Orson Scott Card's 'Ender's Game': A Must-Read

The biggest feature of science fiction is that it gives "fantasy" a great possibility to be realized in the future by relying on technology, and even some "science fantasy" has indeed become a scientific reality after many years. Therefore, science fiction has a kind of "prophecy" that has never been seen before. Science fiction is always closely related to human curiosity and thirst for knowledge, and it is an excellent read for teenagers.

Ender's Game is a military science fiction novel published in 1985 by American author Orson Scott Card. The destructive threat of the alien creatures of the Zerg, so humanity united in a desperate counterattack against the Zerg. In order to direct this battle, human beings searched the earth for teenagers with military genius, and sent them to the international fleet for military training, hoping that some of them would become ideal commanders.

Ender's Game won the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1985 and the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1986, two of the most prestigious awards in science fiction. In addition, the novel was shortlisted for the 1986 Locus Award. In 2000, Ender's Game was included in the American Library Association's list of "Top 100 Young Readers". 

In 2008, Card received the Margaret A. Edwards Award for his contribution to teenage literature for his work Ender's Game and its sequel, Ender's Shadow (1999). Ender's Game was later included in Damien Broderick's book Science Fiction: The 101 Best Novels Between 1985 and 2010.

The well-known Kirkus Review of Books in the United States called Ender's Game a "drab but satisfying child warrior story", quite charming and "pretty genius" in its detailing, a long-form literary work of Brocard's past. It also needs to be “solid, mature, and persuasive.” In 2012, a Guardian editor said, "I would recommend this book to readers because it is exciting, meaningful, and unpredictable". In a 2013 article, Shawn Snow, editor of the renowned WIRED magazine, praised Ender's Game for being so engrossing that one "can't stop reading until the pages run out."

On the basis of being faithful to the original work, the script of the film was revised several times, and it was recognized as a masterpiece of science fiction films after its release.

In addition, the special effects pictures of the film have also been recognized by the audience. The zero-gravity classroom and simulation room scenes that have attracted much attention in the novel have stunning visual presentations in the film.

Dazzling and gorgeous special effects, and game-style background settings, let the audience have a strong immersive experience. "Ender's Game" presents delicate spatial expression, and the simulation of gravity and the vacuum environment is very realistic, almost making the audience forget that they are sitting heavily on the seat of the theater as if they are floating with the characters. In another dimension, enjoy the pleasure of human beings entering the universe.

——"Ender's Game" has given us a lot of inspiration, it taught us how to face and defeat difficulties. Maybe we can't be good at everything like Ender, but as long as we have the courage to face difficulties, we will be successful.

——I sincerely regard Ender as an idol in my heart. He taught patience, independence, and hard work. These are the qualities that an idol should have. Just as he shows in the book, Ender always does well. The best one. I hope that all classmates like me, especially those who like challenges, who like to do things that others dare not do, and who like to be born in despair, will find this book and read it. Its revelation to you will always be there. is very valuable, and you will be glad you read this book when you were young.

——I like the book "Ender's Game" because it makes me realize the courage, struggle, and love that a boy should have. I know that only by not being afraid of power and pressure, working hard, and achieving goals can I protect my loved ones.

Orson Scott Card is the author of the novels Ender's Game, Ender's Shadow, and Speaker for the Dead, which are widely read by adults and younger readers and are increasingly used in schools.

Besides these and other science fiction novels, Card writes contemporary fantasy (Magic Street, Enchantment, Lost Boys), biblical novels (Stone Tables, Rachel, and Leah), the American frontier fantasy series The Tales of Alvin Maker (beginning with Seventh Son), poetry (An Open Book), and many plays and scripts.

Orson Scott Card was born in Washington and grew up in California, Arizona, and Utah. He served a mission for the LDS Church in Brazil in the early 1970s. Besides his writing, he teaches occasional classes and workshops and directs plays. He recently began a long-term position as a professor of writing and literature at Southern Virginia University.

Orson Scott Card currently lives in Greensboro, North Carolina, with his wife, Kristine Allen Card, and their youngest child, Zina Margaret.

For further details, see the author's Wikipedia page.

A very wonderful novel, which tells the growth process of several teenage geniuses under the background of the human-worm war. They, Ender is the protagonist of the novel. Ender, with his super-perfect genius ability - I personally think that he was almost close to God - overcoming many almost insurmountable difficulties, extremely difficult, and finally growing into a genius military commander, commanding the fleet of Earth to defeat the weak and destroy the Zerg almost completely. 

The section describing Ender's studies is particularly exciting and fascinating. Due to the time of writing the work, the work has a strong color belonging to that era (you can see the shadow of the US-Soviet hegemony and the Cold War period), and the author also predicted the impact of the Internet on our lives in the work. (As far as I understand it, it's pretty accurate). The characters in the work are very successful, especially Ender, a genius who can save the earth, he has a strong tragic color - which reminds me of the Jews - the book describes his psychological growth process in great detail. 

This book has a little inspiration for me. It comes from the war between people and insects. Sometimes the hatred between people, races, and races does not come from hurting each other, but from a kind of Fear, a kind of distrust, and this fear, this kind of distrust comes from the fact that we don't understand each other. Maybe we should really get to know other people, other races and races, and then talk about love and hate. In this way, many tragedies can be avoided.

I suggest fans of military novels take a look at this novel. It is incomparable to those so-called military-themed lewd novels that are popular on the Internet. There are hardly any positive descriptions of combat in the book, and the protagonist Ender seems to be constantly training and being tested, like a game of increasing difficulty, which may be the source of the title. 

Even the final battle to destroy the Zerg, Ender thought it was the last and hardest test he had to accept. How realistic and terrifyingly powerful is such a description, isn't today's war more and more like the one depicted in the book? 

Thousands of lives can be wiped out at the push of a button; rows of buildings can be destroyed at the flick of a joystick; lives are lost as numbers flash on monitors, and war losses are shown in reports On paper, the slaughterers couldn't hear the moans of the slaughtered, couldn't see the blood of the dead, couldn't smell the breath of death on the Asura field, they just hid in the solid bunkers, stared at the monitor, and enjoyed the sandwiches and meals. coffee. Murder can be so comfortable. Everything can be left to those icy war machines. Everything is like a video game. 

I am only afraid that one day people will become numb and cold, people will no longer care about the life and death of life, and will no longer care about the cruelty of killing.

Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game is definitely a science fiction classic. The story takes place in the distant future, when a six-year-old boy like the novel's protagonist, Ande, is mature and smart enough to attend a military school and fight to save humanity on Earth. At that time, mankind was facing an unprecedented crisis. 

The unreasonable Zerg fleet was about to launch the next round of deadly attacks on Earth. The Earth United Fleet must select a person who is worthy of the mission to lead the Earth's army to defeat the enemy before the Zerg attack. Six-year-old Ender was selected by the military and sent to combat school for brutal training so that he could become a fleet commander with courage and resourcefulness enough to lead Earth's army.

Fortunately, Ender was a genius, he managed to withstand all kinds of man-made and unexpected tests, did everything well, and eventually became the hero of the earth, leading the fleet to successfully eliminate the Zerg, saving mankind. During this process, Graf, the instructor of Ender's combat school, always tried every means to test Ender's limits, and even made him face the test of life and death again and again!

However, this novel is not just a hilarious sci-fi story as some people say. The real intriguing and enlightening aspect of this novel is that it is also an inspirational novel, which is wonderfully performed for us. The whole process of a boy growing into a real man. It can be seen that the author Orson has a lot of research on psychology, and in fact, he uses the relevant principles of psychology to construct complex allegorical plots in the novel.

The training of the combat school is for purely military needs. In order to succeed in this kind of training, Ender is not directly facing the enemies of the Zerg, nor the computers and machines, but the partners and comrades around him. Unite the majority of your friends and fight back against the few enemies, first in relationships, and then at the top of your career.

Ender has excellent leadership ability and strong creative thinking ability. Although the instructors embarrassed him in order to test his ability, and fate played tricks on him from time to time, he and his team were always able to achieve the final victory. The methods and strategies he used in the combat school, and the abilities he had developed, could also be applied in his final battle against the Zerg as the commander of the Earth Fleet. 

In the command room of the Earth Fleet, Ender, as if he were commanding his subordinates in a combat school, successfully eliminated all the enemies in a straightforward manner. When the officers cheered the victory, he was told that what he had done was not an exercise, but a decisive battle and that he had successfully led the Earth Fleet to victory.

Psychologists have long noticed that children's play is an important part of the development of a person's personality and ability, not just a waste of time in the pursuit of happiness, those children who play regularly with children of the same age or other people - this It is even suitable for adults whose personality is generally stereotyped. 

Being able to subtly learn the basic principles of dealing with people and doing things during the game can ensure that they can adapt to society better than those who do not like to play games. Children's games and adults' social competitions do have a certain degree of similarity. Children first learn how to get along with others in games, and then they can face the waves and storms of the adult world.

In a way, this book is written for boys who are slightly inferior or weak - of course, children are always inferior and weak relative to the adult world, so anyone can also learn from Ender to find his own shadow. The novel sets out the life dilemmas that most young children inevitably face—how to fight your bully, how to break out of isolation, how to turn enemies into friends, how to deal with unruly people, how to Deal with people who are higher than themselves and deliberately embarrassing themselves, how to organize their own small groups, etc., and then use the method of letting Ender speak out, telling the strategies and methods of how to concretely act in the face of the above problems. 

For example, when Ender's former battle captain Bonzo, out of jealousy and resentment, contacted some people to try to kill Ender in the bathroom while Ender was alone, the naked Ender rationally analyzed the situation and thought that the winner was The key is to defeat the leader of the opponent first. He used Bonzo's vanity to force Bonzo to take on himself one-on-one, turning the enemy's advantage into an even match. He pretended to show weakness and made a sneak attack, completely defeated Bonzo, and successfully escaped in the chaos.

However, the novel does not attempt to lead the reader to become a dehumanizing Machiavellian cynic. In the novel, Ender brutally defeats many of his opponents with tit-for-tat violence, even causing the deaths of his two children, but Ender remains Feeling sad about his actions, he didn't want to hurt anyone, but people always hurt him intentionally or unintentionally, and he was forced to fight back against his opponent only when he was forced to do so. 

But the instructors found that he could never beat one man, and that was his older brother Peter. Peter is a wicked and ambitious child. He is brooding about giving up himself for the combined fleet and choosing to cultivate Ender. Because of jealousy, he even wanted to kill Ender at one time, and he often bullied Ender at ordinary times. Why can't Ender do anything to Peter? In Ender's own words, he didn't want to beat Peter, he wanted Peter to like him. Ender has always been full of attachment to his sister Valentine. 

In his opinion, a rationale for fighting the Zerg is to not let his sister be harmed by the evil Zerg. When the Zerg was wiped out, the sympathetic Ender even communicated with the ghost of the Zerg Queen and promised to help the Zerg resurrect at an appropriate time and place. And the Zerg Queen trusted Ender precisely because she knew that he was a benevolent child.

Yes, living in an imperfect and imperfect world, we must always use means, even cruel means, to protect ourselves and our loved ones from harm, but you should not forget that the starting point of everything we do is not out of hate but out of love.