The most powerful aspect of Ender’s Game is likely Card’s characterizations, especially of all the kids in the book. (James Patterson, please take notes as Maximum Ride and Daniel X have given me permanent whiplash.)

Card even manages to finesse such large amounts of development in a natural manner, despite being so fast-paced. No offense to Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy -another one of my favorite sci-fis.) Furthermore, Card’s blunt prose makes the book go by incredibly fast, and the story beats never take a break-there’s always something new, whether it’s a new aspect of the world being introduced, a new character, a new plot development, a new inner dilemma, and so forth. (A genius kid character is infinitely more interesting than some middle-aged man. Don’t get me wrong, it does have white middle-aged men and aliens, but the main character is actually a six-year-old genius, Ender Wiggin. After all, Ender’s Game has been floating around as a classic sci-fi probably ever since it’s been published, so I naturally assumed it was some overrated, possibly slow, novel about white middle-aged men and aliens. Let me start off by saying that Ender’s Game is underhyped, and that is a statement I never thought I’d make.

(Also, I can conveniently fulfill the “rant-filled review” promise we’ve made in our MUSE blurb, which has yet to be delivered.) You know how some books, after you finish them, just make you feel this urge to discuss? Like willingly write a literary analysis on it, for fun, because there is so much to unpack? Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card definitely had that effect on me, so here I present unto you: a book review.

Ender's game novel