My Thoughts on Ender's Game

I enjoyed reading Ender's Game. I had seen the movie on DVD last year which probably made reading the book a little easier for me even though there were differences between the movie and the book. Andrew "Ender" Wiggin is a six year old boy genius being trained in Battle School by the International Fleet (I.F.) to become a commander and save the world from buggers during an anticipated Third Invasion. Each chapter of the book starts with a conversation between two adults, typically I.F. officers; then it gets into the meat of each step of Ender's training. Here you have a young boy who was only allowed to be born as a "third" child so he could be given to the I.F. As a third child, he was lonely and bullied not only by his older brother Peter, but by kids at school. Like Peter told Ender at one point, "You're a Third, turd, You've got no rights." Ender just wanted to be a normal kid who did kid stuff like playing with friends; however, he would soon find out that wasn't meant to be the case.

 A few things really struck me in this book. One was that I was glad that Ender enjoyed a good relationship with his sister Valentine. This was the one person that Ender really loved and cared about and she loved and cared about him. So when the I.F. needs Ender, who is now ten years old, to continue on his mission, they use or you could say force Valentine to convince Ender to save mankind and make a difference in the world because they know he can't say no to his sister. Another thing relates to human behavior - Ender's struggle between good and evil. Ender showed real feelings and emotions, and he did things that he might not have otherwise done in order to survive. It was clear that Ender did not want to wind up like his dangerous and mean brother. There were many times, like when Ender hurt a bully named Stilson, that he would cry and believe he was just like Peter. Then there is the manipulation by the adults. Ender's relationship with the I.F. officers especially Graff shows that although they liked Ender, they manipulated him to get the results they needed. Technology was also used to play mind games with Ender like when he looked in the mirror and saw Peter's face looking back. However, the biggest example of manipulation was when they made Ender believe that the last battle is a simulation of the future battle with the buggers when in fact it was the actual Third Invasion. This definitely reminded me of what I said in my blog on eXistenZ - it raises the question of what is real and what isn't. Ender thought he was playing a virtual reality game, but it was real. You could feel the devastation that Ender felt when he realized he had been manipulated; he cried to Mazer Rackham, "I didn't want to kill them all. I didn't want to kill anybody! I'm not a killer! You didn't want me, you bastards, you wanted Peter, but you made me do it, you tricked me into it!"

 It is sad that Ender missed out on his childhood and he can't go home to Earth because Peter will control him. However, he can finally be happy and find peace by making his own choices and doing what he believes is right. Full circle now shows that he is Andrew Wiggin, speaker for the dead, and he's intent on rebuilding the bugger community again. And he can do it with Valentine by his side.

 A good story. But one, just like eXistenZ, that makes you wonder about the technological future of gaming.