The Reading Spot

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.

Genre: Sci-fi
Release Date: 1985
Acquired: UBS
Reason for reading: Hubby asked


Well, Hubby has been wanting me to read this for a while and I finally did last week. It was a great sci-fi book, probably no surprise. I was not sure if would like it with no romantic element in it, but I found it to be a nice change of pace, which was good.
The description above is a good one so I will go with it. This is an earth that has gone through a war with an alien group that devastated them. Now they are looking for a genius to lead them and if they have to make on then so be it. They send 6 year old geniuses to Battle School to earn strategy and to see if they will cut it. But they are still looking for The One that will be the commander over the army. Enter Ender Wiggins.
The version that i have has a really interesting introduction to it. I do not always read those but in this case i am glad that i did. It is written by the author nad gives some background from his POV and he also addresses some issues that came up after it was first published. He said he got a lot of flack about having these children fighting so young but mostly he got flack about they way they spoke. They did not speak like children. He points out in the intro that they speak like they are, geniuses. He also got many letters from genius teenagers thanking him for the book and how it spoke to them because it was about them, the 13-14 year old that is in college. If you ever talk to someone that smart, they do speak like that.
The sad part in this book and the character s in the story even address it is that they never have a chance to do "normal" things that kids do. Card points out that neither do most geniuses anyway and in the book they are playing games (what they perceive as games) everyday. And these games challenge their minds which they also need to stay interested. If you get this edition definitely read the introduction.