Ender's Game is a 1985 military science fiction novel by American author Orson Scott Card. Set at an unspecified date in Earth's future, the novel presents an imperiled humankind after two conflicts with an insectoidalien species they dub "the buggers". In preparation for an anticipated third invasion, Earth's international military force recruits young children, including the novel's protagonist, Andrew "Ender" Wiggin, to be trained as elite officers. The children learn military strategy and leadership by playing increasingly difficult war games, including some in zero gravity, where Ender's tacticalgenius is revealed.
The book originated as a short story of the same name, published in the August 1977 issue of Analog Science Fiction and Fact.[1] The novel was published on January 15, 1985. Later, by elaborating on characters and plotlines depicted in the novel, Card wrote additional books in the Ender's Game series. Card released an updated version of Ender's Game in 1991, changing some political facts to account for the then-recent dissolution of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War. The novel has been translated into 34 languages.
Reception of the book has been mostly positive. It has become suggested reading for many military organizations, including the United States Marine Corps.[2]Ender's Game was recognized as "best novel" by the 1985 Nebula Award[3] and the 1986 Hugo Award[4] in the genres of science fiction and fantasy. Its four sequels—Speaker for the Dead (1986), Xenocide (1991), Children of the Mind (1996), and Ender in Exile (2008)—follow Ender's subsequent travels to many different worlds in the galaxy. In addition, the later novella A War of Gifts (2007) and novel Ender's Shadow (1999), plus other novels in the Shadow saga, take place during the same time period as the original.
1 2 Note on the following (maybe not yet so common) Trilogies: "Speaker Trilogy": Original set of sequels to Ender's Game, also referred to as: - "Ender Quartet" (Ender's Game combined with "Speaker Trilogy"), also referred to as: - "Ender Quintet"("Ender Quartet" combined with Ender in Exile). "Shadow Trilogy": Original set of sequels to Ender's Shadow, also referred to as: - "Bean Quartet"/"Shadow Quartet" (Ender's Shadow combined with "Shadow Trilogy"), also referred to as: - "Bean Quintet"/"Shadow Quintet" ("Bean Quartet" combined with Shadows in Flight), could be referred to as: - "Bean Sextet"/"Shadow Sextet" ("Bean Quintet" combined with The Last Shadow)
↑ Title is also mentioned in regard to a possible sequel for the film.
War breaks out between humans and an insect-like alien race called the Formics. The humans achieve a narrow victory, create the International Fleet (I.F.), and train gifted children to become commanders at their orbiting Battle School.
Andrew "Ender" Wiggin is born a "Third": a rare exception to Earth's two-child policy, allowed by the government due to the promise shown by his two older siblings. The eldest, Peter, is an intelligent sociopath who bullies Ender. His sister, Valentine, is deeply empathic. The I.F. removed Ender's monitoring device when he was six years old, seemingly ending his chances of Battle School. He is bullied by a fellow student, Stilson, but Ender violently attacks him. Unbeknownst to Ender, Stilson later dies from his wounds. Colonel Hyrum Graff visits Ender after hearing about the fight. Ender attests that by showing superiority now, he has prevented future struggle. Graff offers him a place in the Battle School.
Once at Battle School, Graff and the other leaders covertly work to keep Ender isolated. Ender finds solace in playing a simulated adventure game that involves being killed by and eventually killing a giant. The cadets participate in competitive war simulations in zero gravity, where Ender quickly masters the competition with novel tactics. To further wear Ender down, he is promoted to command a new army composed of raw recruits, then pitted against multiple armies at once, but Ender's success continues. Ender's jealous ex-commander, Bonzo Madrid, draws him into a fight outside the simulation, and once again seeking to preemptively stop future conflicts, Ender uses excessive force, and Bonzo dies from his injuries without Ender being notified.
Meanwhile on Earth, Peter Wiggin uses a global communication system to post political essays under the pseudonym "Locke", hoping to establish himself as a respected orator and then as a powerful politician. Valentine, despite not trusting Peter, agrees to publish alongside him as "Demosthenes". Their essays are soon taken seriously by the government and the people.
Ender, now ten years old, is promoted to Command School. After some preliminary battles in the simulator, he is introduced to Mazer Rackham, a hero from the Formic war who saw key patterns in the Formic behavior. Ender participates in space combat simulations created and controlled by Mazer. As the fighting becomes harder, he is joined by some of his friends from the Battle School as sub-commanders. Ender grows depressed by the battles, his isolation, and the way Mazer treats him.
For his final test, under observation by I.F.'s commanders, Ender finds his fleet far outnumbered by Formic ships surrounding their homeworld. He sacrifices his entire fleet to fire a Molecular Disruption Device at the planet. The Device destroys the planet and paralyzes the surrounding Formic fleet. The commanders cheer and celebrate. Mazer informs Ender that the "simulations" were real battles, directing human spacecraft against Formic fleets via an ansible and that Ender has won the war. Ender realizes that he has committed genocide and become just like Peter, additionally learning about the deaths of Stilson and Bonzo.
Ender and Valentine join a group of space colonists. On their new planet, Ender becomes the colony's governor. He discovers a structure that matches the simulation of the giant game from Battle School and inside finds the dormant egg of a Formic queen. The queen telepathically communicates to Ender that before the first Formic war, they had assumed humans were a non-sentient race, for want of collective consciousness, but realized their mistake too late. Instead, she had reached out to Ender to draw him here and requested that he take the egg to a new planet for the Formics to colonize.
Ender takes the egg and, with information from the queen, writes The Hive Queen under the alias "Speaker for the Dead". Peter, now the leader of Earth and 77 with heart failure, recognizes Ender as the author of The Hive Queen. He asks Ender to write a book about him, which Ender titles The Hegemon. The combined works create a new type of funeral, in which the Speaker for the Dead tells the whole and unapologetic story of the deceased, adopted by many on Earth and its colonies. Ender and Valentine leave the colony and travel to other worlds, looking for a safe place to establish the unborn Hive Queen.
Creation and inspiration
The original "Ender's Game" is a short story that 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.[6] Additionally, in the post-script of the 20th anniversary audiobook edition, Card mentions that he named Ender so that he could have a name that sounded like "endgame" from chess.[7] 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.[6]
Ender's Game was the first science-fiction novel published entirely online, when it appeared on Delphi a year before print publication.[8]
Critical response
Ender's Game 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.[4] In 1999, it placed No.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]Ender's Game was included in Damien Broderick's book Science Fiction: The 101 Best Novels 1985–2010.[14] It ranked number nine on Locus's top SF novels published before 1990.[15]
The New York Times writer Gerald Jonas asserts that the novel's plot summary resembles a "grade Z, made-for-television, science-fiction rip-off movie", but 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."[16]
The novel has received criticism for its portrayal of violence and its justification. Elaine Radford's review, "Ender and Hitler: Sympathy for the Superman", 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.[17] 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", wherein Kessel states: "Ender gets to strike out at his enemies and still remain morally clean. Nothing is his fault."[18] Noah Berlatsky makes similar claims in his analysis of the relationship between colonization and science fiction, where he describes Ender's Game as in part a justification of "Western expansion and genocide".[19] However, more recently, science fiction scholar Mike Ryder has refuted the claims of Kessel and Radford, arguing that Ender is exploited by powers beyond his control.[20]
The U.S. Marine Corps Professional Reading List makes the novel recommended reading at several lower ranks, and again at Officer Candidate/Midshipman.[21] The book was placed on the reading list by Captain John F. Schmitt, author of FMFM-1 (Fleet Marine Force Manual, on maneuver doctrine) for "provid[ing] useful allegories to explain why militaries do what they do in a particularly effective shorthand way".[22] 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".[22] It is also used as an early fictional example of game-based learning.[23]
The weeks ending June 9, August 11, September 1, September 8, October 27, November 3, November 10, and November 24, 2013, the novel was No.1 on The New York Times' Best Sellers List of Paperback Mass-Market Fiction.[30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37]
Revisions
In 1991, Card 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 (2008), Card stated that many of the details in chapter 15 of Ender's Game were 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.[38]
After several years of speculation on the possibility, Summit Entertainment financed and coordinated the development of a film in 2011, serving as its distributor.[39][40]Gavin Hood directed the film, which lasts 1 hour and 54 minutes.[41][42] Filming began in New Orleans, Louisiana, on February 27, 2012,[43] and was released on November 1, 2013 (USA).[44] A movie preview trailer[45] was released in May 2013 and a second trailer[46] was released later that year.
Card has called Ender's Game "unfilmable", "because everything takes place in Ender's head", and refused to sign a film deal unless he could ensure that the film was "true to the story". Of the film that he eventually agreed to, Card said it was "the best that good people could do with a story they really cared about and believed in", and while warning fans not to expect a completely faithful adaptation, called the film "damn good".[47]
In 2008, it was announced an Ender's Game video game was in the works.[50] It was to be known as Ender's Game: Battle Room and was a planned digitally distributed video game for all viable downloadable platforms.[51] 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 bestselling novel. Little was revealed about the game, save its setting in the Ender universe and that it would have focused on the Battle Room.[51]
In December 2010, it was announced that the video game development had stopped and the project put on indefinite hold.[52]
Orson Scott Card and Amaze Entertainment also came to an agreement regarding a video game adaption of the novel but nothing ever materialized.[53]
Ender's Game Alive: The Full Cast Audioplay, is a 2013 audio drama written by Orson Scott Card, based on the Ender's Game novel. At over seven hours in length, this retelling of Ender's Game hints at storylines from "Teacher's Pest", "The Polish Boy", "The Gold Bug", Ender's Shadow, Shadow of the Hegemon, Shadow of the Giant, Shadows in Flight, Earth Unaware, and Speaker for the Dead, and gives new insight into the beginnings of Ender's philotic connection with the Hive Queen. Ender's Game Alive is directed by Gabrielle de Cuir, produced by Stefan Rudnicki at Skyboat Media, published by Audible.com, and performed by a cast of over 30 voice actors playing over 100 roles.[56][57]
Audible also commissioned a German-language adaptation of the same script. Titled Ender's Game/Das grosse Spiel - Das ungekürzte Hörspiel ("The unabridged audio drama"), this adaptation was produced by "Lauscherlounge", directed by Balthasar von Weymarn and performed by a cast of 100 different voice actors including children.[58]
Translations
Ender's Game has been translated into 34 languages:
↑ Pellegrino, Joseph; Scott, Amy (2004). "The Transition from Simulation to Game-Based Learning". Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation, and Education Conference. CiteSeerX10.1.1.454.5486.
Children of the Mind (1996) is a novel by American author Orson Scott Card, the fourth in his successful Ender's Game series of science fiction novels that focus on the character Ender Wiggin. This book was originally the second half of Xenocide, before it was split into two novels.
Ender's Shadow (1999) is a parallel science fiction novel by the American author Orson Scott Card, taking place at the same time as the novel Ender's Game and depicting some of the same events from the point of view of Bean, a supporting character in the original novel. It was originally to be titled Urchin, but it was retitled Ender's Shadow prior to release. Ender's Shadow was shortlisted for a Locus Award in 2000.
Xenocide (1991), the third book in the Ender's Game series, is a science fiction novel by American writer Orson Scott Card. It was nominated for both the Hugo and Locus Awards for Best Novel in 1992. The novel explores themes of communication, xenophobia, and the potential dangers of advanced technology. Card's work often delves into moral and philosophical dilemmas, and Xenocide continues this trend by examining the complexities of interspecies relations and the responsibilities of wielding immense power.
Shadow of the Hegemon (2000) is a science fiction novel by American writer Orson Scott Card, the second novel in the Ender's Shadow series. It is also the sixth novel in the Ender's Game series. It is told mostly from the point of view of Bean, a largely peripheral character in the original novel Ender's Game but the central protagonist of the parallel narrative Ender's Shadow.Shadow of the Hegemon was nominated for a Locus Award in 2002.
The Ender's Game series is a series of science fiction books written by American author Orson Scott Card. The series started with the novelette Ender's Game, which was later expanded into the novel of the same title. It currently consists of sixteen novels, thirteen short stories, 47 comic issues, an audioplay, and a film. The first two novels in the series, Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead, each won both the Hugo and Nebula Awards.
Ender's Game is a 2013 American military science-fiction action film based on Orson Scott Card's 1985 novel of the same name. Written and directed by Gavin Hood, the film stars Asa Butterfield as Andrew "Ender" Wiggin, a gifted child sent to an advanced military academy in space to prepare for a future alien invasion. The supporting cast includes Harrison Ford, Hailee Steinfeld, Viola Davis, Abigail Breslin, and Ben Kingsley.
James Davis Nicoll is a Canadian freelance game and speculative fiction reviewer, former security guard and role-playing game store owner, and five-time Hugo nominee, who also works as a first reader for the Science Fiction Book Club. As a Usenet personality, Nicoll is known for writing a widely quoted epigram on the English language, as well as for his accounts of suffering a high number of accidents, which he has narrated over the years in Usenet groups like rec.arts.sf.written and rec.arts.sf.fandom. He is now a blogger on Dreamwidth and Facebook, and an occasional columnist on Tor.com. In 2014, he started his website, jamesdavisnicoll.com, dedicated to his book reviews of works old and new; and later added Young People Read Old SFF, where his panel of younger readers read pre-1980 science fiction and fantasy, and Nicoll and his collaborators report on the younger readers' reactions.
Maps in a Mirror (1990) is a collection of short stories by American writer Orson Scott Card. Like Card's novels, most of the stories have a science fiction or fantasy theme. Some of the stories, such as "Ender's Game", "Lost Boys", and "Mikal's Songbird" were later expanded into novels. Each of the smaller volumes that make up the larger collection as a whole are centered on a theme or genre. For instance, Volume 1, The Changed Man, reprints several of Card's horror stories. The collection won the Locus Award in 1991.
Shadows in Flight is a science fiction novella by American writer Orson Scott Card. When released in 2012, it became the twelfth book published in the Ender's Game series. The story follows on from where the original four "Shadow series" books left off. It is about Bean and his children discovering an ancient Formic "ark" during their journey in space. It was released in January of 2012. It was nominated for the Goodreads Choice Award for science fiction.
Ender in Exile is a science fiction novel by American writer Orson Scott Card, part of the Ender's Game series, published on November 11, 2008. It takes place between the two award-winning novels Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead. It could also be considered a parallel novel to the first three sequels in the Shadow Saga, since the entirety of this trilogy takes place in the span of Ender in Exile. The novel concludes a dangling story line of the Shadow Saga, while it makes several references to events that take place during the Shadow Saga. From yet another perspective, the novel expands the last chapter of the original novel Ender's Game. On the one hand, it fills the gap right before the last chapter, and on the other hand, it fills the gap between the last chapter and the original (first) sequel. Ender in Exile begins one year after Ender has won the bugger war, and begins with the short story "Ender's Homecoming" from Card's webzine Intergalactic Medicine Show. Other short stories that were published elsewhere are included as chapters of the novel.
Orson Scott Card is an American writer known best for his science fiction works. He is the only person to have won a Hugo Award and a Nebula Award in consecutive years, winning both awards for his novel Ender's Game (1985) and its sequel Speaker for the Dead (1986). A feature film adaptation of Ender's Game, which Card coproduced, was released in 2013. Card also wrote the Locus Fantasy Award-winning series The Tales of Alvin Maker (1987–2003).
The Orson Scott Card bibliography contains a list of works published by Orson Scott Card.
Empire is a 2006 dystopian novel by American writer Orson Scott Card. It tells the story of a possible Second American Civil War, this time between the Right wing and Left wing in the near future. It is the first of the two books in the Empire duet, followed by Hidden Empire with the video game Shadow Complex bridging the two.
The 44th World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon), also known as ConFederation, was held on 28 August–1 September 1986 at the Marriott Marquis and Atlanta Hilton in Atlanta, Georgia, United States.
A War of Gifts: An Ender Story is a 2007 science fiction novella by American writer Orson Scott Card. This book is set in Card's Ender's Game series and takes place during Ender Wiggin's time at Battle School as described in Card's novels Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow.
"Ender's Game" is a science fiction novelette by American writer Orson Scott Card. It first appeared in the August 1977 issue of Analog magazine and was later expanded into the 1985 novel Ender's Game. Although it serves as the foundation of the Ender's Game series, the novelette is not considered to be properly a part of the Ender's Game universe, as there are many discrepancies in continuity between it and the novel.
Ender's Game is a series of comic book adaptations of a series of science fiction novels of the same name written by Orson Scott Card and published by Marvel Comics that began in October 2008. However, some have new content not included in the novels. The series, like the novels they are based on, are set in a future where mankind is facing annihilation by an aggressive alien society, an insect-like race known colloquially as "Buggers" but more formally as "Formics". The central character, Andrew "Ender" Wiggin, is one of the child soldiers trained at Battle School to be the future leaders of the protection of Earth. The year is never specified, although the ages of the Wiggin children are bound to change throughout space, taking in the relativity of space and time.
The Nebula Awards annually recognize the best works of science fiction or fantasy published in the United States. The awards are organized and awarded by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA), a nonprofit association of professional science fiction and fantasy writers. They were first given in 1966 at a ceremony created for the awards, and are given in four categories for different lengths of literary works. A fifth category for film and television episode scripts was given 1974–78 and 2000–09, and a sixth category for game writing was begun in 2018. In 2019 SFWA announced that two awards that were previously run under the same rules but not considered Nebula awards—the Andre Norton Award for Middle Grade and Young Adult Fiction and the Ray Bradbury Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation—were to be considered official Nebula awards. The rules governing the Nebula Awards have changed several times during the awards' history, most recently in 2010. The SFWA Nebula Conference, at which the awards are announced and presented, is held each spring in the United States. Locations vary from year to year.
Yoon Ha Lee is an American science fiction and fantasy writer, known for his Machineries of Empire space opera novels and his short fiction. His first novel, Ninefox Gambit, received the 2017 Locus Award for Best First Novel.
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