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Ender's Game
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Read Ender's Game
The Ender Quartet: Book 1

Ender's Game (1985) (edit title/settings)

by Orson Scott Card (Author) (edit contributors)

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Description edit see section history

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... read more

Summary edit see section history

First book in the Ender Series.

In the novel's opening, the government selects Andrew "Ender" Wiggin for training at the elite Battle School. Ender is a third child - a rarity. His two older siblings, Peter and Valentine, were also considered for a position at Battle School, but... read more (warning: may contain spoilers)

First book in the Ender Series.

In the novel's opening, the government selects Andrew "Ender" Wiggin for training at the elite Battle School. Ender is a third child - a rarity. His two older siblings, Peter and Valentine, were also considered for a position at Battle School, but neither fit the criteria perfectly. Ender's birth was allowed by the government to create a perfect candidate.

At Battle School, the commander Hyrum Graff publicly recognizes Ender as the most intelligent attendee. This acknowledgment causes other students to resent Ender, isolating him from most of the other children. Ender soon ranks among the school's elite child soldiers, eventually achieving the school's top rank. Even after his success the other children continue to ostracize him. Ender attempts to escape his isolation and frustration in various ways, but experiences little comfort until he receives a letter from his older sister Valentine, reminding him of his reasons for attending Battle School in the first place.

The Battle School brass soon promote him to commander of a new army in the school's zero-gravity wargame league. He molds his young soldiers into an undefeated team, despite working with an inexperienced army. Ender's army implements innovative tactics, abolishing old methods like the use of formations in the battle room.

The Battle School administration promotes Ender to Command School ahead of schedule. In command school, and under the tutelage of Mazer Rackham, the legendary hero of the Formic wars, Ender plays a game very similar to the Battle Room, where he commands ships in a 3-D space battle simulator. His subordinate officers are fellow students advanced early from the battle school who later become known as "Ender's jeesh." Each day the games become increasingly grueling, and Ender is slowly worn down to exhaustion. Waking and sleeping blend together as Ender nearly loses his sanity, though still maintaining his military innovation and leadership.

Ender's "final exam" consists of a scenario where bugger ships outnumber Ender's fleet a thousand to one near a planetary mass. Ender orders the use of a special weapon, the Molecular Disruption Device, against the planet itself, destroying the simulated planet and all ships in orbit. Ender makes this decision knowing that it is expressly against the respectable rules of the game, hoping that his teachers will find his ruthlessness unacceptable, remove him from command, and allow him to return home.

Soon after Ender's destruction of the "simulated" Formic fleet, Rackham tells him that all the simulations were real battles taking place in Formic space. After Ender realizes that he is responsible for the destruction of an entire race, the guilt of the genocide sends him into a coma.

Lead in to the rest of the Ender Series:
When Ender recovers, his sister Valentine explains that he will not be allowed to return to earth because his special skills are too dangerous to fall under the control of his feared brother Peter. He is made Governor of the first human colony on a Bugger world and they leave together on the first colony ship. While scouting out locations for future cities, Ender discovers a message from the Formics—expressed in the form of terrain matching that of the key fantasy game Ender played while in school—that leads him to an unborn Formic queen who can communicate with him through a psychic link. She explains that her race was initially unaware that humans were sentient creatures. The Formic defeat in the Second Invasion awakened them to humanity's true nature, and they resolved not to attack Earth again. With direct communication impossible between the species, the only connection they were able make was with Ender's dreaming mind, but he did not know he was fighting a war.

Ender realizes that the Formics sacrificed their lives to the humans to pay for their crime but left this one Queen for Ender to find, forgive and take to a new home. Leaving out the fact that one 'Bugger' still lives, Ender writes a book in the Queens voice under the pseudonym "Speaker for the Dead" entitled The Hive Queen, wherein he tells the story of the Formic race.

There is also a newer tangent of the series written from the eyes of Bean and the other characters who remain on Earth starting with the book Ender's Shadow.

Characters edit see section history

  • Andrew "Ender" Wiggin: A young genius, American born, who is a "Third", a third child born in a society that has strict population control and forbids families to have more than two children. He is commonly known as Ender.
  • Valentine Wiggin: Ender's older sister. Protects Ender from Peter. She, like Ender and Peter, is highly intelligent. Valentine also has great empathy. She loves Ender more than anything, even as they are separated.
  • Peter Wiggin: Ender's older brother who likes to torture Ender. He, like Ender and Valentine, is highly intelligent. Peter was not chosen to be sent to Battle School. He is very effective at manipulating people, a skill that he expects will help him in attaining great power. He is an astute observer of each person's fears, and understands how to leverage that against them.
  • Bean: An unusually young, small-sized Launchie assigned to Ender's Dragon Army. He is highly intelligent and is quick in assessing battle situations and in engaging in lateral thinking.
  • Colonel Hyrum Graff: The officer in charge of Battle School. At one point, Ender is "struck with the startling thought that perhaps Graff felt some affection for him. But no, it was just another calculated gesture. Graff was creating a commander out of a little boy. No doubt Unit 17 in the course of studies included an affectionate gesture from the teacher."
  • Alai: A fellow Launchie with Ender, affiliated with Bernard. Ender's first friend. Alai is a practicing Muslim, and says farewell to Ender when Ender is made a commander, with "Salaam".
  • Bonzo de Madrid: An older student in Battle school who is Ender's first commander. Bonzo leads the Salamander Army. Bonzo resents Ender for being young and brilliant. He is a believer in a top-down organizational structure, and likes to organize his army in strict formations. Bonzo is from Cartagena in Spain.
  • Mazer Rackham: Hero of Earth who lead the space fleet which soundly defeated the second invasion. "it was Mazer Rackham, a little-known, twice-court-martialled, half-Maori New Zealander whose Strike Force broke up and finally destroyed the bugger fleet in the action around Saturn."
  • Bernard: A Launchy who picks on Ender, who characterizes him as "a tormentor". Bernard is from France.
  • Petra Arkanian: The only girl in Salamander Army. A known and respected sharpshooter despite her being female. She chafes under the leadership of Bonzo. She teaches Ender to shoot. Petra was born in Armenia.
  • Dink Meeker: A weathered Commander of Battle School who is reluctant to allow the school teachers too much control over him.
  • Stilson: Bully in Ender's elementary school class. Dealt with by Ender in a decisive fashion--in more ways than one.
  • Carn Carby: Commander of Rabbit Army.
  • Demosthenes: A pseudonym for a hidden political figure on the worldwide nets. Demosthenes and Locke become major figures forming world opinion without anyone knowing their true identities. Predominately used by Valentine.
  • Locke: A pseudonym for a hidden political figure on the worldwide nets. Demosthenes and Locke become major figures forming world opinion without anyone knowing their true identities. Locke is also the pseudonym used predominately by Peter.
  • Major Anderson: An IF Major under the Command of Colonel Graff.
  • Hot Soup: A member of Dragon Army. Born in China.
  • Mick: Kind upperclassman in Battle School who tries to befriend Ender.
  • Miss Pumphrey: Ender's childhood school teacher.
  • Rose the Nose: Commander of Rat Army. Jewish.
  • Pol Slattery: Commander of Badger Army.
  • Major Imbu: Member of the If at Battle School.
  • Crazy Tom: A member of Dragon Army.
  • Dr. Lineberry: School psychologist of Valentine Wiggin.
  • Captain Dap: A teacher at Battle School.
  • Shen: A member of Ender's Launch group and his friend. Japanese.
  • Talo Momoe: A member of Tiger Army
  • Cam Carby: Commander of Rabbit Army.
  • William Bee: A member of Rabbit Army.
  • Abra: An eleven year old boy on a colony.
  • Admiral Chamrajnagar: An Admiral of the IF above Graff.
  • Mother: Ender's mother.
  • Andrew "Ender" Wiggin: Ender's brains make him stand out in the crowd, even if he's smaller than all the other boys. Can he be the leader he is told to become?
  • Condor: Add a description of this character.
  • Lee
Show all 35 characters
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Quotes edit see section history

  • “Not bad for two kids who've only got about eight pubic hairs between them.”
    Peter Wiggin
  • “We'll have the asteroid belt, but they'll have Earth and you run out of raisins and celery kind of fast out there, without Earth.”
    Peter Wiggin
  • “Sometimes lies were more dependable than the truth.”
    Ender
  • “There's only one thing that will make them stop hating you. And that's being so good at what you do that they can't ignore you.”
    Colonel Graff to Ender
  • “Human beings are free except when humanity needs them.”
    Colonel Graff to Ender
  • “There was no doubt in Ender's mind. There was no help for him. Whatever he faced, now and forever, no one would save him from it. Peter might be scum, but Peter had been right, always right; the power to cause pain is the only power that matters, the power to kill and destroy, because if you can't kill you are always subject to those who can, and nothing and no one will ever save you.”
    Ender
  • “Perhaps it's impossible to wear an identity without becoming what you pretend to be.”
    Valentine
  • “We may be young, but we're not powerless. We play by their rules long enough and it becomes our game.”
    Valentine
  • “-"In the moment when I truly understand my enemy, understand him well enough to defeat him, then in that very moment I also love him. I think it's impossible to really understand somebody, what they want, what they believe, and not love them the way they love themselves. And then, in that very moment when I love them-"-"You beat them."”
    Ender and Valentine
  • “Humanity does not ask us to be happy. It merely asks us to be brilliant on its behalf. Survival first, then happiness as we can manage it.”
    Mazer Rackham to Ender
  • “I don't care if I pass your test, I don't care if I follow your rules. If you can cheat, so can I. I won't let you beat me unfairly - I'll beat you unfairly first.”
    Ender
  • “Welcome to the human race. Nobody controls his own life, Ender. The best you can do is choose to be controlled by good people, by people who love you.”
    Valentine to Ender
  • “I've lived too long with pain. I wont know who I am without it.”
    Ender speaking to Valentine
  • “Cover your butt. Bernard is watching.”
    "God" (as Ender)
  • “Isolation is---the optimum environment for creativity.”
  • “He thought of a half dozen ideas before he went to sleep. Ender would be pleased--every one of them was stupid.”
    Bean
  • “In fact, you will get pushed around. And when you do, don't come crying to me. Got it? This is Battle School, not nursery school.”
    Captain Dap
  • “This would not have a happy ending. So Ender decided he'd rather not be the unhappiest at the end.”
    Ender
  • “Just one more example of the stupidity of the military. If you had any brains, you'd be in a real career, like selling life insurance.”
    unknown to Colonel Graff
  • “I am what I remember”
    Ender Wiggin
  • “Listen, Ender, commanders have just as much authority as you let them have. The more you obey, the more power they have over you.”
    Dink Meeker
  • “If you try and lose then it isn't your fault. But if you don't try and we lose, then it's all your fault.”
  • “"Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man stupid and blind in the eys"”
    Mazer Rackham
  • “"it was Mazer Rackham, a little-known, twice-court-martialled, half-Maori New Zealander whose Strike Force broke up and finally destroyed the bugger fleet in the action around Saturn."”
    Rose the Nose of Rat Army to Ender Wiggin
  • “For now that they could not be together, they must be infinitely apart, and what had been sure and unshakeable was now fragile and insubstantial; from the moment we are not together, Alai is a stranger, for he has a life now that will be no part of mine, and that means that when I see him we will not know each other.”
Show all 25 quotes from this book

Setting & Locations edit see section history

Earth; original home of the humans
  • Battle School: The International Fleet Battle School is a very large space station which serves as school and training center for promising IF recruits. It is the first school of education before being sent to Tactical and Command Schools.
  • Eros: An asteroid of unknown location.

Organizations edit see section history

First Sentence edit see section history

I've watched through his eyes, I've listened through his ears, and I tell you he's the one.

Table of Contents edit see section history

1. Third
2. Peter
3. Graff
4. Launch
5. Games
6. The Giant's Drink
7. Salamander
8. Rat
9. Locke and Demosthenes
10. Dragon
11. Veni Vidi Vici
12. Bonzo
13. Valentine
14. Ender's Teacher
15. Speaker for the Dead

Glossary edit see section history

  • Ansible: A device that allows instantaneous communication anywhere in the universe.
  • Battle Room: A low-gravity room where the students at Battle School participate in simulated, laser-tag-like battles.
  • Buggers/Formics: The alien race that attacked Earth. Display insect-like communication characteristics.
  • Hook: A device provided to a winning team's captain in the battle room after a match to unfreeze player's suits.
  • Launchies: The word for brand-new students at Battle School, who have just arrived via space shuttle.
  • Third: The third child in a family. The term carries a stigma. Couples are only permitted to have two children unless authorized to have a third child under special circumstances. Ender is a Third.
  • Merda: A slang swear word.
  • Toon: Short for a platoon.
  • Strategos: Charged with overall command of solar system defense

Themes & Symbolism edit see section history

Series & Lists edit see section history

This is book 1 of 5 in The Ender Quartet. (standard series)

Followed by Speaker for the Dead.

This is book 90 of 195 in Shelfari Most Popular (December 2011). (authoritative list)
This is book 82 of 195 in Shelfari Most Popular (June 2010). (authoritative list)
This is book 86 of 194 in Shelfari Most Popular (December 2010). (authoritative list)
This is book 90 of 195 in Shelfari Most Popular (June 2011). (authoritative list)
This is book 3 of 99 in National Public Radio's Top 100 Science Fiction and Fantasy. (authoritative list)
This is book 1 of 15 in Enderverse. (universe)
This book is in Random Synapses: 100 Book Reading Challenge (2011). (community list)
This is book 59 of 98 in Modern Library's 100 Best Novels: Reader's List. (authoritative list)
This is book 25 of 40 in SFBC 50th Anniversary Collection. (publisher edition list)
This book is in Best Books of All Time. (community list)
This is book 10 of 10 in Top 100 Sci-Fi Books. (community list)
This book is in F-sari. (publisher series)

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

  1. Orson Scott Card (Author)

Other Contributors:

  1. Juhan Habicht (Translator)
  2. Marika Mikli (Editor)
  3. Toomas Niklus (Cover Artist)
  4. Sam Weber (Cover Artist) - Cover artist for the ebook edition

First Edition edit see section history

Original Language: English
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates
Country: United States
Publication Date: January 1985
ISBN: 0312932081
Page Count: 357

Awards edit see section history

Classification edit see section history

  • Library of Congress: PS3553.A655 E5 1985
  • Dewey: 813.54

Notes for Parents edit see section history

Reading Level: Young Adults

No sexual themes. No realistic gruesome violence. Strong elements of heroism. This book was not originally intended for children. The violence is, at times, quite brutal, children kill other children, though unintentionally, and the main character is admired for his ruthlessly efficient violence, though he himself is disturbed by it. There are many reasons for these happenings of how the IF kids deal with all of their problems. Ender is a peaceful boy, but is drawn to brawl with other IF children a few times.

Links to Supplemental Material edit see section history

  • Wikipedia: Learn more about this book at Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
  • Wikiquote: Read quotes from this book at Wikiquote, the free quote compendium.

More Books Like This edit see section history

   
  • The Hunger Games
  • Mockingjay
  • Catching Fire
  • The Underland Chronicles (Books 1-5)
  • Epic
  • The Warrior Heir
  • Heir Apparent
  • Starship Troopers
  • The House of the Scorpion
  • Bunker 10
  • Evil Genius

Books with Additional Background Information edit see section history

   
  • The Authorized Ender Companion
  • First Meetings in Ender's Universe

Books That Influenced This Book edit see section history

   

Books That Cite This Book edit see section history

   
  • Connecting Young Adults And Libraries

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