It’s tough for me to review young adult books because I’m not the target audience, and I find that most young adult books are cringeworthy. Ender’s Game is one of the first young adult sci-fi that pits young children against real threat which might end up in their deaths. Hunger Games come to mind, the atrocious Maze Runner, etc. They all sound similar in nature that they you can’t blame yourself for thinking them all the same.
To be fair, Ender’s Game is refreshing in its originality. Ender’s world is one ravaged by war, an invasion by insect-like aliens. Humanity managed to beat the intruders but they are planning a counterattack to wipe off any future threat. The academy trains children from early age so that they can learn military tactics so that they become perfect soldiers.
The children are grouped into squadrons who will take on each other in a league of war games which determine the future of their careers. Ender, as a gifted child, enjoyed successes in mediocre teams though he blindly follows orders at first, before rising through the ranks and commanding his own squadron. Ender is a messiah figure, the rewards of his talents punished by the isolation of success, a tall poppy among midgets.
I think Ender’s Game has been cheapened by, like I mentioned, the mediocrity of other young adult books of a similar vein, and a terrible movie adaptation. Card himself has been marred by his reputation as a racist, xenophobic, Mormon and a proponent for violence. This raises the question as well whether we should judge the artist’s work by his personality. Personally, I don’t think so, but it depends.
Writing young adult novels, especially where violence is placed smack bang in the middle is often a tricky slack rope to cross. Your readers aren’t really well formed in maturity, they may understand violence from an early age being shoved around the playground, but in some ways these books somewhat normalises violence. And I’m not going to lie, this gratification of violence takes us back to our base nature which perhaps, we have already known for a long time. And there are parts of the novel that I enjoy immensely because the violence satisfies me, like how Ender defeats his bullies and ruthlessly beat other squadrons in the games.
It can be a claustrophobic book, as it takes place in a training station in space. But this little world is well-realised. The dynamics between the younger students and the older students often create the tension necessary that drives the story forward. The strength of the book must be drawn from its main character, and as a reader we are also exhausted by the war games that exponentially become more and more difficult. Without Ender, the book may have suffered as the other characters are weak. For example, Ender’s relationship between Peter and Valentine, his siblings who are grounded in earth seem like extra fat that just didn’t need to be there. The other cannon fodders in the book are single-dimensional and only served to drive the story along. Yet, there are parts of the book that colours your imagination. The videogame which Ender plays, which have driven other cadets insane before, is a joy to read. The imagery of the game with the giant, the castle, the wolves are for me, the best written part of the book.
Maybe I am a bit too harsh with the genre. Young adult novels are seldom well written and almost always suffer from poor or at best, mediocre prose. Ender’s Game falls into the latter. The language is descriptive and cold, which allows you to focus on the story, but little else. But admittedly, I bought into the premise of the book of this messiah character brought to the edge of his limits. There is something that makes us empathise with Ender because we have experienced these limits ourselves, whether by our own choice or because of the lack of it, and for this, we can’t help but root for Ender.
