining his actions to supervisors, Ender states his belief that, by showing superiority now, he will have prevented further fights in the future.
IF Commander Hyrum Graff, on hearing of this, offers Ender a place in the Battle School, situated in Earth's orbit. Graff is quick to isolate Ender from the rest of the new cadets by acknowledging his intelligence. Between being ostracized by his fellow cadets and troubling dreams about Formics, Ender is soon ready to quit the school, but Graff encourages him through communications sent from Valentine. Among other training methods, the cadets participate in a competitive squad-based war simulation in zero gravity. Ender is quick to acclimate to the new environment and demonstrates tactics not previously seen by the students and supervisors. He is able to lead his squad to victory and other squads are quick to add Ender's tactics to their own. Ender is soon promoted to be leader of his own squad, formed from the most recent and youngest cadets at the school. Despite their inexperience as well as the increasing difficulties of the games, Ender devises new tactics and his squad soon excels and leads the competition. No longer an outsider, Ender becomes friends with several of his cadets, forming "Ender's jeesh." A fellow squad leader, Bonzo de Madrid, furious at Ender's victories, attacks Ender but Ender overpowers him and fatally wounds him.
Meanwhile, on Earth, Peter, a psychopath, has used a global communication system to post political essays under the pseudonym, "Locke," provoking the need to go to war with Russia, a result that would allow Peter to seize power. Valentine discovers this and, while initially shocked, works alongside him as "Demosthenes." Their essays are taken seriously by people at the highest positions of power in the government, but Graff soon discovers the true identities, keeping this a secret to himself.
Ender is soon promoted to Command School, skipping several years of schooling. There, he is put directly under watch of a former Formic war hero, Mazer Rackham. Alongside other rigorous training, Mazer tests Ender with a war simulator, pitting virtual IF fleets under Ender's control against Formic fleets controlled by Mazer. Ender adapts to the game and, as the simulations become harder, Ender is given sub-commanders, members of his jeesh, to work alongside him.
Ender is brought to the simulator, with several IF commanders watching, and told by Mazer this is his final test. As the simulation starts, Ender finds his human fleet far-outnumbered by the Formic forces above a planet. Despite being told that it was against the rules, Ender sacrifices many of his fleet to launch a Molecular Disruption Device at the planet, destroying the planet and the entire Formic fleet. Though Ender had anticipated that breaking the rules would mean he would be expelled from school, he discovers the IF commanders celebrating. Mazer returns, and informs Ender that this was not a simulation, but the actual IF contingent and the Formic main fleet at the Formic homeworld: Ender has just sacrificed an entire IF fleet and committed xenocide of the Formics, ending the war.
Ender enters into a deep depression on learning of this, as well as of the deaths of Stilson and Bonzo. When he recovers, he finds himself still in orbit with Valentine and learns that, on the end of the Formic war, Earth went to war with itself. Valentine apologizes that Ender can never return to Earth as he would be too powerful a tool to be used by the various leaders, including Peter. Instead, Ender joins an Earth colony program to populate one of the former Formic colony worlds. There, as he scouts the planet, he finds an area shockingly similar to a simulated game from Battle School. Exploring the area leads him to discover the dormant egg of a Formic queen. The queen, through telepathy, explains that the Formics had initially assumed humans were a non-sentient race due to a lack ofhive mind, but realized their mistake too late. They could not communicate with the humans as war broke out, but were able to touch Ender's mind, creating the dreams he felt and preparing this place for him. The queen requests that Ender take the egg to a new planet to allow the Formic race to grow again.
Ender takes the egg and, with information from the Queen, writes The Hive Queen under the alias "Speaker for the Dead." Peter, now the Hegemon of Earth, recognizes Ender's hand behind the work and requests Ender to write a book about Peter, which Ender entitles Hegemon. The combined works create a new religion that Earth and many of Earth's colonies start to adopt. In the end, Ender and Valentine board a starship and start visiting many worlds, looking for the right one for the unborn Queen.
[edit]Critical response
Critics have generally received Ender's Game well. The novel won the Nebula Award for best novel in 1985,[9] and the Hugo Award for best novel in 1986,[10]considered the two most prestigious awards in science fiction.[11][12] Ender's Game was also nominated for a Locus Award in 1986.[7] In 1999, it placed #59 on the reader's list of Modern Library 100 Best Novels. It was also honored with a spot on American Library Association's "100 Best Books for Teens." In 2008, the novel, along with Ender's Shadow, won the Margaret A. Edwards Award, which honors an author and specific works by that author for lifetime contribution to young adult literature.[13]
New York Times writer Gerald Jonas admits that the novel's plot summary reads like a "grade Z, made-for-television, science-fiction rip-off movie," but then says that Card develops the elements well despite this "unpromising material." Jonas further praises the development of the character Ender Wiggin: "Alternately likable and insufferable, he is a convincing little Napoleon in short pants."[14]
The novel has received negative criticism for violence and for the way Card justifies Ender's violence. Elaine Radford's review, "Ender and Hitler: Sympathy for the Superman," criticizes the novel on several points. She posits that Ender Wiggin is an intentional reference by Card to Adolf Hitler and criticizes the violence in the novel, particularly at the hands of the protagonist.[3] Card responded to Radford's criticisms in Fantasy Review, the same publication. Radford's criticisms are echoed in John Kessel's essay "Creating the Innocent Killer: Ender's Game, Intention, and Morality." Kessel reasons that Card justifies Ender's righteous rage and violence: "Ender gets to strike out at his enemies and still remain morally clean. Nothing is his fault."[4]
The U.S. Marine Corps Professional Reading List makes the novel recommended reading at several lower ranks, and again at Officer Candidate/Midshipman.[15]The book was placed on the reading list by Captain John F. Schmitt, author of FMFM-1 (Fleet Marine Fighting Manual, on maneuver doctrine) for "provid[ing] useful allegories to explain why militaries do what they do in a particularly effective shorthand way."[16] In introducing the novel for use in leadership training, Marine Corps University's Lejeune program opines that it offers "lessons in training methodology, leadership, and ethics as well [....] Ender’s Game has been a stalwart item on the Marine Corps Reading List since its inception."[16]
[edit]Revisions
In 1991, Card revised the book. He made several minor changes to reflect the political climates of the time, including the decline of the Soviet Union. In the afterword of Ender in Exile, Card stated that many of the details in chapter 15 of Ender's Game have been modified for use in the subsequent novels and short stories. In order to more closely match the other material, Card has rewritten chapter 15, and plans to offer a revised edition of the book sometime in the future.[17]
[edit]Adaptations
[edit]Film
Main article: Ender's Game (film)
In 2011, Summit Entertainment financed and is coordinating the film's development and will also serve as its distributor.[18][19] Gavin Hood is directing.[20][21]Filming began in New Orleans, Louisiana, on February 27, 2012.[22]
[edit]Video game
Main article: Ender's Game: Battle Room
Ender's Game: Battle Room was a planned digitally distributed video game for all viable downloadable platforms.[23] It was under development by Chair Entertainment, which also developed the Xbox Live Arcade games Undertow and Shadow Complex. Chair had sold the licensing of Empire to Card, which became a best-selling novel. Little was revealed about the game, save its setting in the Ender universe and that it would have focused on the Battle Room.[23]
In December, 2010, it was announced that the video game development had stopped and the project put on indefinite hold.[24]
[edit]Comics
Main article: Ender Comics
Marvel Comics and Orson Scott Card announced on April 19, 2008 that they would be publishing a limited series adaptation of Ender's Game as the first in a comic series that would adapt all of Card's Ender's Game novels. Card was quoted as saying that it is the first step in moving the story to a visual medium.[25] The first five-issue series, titled Ender's Game: Battle School, was written by Christopher Yost, while the second five-issue series, Ender’s Shadow: Battle School, was written by Mike Carey.[26]
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