Ender's Game and Speaker For the Dead - Orson Scott Card

Summary Scores:

Enjoyable to Read: A

Impact on the World: F

Increased My Understanding of the World/People: C

Made Me Think: B

I don't consider myself an avid reader of science fiction, but I consider myself a big fan nonetheless. I think it is because science fiction is the ultimate playground for crazy ideas. Authors have the freedom to imagine any set of circumstances or constraints.

I'll start with Ender's Game. The story is about Andrew "Ender" Wiggins, who is the third child at a time when families were not supposed to have more than two. The International Fleet is looking for the brightest kids to send up to their orbital Battle School. Ender's older siblings showed a huge amount of potential, but where both disqualified for personality reasons. The International Fleet sanctioned the third child in hopes that Ender might be the person they had been looking for. The International Fleet is looking for a brilliant mind to lead IF starships when they finally arrive at the Bugger's home worlds. Seventy years earlier, humanity was almost wiped out by the invading Buggers and the IF has launched a counter attack, but they don't have a general.

The story follows Ender through Battle School, then on to Command School. The battle scenarios are excellent. The story of Ender though is also about his own internal tensions with who he is becoming and who he wants to be. Ender is brilliant, which makes him very dangerous, but more than anything he fears turning into his sadistic older brother. Ender wants to be good, but he is being trained to be a killer.

I don't want to risk much more, because this book has some great surprises. And I really can't even review Speaker For the Dead because I'm not sure how to do so without spoiling Ender's Game. If you enjoy sci fi, these two books are excellent. I haven't read the rest of the series, but I will.

Getting back to my initial comment about science fiction being a playground for ideas, Speaker For the Dead is the more philosophical and idea driven of the two, but it has plenty of plot to make it a very fun read.

I wanted to have a few sci fi and fantasy novels on the Cultured 100 list, but I think I'll leave Dune on for now and leave this one off. I enjoyed them both equally, but I think Dune has had a broader influence and seems more applicable to the world we live in.