06 Mar Book Review: Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card

Some sci-fi books are exciting but forgettable. Others stick with you for years, making you think long after you’ve turned the last page. Ender’s Game is the second kind. It’s a novel about war, strategy, and the manipulation of children into becoming weapons, wrapped inside an action-packed, space-based military training story. Even if you’re not typically into science fiction, this one has enough tension and psychological depth to make it a gripping read.

What’s it about?

In the future, Earth has barely survived two brutal wars against an alien species called the Buggers. Knowing that another invasion could be coming, the military is desperate to train the next generation of strategic minds—children who can be molded into military leaders before they even reach adulthood.

Enter Andrew “Ender” Wiggin, a six-year-old prodigy who is recruited into Battle School, a space station where the most promising young minds are put through a series of brutal war games. Ender is gifted but isolated, constantly tested in ways that force him to think beyond what any normal child should have to. The adults in charge—especially Colonel Graff—believe that only through suffering will Ender reach his full potential.

At Battle School, Ender is thrown into a relentless series of zero-gravity war games, designed to test leadership, tactics, and adaptability. His skills quickly make him a rising star, but also a target. His fellow students envy him, his teachers manipulate him, and he’s forced into ever more difficult scenarios, always kept on edge, always made to believe that he is alone.

Meanwhile, on Earth, his older siblings Peter and Valentine are waging their own kind of battle—using politics and propaganda to gain influence over global affairs. Peter is cruel and power-hungry, while Valentine is empathetic and strategic, and both have their own ideas about how the world should be shaped.

As Ender’s training intensifies, the line between simulated war and real war starts to blur, leading to a final confrontation that changes everything he thought he knew about himself, the military, and the enemy he was raised to fight.

What This Chick Thinks

The psychological weight of the story is what makes it great

At first glance, Ender’s Game seems like a book about kids playing war games in space, but it’s so much more than that. The real story is about control, manipulation, and the way war dehumanizes even the best of us. Ender is brilliant, but he is also a child who is systematically stripped of his innocence, pushed beyond his limits, and made to believe that the fate of humanity rests entirely on his shoulders.

The book never lets you forget that these are kids being turned into weapons, and that realization makes the story feel both fascinating and horrifying.

Ender is a complex and compelling protagonist

Ender is not your typical action hero. He is calculating, intelligent, and deeply empathetic, even when he’s forced to do terrible things. His greatest strength—and weakness—is his ability to understand his enemies so completely that he can defeat them without mercy.

He doesn’t want to be a killer, but the adults in charge make sure he has no choice. Watching him struggle with what’s being done to him is heartbreaking, especially as he starts to realize that the very traits that make him a great leader are also turning him into something he never wanted to be.

The battle school sequences are thrilling

The zero-gravity battles are some of the coolest scenes in the book. The way the students have to think in three-dimensional space, form alliances, and adapt to increasingly unfair challenges makes these sections incredibly fun to read. Every game is a puzzle, and watching Ender figure out ways to outthink his opponents is one of the best parts of the book.

But as the battles escalate, it becomes clear that the games aren’t just games anymore—they’re shaping these kids into killers, whether they realize it or not.

The ending is a gut-punch

I won’t spoil it, but the final twist of Ender’s Game is one of those “wait… what?” moments that completely reframes the story. It’s the kind of ending that makes you want to go back and reread everything with fresh eyes, seeing all the hints you might have missed along the way.

It also raises huge ethical questions about war, leadership, and how much responsibility should ever be placed on the shoulders of a single person—especially a child.

Final Thoughts

Ender’s Game is an intense, thought-provoking sci-fi novel that delivers both fast-paced action and deep moral dilemmas. It’s about war, but also about the cost of victory, the power of empathy, and the way institutions shape individuals into tools for their own purposes.

Even if you’re not a big fan of military sci-fi, this book is worth reading for the psychological depth alone. It’s a book that sticks with you, long after you’ve finished it.

Rating: 9/10

Try it if you like

• The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins – Another story about children being trained for war and the ethical dilemmas that come with it.
• The Maze Runner by James Dashner – A fast-paced, survival-focused sci-fi story with young characters forced into deadly situations.
• The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin – If you liked the philosophical aspects of Ender’s Game, this is a deeper, more adult take on war and identity in sci-fi.