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    Ender's Game
    Ender's Game
    Ender's Game
    Audiobook11 hours

    Ender's Game

    Written by Orson Scott Card

    Narrated by Stefan Rudnicki and Harlan Ellison

    4.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    From New York Times bestselling author Orson Scott Card, Ender's Game—adapted to film in 2013 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

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMacmillan Audio
    Release dateApr 1, 2004
    ISBN9781593974756
    Ender's Game
    Author

    Orson Scott Card

    Orson Scott Card is best known for his science fiction novel Ender's Game and its many sequels that expand the Ender Universe into the far future and the near past. Those books are organized into the Ender Saga, which chronicles the life of Ender Wiggin; the Shadow Series, which follows on the novel Ender's Shadow and is set on Earth; and the Formic Wars series, written with co-author Aaron Johnston, which tells of the terrible first contact between humans and the alien "Buggers." Card has been a working writer since the 1970s. Beginning with dozens of plays and musical comedies produced in the 1960s and 70s, Card's first published fiction appeared in 1977--the short story "Gert Fram" in the July issue of The Ensign, and the novelette version of "Ender's Game" in the August issue of Analog. The novel-length version of Ender's Game, published in 1984 and continuously in print since then, became the basis of the 2013 film, starring Asa Butterfield, Harrison Ford, Ben Kingsley, Hailee Steinfeld, Viola Davis, and Abigail Breslin. Card was born in Washington state, and grew up in California, Arizona, and Utah. He served a mission for the LDS Church in Brazil in the early 1970s. Besides his writing, he runs occasional writers' workshops and directs plays. He frequently teaches writing and literature courses at Southern Virginia University. He is the author many science fiction and fantasy novels, including the American frontier fantasy series "The Tales of Alvin Maker" (beginning with Seventh Son), and stand-alone novels like Pastwatch and Hart's Hope. He has collaborated with his daughter Emily Card on a manga series, Laddertop. He has also written contemporary thrillers like Empire and historical novels like the monumental Saints and the religious novels Sarah and Rachel and Leah. Card's work also includes the Mithermages books (Lost Gate, Gate Thief), contemporary magical fantasy for readers both young and old. Card lives in Greensboro, North Carolina, with his wife, Kristine Allen Card. He and Kristine are the parents of five children and several grandchildren.

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    Reviews for Ender's Game

    4.5/5

    483 ratings358 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Excitement reading, I love the authors interview at the end.
    • 4/5
      Ender Wiggin is incredibly smart and resourceful. In fact, he might have what it takes to save humanity. The Buggers have attacked earth twice in an attempt to colonize our planet. Now the ultimate combat is at hand, and the only hope of winning is to have the right commander lead this war. Ender is six years old when he's recruited for training in battle school, and he and all the other children showing promise are trained by playing elaborate battle games that require more brains than brawn. Those in power have decided that Ender can become the ultimate commander if he's manipulated correctly. But Ender isn't just smart, he's also highly sensitive, and he's far from sure that he wants to take responsibility for maiming and killing his enemies; that would make him too much like his older brother Peter, his tormentor with sociopathic tendencies. This is a game with high stakes in more ways than one, and there's no knowing how Ender will play it next. I'm no science fiction aficionado, but I'd say Ender's Game's got everything one might want from that genre. There's plenty of action, there's futuristic technology and space travel, and it's also a very smartly constructed story that even delves into existentialism, while delivering a great kicker in the end which makes you want to reach for the next in series immediately. I showed restraint, but just, and only because I have so many other books already sitting on my shelves—but this is one kid with a unique journey ahead of him, and I want to follow along.
    • 5/5
      One of my all-time favorite books, ya or adult.
    • 4/5
      It made him sorrowful, but Ender did not weep. He was done with that. When they had turned Valentine into a stranger, when they had used her as a tool to work on Ender, from that day forward they could never hurt him deep enough to make him cry again. Ender was certain of that. And with that anger, he decided he was strong enough to defeat them- the teachers, his enemies. I found the story of Ender's training really quite sad, how he was deliberately isolated from his fellow students and made to believe that no adult would ever come to his aid. But it's not easy to believe that they would have left the safety of earth to a bunch of pre-pubescent children, however intelligent and well trained they were. it seems inconceivable that they had not been able to find suitable adult soldiers to defeat the Buggers. So although the story works on an emotional level, I kept being pulled up by how ridiculous and far-fetched it was.
    • 4/5
      Playground games meets inter-galactic warfare. Part of the author's skill is making the battles understandable and approachable. The quasi-philosophical/Demosthenes plotline is harder to follow.
    • 4/5
      Summary: A six-year-old boy is picked to train as a commander during an interstellar war.Evaluation: The best thing about this book is how identifiable Ender is. I think any teenager who has ever been considered gifted in the arts, education, or athletics would be able to identify with the pressure put on Ender and probably with what he does with it. I enjoyed watching Ender grow throughout the novel. A very good book.
    • 5/5
      Once I read Ender's Game, I had to read every Orson Scott Card book out there. It blew me away! I loved this book, and all the books that followed.If you haven't read it, you're missing out.
    • 5/5
      A book that helped me manage adolescence.
    • 5/5
      Title: Ender’s GameAuthor: Orson Scott CardGenre: YA Science FictionPublishing Information: 324 pages; January 1st, 1985 by Tor Science FictionSeries: Ender’s Saga #1Where I got it: Border’s liquidation saleOne sentence: When child genius six-year-old Ender Wiggin is recruited by the government as defense for a hostile alien race’s next attack, his life changes forever in ways he could never imagine.Themes: Space, battle, war, kids, aliens, saving the world, Main character: 4/5Ender was a fascinating, well-rounded character. He consistently felt older to me than his age, but because it had been thoroughly explained earlier in the novel, it was nothing that significantly turned me off. I particularly enjoyed Ender’s struggle with his situation and his emotions and actions seemed reasonable and realistic. Ender is one of those characters who continue to be sympathetic, despite the fact that he is undoubtedly supposed to be a character whose smarts and abilities place him in a different league than most children.Secondary characters: 4/5I especially loved the secondary characters because they were almost more human than Ender was. Petra was cute and bad-ass at the same time, Alai was sweet and I loved how he befriended Ender, and I adored Bean, who was spunky and an absolute riot. The struggles that Ender had making friends made those relationships even more fantastic and heart-warming. Writing style: 4/5Card’s writing style was built for a movie remake- the action scenes are intense and heart-stopping, the sentences short and quick to the point. I was slightly disappointed by the choppy sentences and the slightly juvenile style, but it seemed to move along well and I was rarely jolted out of the book. Plot: 5/5Absolutely fantastic! I was a little nervous about the premise, but Card executed it brilliantly. I absolutely adored the battle tactics and politics in the system, which was complex and entertaining- exactly the sort of thing I love to read. Further, there are such deeper questions brought up by the ending that challenged my opinions and thoughts on the entire novel. Ending: 4.5/5What a shocker. Honestly, the climax was so fantastic and shocking, but the final ending was something on its own. It brought up so many more questions and discussions that just brought a further level to the novel. Best scene: The climactic scene was just phenomenal- wow.Positives: Strong, compelling characters, fantastic plot, ending!!!!Negatives: A few weak characterizations, sometimes the writing was childish.First Line: I've watched through his eyes, I've listened through his ears, and I tell you he's the one.Cover: A little retro- I wanted something a little more modern and mysterious. Verdict: So good! I really don’t know what else to say. Even if you don’t like science-fiction, definitely try this novel out.Rating: 8.6 / 10
    • 2/5
      [Ender's Game] is completely plot driven and thus moves the reader forward quickly. Unfortunately, that's about the best thing I can say for it. Poorly written in a mix of styles (not driven by character's speech or p.o.v.); implausible at best, since Ender is perfectly compassionate, perfectly brilliant, perfectly soldier-like (did I mention that Ender ages from 6 to 10 in the book?) and in the end, perfectly unbelievable; an obviously tacked-on, hoked-up ending that attempts to mitigate the book's emphasis on the value of violence--this is just a mess. I'll be reading the first Harry Potter book this week, and it will be interesting to contrast the two--especially since Card has stated that the basic Potter plot is the same as the Ender plot. I hope Rowling did better.
    • 4/5
      In the past year I have managed to read Ender’s Game twice. I absolute loved it. It is the story of the childhood (if you can call it that) of Andrew ‘Ender’ Wiggen. He is a third child in a society where one child in a family is the norm. He is sent to a special school when he is six. A battle school.In battle school Ender is the youngest and smallest in the newest class. But he quickly shows that he can overcome any obstacle and is soon transferred to a higher class and begins to fight in the games which they have against the other teams. He also plays games which have battle scenarios on his desk. All of this goes on for awhile with Ender becoming more and more isolated not only because he is younger than most of the other children he fights with. After a couple of years he is given his own command and leads them to victory almost every single battle, even when there are unfair odds.Eventually, he graduates and is offered to train at officer school. It is at this point he decides he doesn’t want to be a soldier anymore. Valentine (his sister) is enlisted to help change his mind. She was the only one who he ever cared enough about. Somehow she manages to convince him to go.At officer school he trains and eventually is put through a rigorous test to see if he has what it takes to lead an army against the Buggers. (A different species from another planet that had attacked and killed Earth over fifty years before he was born.) Well, Ender passes the tests with flying colors, and in one of the simulations destroys their home planet. Unknown to him he was actually commanding squadrons which were facing the buggers first hand, making him a hero.I left out the whole subplot of Valentine and Peter (Ender’s brother) being very influential under pen names on Earth.Orson Scott Card is an amazing writer and having read two more in the Ender’s series and a couple of his other books I can say this with justification that I will be reading more of his books in the future. Even rereading some.
    • 4/5
      I will always enjoy a book where mind games are around the whole time. I choose this one just because it was edited in 1977 and was looking for a book as old as me :). I found it, took it and read it . I loved it. Read it in one day. Is really easy to read and juvenile fiction rated.
    • 4/5
      I don't normally like science fiction but, I saw many outstanding reivew for this one and decided to give it a try. I was on the library waiting list for about six months (popular book even though it was published in'85). I really enjoyed it, had a hard time putting it down. Card does a great job with the characters and their inner emotional side. Following Ender through his many ordeals to the final challenge kept the story moving. I'll be looking for more of Card.
    • 5/5
      The book is great. But honestly, the very last few minutes of the audio book was my favorite part. “The game is Real.”?
    • 5/5
      I wish I read this book when I was little, I really do. Because as amazing as it was reading this as a twenty-something, I can’t imagine how much this would have blown my mind when it still held the capacity for pure wonder, untainted by mind-numbing garbage passed on by professors. The character of the title, Ender, is a kid upon whom the fate of the world may rest. “Buggers” have invaded planet earth twice, and it seems are making head for a third invasion that will undoubtedly wipe out the entire race of earthlings. In preparation for the inevitable coming war, the government is breeding military child geniuses. The test of each child’s aptitude comes in the form of games. Ender excels at every game they put in front of him--even when they destroy the rules. When galactic war finally approaches, the culminating events and Ender’s role in them completely pull the rug out from under the reader. Aside from Ender’s immediate circumstances, the characters (and the whole idea behind them) of Demosthenes and Locke are both entertaining and incredibly clever. Ender’s Game helped solidify my evolving thoughts about science fiction: Science fiction is frequently looked down on and regarded as trite when compared to the massive beast of Literature. But this is not how it should be. By its very nature GOOD science fiction is the perfect medium for presenting ideas of great philosophical consequence. Science fiction is not just a genre of adventure stories set in outer space. It is an arena in which reader and author may discourse on the heady implications of hypothetical situations--no matter whether they are feasible in contemporary times or not. By its nature, science fiction IS literature of the utmost degree, and it should be regarded and respected in such terms. I had been slowly coming to this conclusion for a while anyway, but Ender’s Game is such an amazing novel that it completely made concrete in my mind everything I was struggling to put words to about the genre of science fiction. I look forward to reading Speaker for the Dead at some point in the near future.
    • 5/5
      Always wondered what the hype was about. Now I know. This is one of the best books I can remember reading for a very long time, and I wish I had read it when it was published. I subsequently read the rest of the series (including the newest book, which comes between this one and Speaker for the Dead), and while they are all worth reading, this one stands head and shoulders above the rest. I could write reams about it, but I'll just say two more things: 1. It is easy to read, but there is lots to chew on. 2. Read it.
    • 4/5
      I liked this book for the most part it was entertaining and i will probably continue on with the series but there were a few things that bothered me. It was weird how mature he made all the young kids, even if it is in the future, a 6 to 10 year old would not be doing the stuff in this book. Also I felt all the chartaters were very angry and I didn't associate myself with any of them because of this. It seemed like nothing happy ever happened which might be why I feel a little let down by the book. I enjoyed most of the stuff while Ender was at combat school but i think after that things got a little too weird. I hope the rest of the series gives more personality to the characters and that is why I will probably read on.
    • 5/5
      I've managed to not read this book until now, but I picked it up in a pile of other used books (probably at Powell's but it's hazy already) and finally dove into it when I ran out of library books. I'm really enjoying it, reading about a brilliant kid thrown into military training at 6 years old who is always thinking, trying to figure things out. I totally didn't see the twists at the end coming, my only excuse is that I kept reading well past my bedtime. :) Great book, I'm sorry that I didn't read it before this. Scary to think that by the end of the main story he's only 12 years old, I keep thinking back to what I was doing when I was that age, and it definitely wasn't training to save the world.
    • 4/5
      Ender's Game is a creative story weaving the science fiction of alien attacks on Earth with the non-fiction youthful fascination with computer games. After the "buggers," a bug-like enemy from outer space have failed in an attempt to destroy Earth, Earth's protectors launch a two-pronged effort: an actual counter-attack on the buggers' planet and an effort to create a person of super-intelligence and ability to lead Earth to victory in the future. Peter, Valentine, and Ender Wiggins are all possible candidates for Earth's tactical genius, but Ender, though only six years old, proves the most capable and least corruptible. The strength of the story is its completely creative plot and reliance on the skill and purity of youth. The story allows for the exploration of both the usefulness and futility of spending inordinate amounts of time on-line or playing computer games as well as the corruptible nature of those seeking power.
    • 4/5
      one of my favorite science fiction stories of all time. i wish we had three dimensional battle rooms with no gravity.
    • 4/5
      This is the best book I've ever disliked! It was incredibly well written and left me feeling cold and empty. An incredible book, but I'm so glad it's over. I think that Sci-Fi is not my most favorite genre.
    • 5/5
      I was warned Ender's Game would mess with my mind. Obviously, I didn't take these warnings to heart, since I got within the last thirty pages and started flailing with realisation. The end is a nice twist. If you go through the story complacently, if you identify with Ender and see things the way he does, it comes out of completely nowhere. But it also makes sense and works and is good, and I don't think I've read a better ending for a book in quite a while.

      Ender, as a character, is pretty likeable despite his darker side. I loved the fact that his brother and sister had such an effect on him, and I loved that he and Valentine ended up in the same place again in the end. The last chapter feels quite rushed, but it does show us Ender growing up and changing, and presumably bridges to other books in the series. I don't know whether I want to read more right now, but I'll definitely pick the other books up if I see them on the shelves.

      Other characters, such as Bean and Petra and Alai, were quite in the background, but I kind of wanted to know more about them, too.

      One of my friends credits this book with changing his life. I wouldn't say it's been a life-changer for me, but it's very good sci-fi and very interesting and you could also have moral debates about a lot of it. Good book for discussion, I think.
    • 4/5
      Misunderstood boy genius saves Earth from misunderstood buglike aliens via misunderstood war games.
    • 5/5
      narrated by Stefan Rudnicki and Harlan Ellison.
      Audio Renaissance put this unabridged narration out for the 20th anniversary of the book. It's very well done, and the afterword by Card is fascinating. The book itself is so gripping and well-written that it doesn't matter that one knows the punchline after the first reading.
    • 3/5
      I hesitate to rate this book highly. Orson Card is a right wing Mormon crazy, from what I've heard. However I can't deny that I could not put the book down. It's amazing to me that this book was written in 77 before the world wide web, video games, etc. It raises a lot of interesting issues about war and military training. It falls apart at the end with a tacked-on ridiculous ending but overall, it was suspenseful and thought-provoking.
    • 5/5
      THE most awesome science-fiction since 2001: A Space Odyssey. This tale completely draws you into the lives of Ender and his protegy compatriots. I'll read this over and over for the rest of my days.
    • 5/5
      One of the best books of all time
    • 5/5
      I picked this up at a local thrift store after my sister said I should read it. I hadn't really heard of it before then.As soon as I started reading, I couldn't stop. A lot of my friends at school said that it was hard to understand and written strangely, but I didn't have a problem with it.The twist at the end was fantastic, and the way that the book was written kept me wanting more and more all the time. This is one of those books where you read it and think - who on earth could have thought up all this stuff? Card did an amazing job. To find any criticism at all I must think hard and all I can come up with is this - I was a bit annoyed by Ender's repetitive conclusions on bad situations he was placed in. It seemed like Card was trying to hard to make a point of Ender understanding, but submitting to, his superiors' plans. I also didn't like the very end of the book, though I do agree it was fitting. Other than that small bit, I can find nothing wrong with this excellent masterpiece! This is one of my favorite books.
    • 5/5
      Ender Wiggins is a child, bred and painstakingly trained to be a military genius in a future Earth where humankind is threatened by an alien species with whom we can't communicate.

      Winner of the Nebula and Hugo awards. A very creative and thought-provoking book. (My son recently re-read the book and it's one I've always meant to read so finally got around to it).

      NC tidbit- part of the story takes place in Greensboro, NC - Orson Scott Cards home for close to 30 years now.
    • 4/5
      Ender Wiggin was born to fulfill a destiny - to save the world from insectoid extraterrestrials. At age 6, he joins other highly intelligent children at Battle School, a giant spaceship satellite of the Earth. His teachers are ruthless in allowing painful things to happen to Ender in order to prepare him to be an unbeatable commander. Basically compassionate, he is tortured by his increasing violence necessary for self-defense. Great surprise ending.