Just a Game ........?

No, I'm not advocating the song by Birdy, though I do think it's a great song. That's just not what I'm trying to talk about here. I want to bring you, my reader, to a consideration of Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

The premise of the book is simple enough: the world needs saving; the hero is going to do it. Just like every other book, right? Not so fast. In Ender's Game, the main character, Ender Wiggin, is a boy both younger and smarter than you. And I'm not talking book smart, I'm talking everything smart. This is the kid who makes Tom Sawyer look like a drooling baboon. But he's not alone. He has an older brother, who is every bit as smart and twice as vicious, and a older sister, who is equally smart and twice as nice. Ender is the delicious hybrid that the government officials are hoping will prove the best balance of dangerous determination and humane consideration that will save the world. So what do they do? They whisk him off to space school.

Warning: space school is not everything you dreamed of when you wanted to be an astronaut. Not for Ender. Ender gets the rule broken, but not for him. Against him. It's as if you've done all your chores and your parents are about to hand you your allowance. Just when you think it's all done, they snatch the money back from your palm and add ten more tasks to your list. When you finally complete them, panting from exhaustion, they give you your money back. Halved. This is the atmosphere Ender is tossed into, but nothing save the most grueling of situations will prepare Ender for the more grueling task of saving the world.

At the risk of losing your readership, I'm not going to tell you what happens. Does Ender succeed? Is the world saved? You'll have to read the book. I would rather irk you (sorry!) than spoil the book. I will say this, though: there is a twist. A good twist. A twist that made me scream out loud and turn back a couple pages, frantically re-reading to make sure I had gotten it right.

But it's a kids book, surely that should excuse me, you may say. If that's your cry, let me ask you a question: Do you classify a book by its content or by the size of its text and the words it uses? Because sure, Ender's Game is a kids book. Fifth graders can read it. But I must say that it is also an adult book, because of the questions and considerations it deals with. If you give it a fair treatment, I guarantee that your mind will be whirling when you're done. Ask yourself: Would you have done as Ender did? Why? Did he do right or wrong, and does a question of morality even matter when the fate of the entire human race is at stake? Is the human race even worth preserving?

The questions are endless.