My Favorite Books #3

3.) Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card

This is sci-fi with some heavy themes.

Ender’s Game is like Harry Potter…in space.

Whatever it is that I find appealing in Harry Potter is also what I find appealing in this novel. Ender is the chosen one, humanity’s last hope against the invasion of the Buggers — giant bug aliens. Awesome. Ender is shipped away to Battle School, where he must learn the rules and skills of soldiers. He is picked on by his classmates for his remarkable talents, but a rogue group of misfit kids stand behind him, forming their own army to practice and refine their skills in their free time. In the end it is Ender who must utilize his army to defeat the enemy and save the world.

Ender = Harry Potter

Battle School = Hogwarts

Buggers = Death Eaters

Bugger Queen = Voldemort

Dragon Army = Dumbledore’s Army

Do you see what I mean?

In this sci-fi novel, genius children are pulling the strings in both the military and the government. Like Harry Potter, Ender’s Game is a book that can be enjoyed on many different levels. There is a lot of dark stuff in this book, especially the theme of genocide (xenocide) and Ender’s struggle with the dark sides of himself. It is another novel that forces readers to ponder, “What is reality?”

Though published as an adult sci-fi novel, Ender’s Game is also a popular book for young adults. It is one of the few YA novels with a main character that is far younger than a YA reader, because Ender is only six years old. I first read the book in my senior AP English Literature and Composition class in high school, but I have also read it for pleasure and for both of the Young Adult Literature courses I have taken…and I take something different from it with each read. This is a truly wonderful book, and definitely one of my favorites.

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