Book Research: Ender's Game

ENDER'S GAME by ORSON SCOTT CARD

Card has written sixty-one books, assorted plays, comics, and essays and newspaper columns. His work has won multiple awards, including back-to-back wins of the Hugo and the Nebula Awards-the only author to have done so in consecutive years. His titles have also landed on ‘best of’ lists and been adopted by cities, universities and libraries for reading programs. The Ender novels have inspired a Marvel Comics series, a forthcoming video game from Chair Entertainment, and pre-production on a film version. A highly anticipated The Authorized Ender Companion, written by Jake Black, is also forthcoming.Card offers writing workshops from time to time and occasionally teaches writing and literature at universities. Orson Scott Card currently lives with his family in Greensboro, North Carolina.

Other written works include: Speaker for the Dead, The Tales of Alvin Maker, Xenocide, Children of the Mind, Ender’s Shadow, Shadow of the Hegemon, Shadow Puppets, and more.


BOOK SUMMARY

Set in Earth’s future, the novel presents an imperiled humankind who have barely survived two conflicts with the Formics, an insectoid alien species also known as the buggers. These aliens show an ant-like group behavior, and are very protective of their leader, much like how Earth ants protect their queen.

In preparation for an anticipated third invasion, an international fleet maintains a school to find and train future fleet commanders. The world’s most talented children, including the novel’s protagonist, Ender Wiggin, are taken at a very young age to a training center known as the Battle School.

There, teachers train them in the arts of war through increasingly difficult games including ones undertaken in zero gravity in the Battle Room where Ender’s tactical genius is revealed.


EMOTIONS and FEELINGS

• Thrilling
• Startling
• Expecting
• Surprising
• Intelligent
• Joyous
• Realistic
• Gripping
• Exciting
• Inspiring
• Engaging
• Disturbing

QUOTATIONS

“It was what I was born for, isn’t it? If I don’t go, why am I alive?”
“the adults are the enemies, not the other armies. They do not tell us the truth.”
“it only works because what’s between you, that’s real, that matters.”
— all quotes from Orson Scott Card


PROTAGONIST

“Ender” Wiggin is the protagonist, the main character, about whom the action revolves. The majority of the story is told as events occur to him, and all other characters have ties to him. While he must deal with his brother Peter, and concentrated fights with a few of the other boys (Stilson, Bernard, and Bonzo).


ANTAGONIST

The buggers are the overall antagonist-the character who stands in opposition to the protagonist. Although it is unclear why, they have fought humans in two other wars, and now humans are preparing for a third war in which they hope to defeat the buggers in order for the humans themselves to survive. However, Ender comes to see the adults as the real enemy. Graff makes sure that he learns that he can never count on an adult to come to his aid. He eventually comes to the conclusion, with the influence of Dink, that the adults are manipulating him, forcing him to become a killer.