Audiobook Review – Ender’s Game (Ender Quintet, Book 1) by Orson Scott Card, Narrated by Various (4/5 stars)

Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Science Fiction
Length: 11 hours and 57 minutes
Publisher:‎ Macmillan Audio
Release Date: December 30, 2001
ASIN: ‎B00006JMD2
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in the Ender Quintet
Source: Audiobook from Audible.com
Rating: 4/5 stars

“In order to develop a secure defense against a hostile alien race’s next attack, government agencies breed child geniuses and train them as soldiers. A brilliant young boy, Andrew “Ender” Wiggin lives with his kind but distant parents, his sadistic brother Peter, and the person he loves more than anyone else, his sister Valentine. Peter and Valentine were candidates for the soldier-training program but didn’t make the cut—young Ender is the Wiggin drafted to the orbiting Battle School for rigorous military training.

Ender’s skills make him a leader in school and respected in the Battle Room, where children play at mock battles in zero gravity. Yet growing up in an artificial community of young soldiers Ender suffers greatly from isolation, rivalry from his peers, pressure from the adult teachers, and an unsettling fear of the alien invaders. His psychological battles include loneliness, fear that he is becoming like the cruel brother he remembers, and fanning the flames of devotion to his beloved sister.

Is Ender the general Earth needs? But Ender is not the only result of the genetic experiments. The war with the Buggers has been raging for a hundred years, and the quest for the perfect general has been underway for almost as long. Ender’s two older siblings are every bit as unusual as he is, but in very different ways. Between the three of them lie the abilities to remake a world. If, that is, the world survives.”

Series Info/Source: This is the first book in the Ender Quintet. I got this on audiobook through Audible.

Audiobook Quality (4/5): The audiobook is well done and easy to listen to. I wasn’t a huge fan of the main narrator, he felt a bit stiff to me, but it was well enough done. I liked the narrator that did Valentine’s parts better.

Thoughts: I have always wanted to read this book and when my son got assigned to read it for English class we decided to read it at the same time. My son (who is almost 15 years old) loved it and thought it was amazing. He immediately wanted to start on the rest of the books in the series. I think if I had read it at his age I may have felt the same way, although the main female characters don’t get a great role in this novel (which was true of soooo many books written in the 80’s).

I did like the book, it is a good story that touches on a lot of important issues. I thought the twists at the end were well done and entertaining. Unfortunately, having my first read of this happen as an adult parent there was a lot I didn’t like about the story. I couldn’t help but continually wince at how disconnected the parents were from their children. I also thought the treatment of the kids was just awful throughout the book and kept thinking about how I would feel if my kids were going through all of this.

I also couldn’t help but consider the role of the female characters in the story. Valentine (the only main female character) is dubbed too passive to be of any use to anyone and she supports this view by following Peter’s lead for a good portion of the book. The only other female character of any note is Petra, who is a leader in battle school and the only other female trainee you run across…of course she is harshly singled out for her sex. I feel like this really dates the book quite a bit but it also makes for an interesting discussion of how things have changed in our society since this book was written.

Aside from the above thoughts, this is a fast-paced read with a lot of points of discussion. There are a lot of deep topics here around family, society, etc, etc. I did think the “twist” was very predictable however, I am a lot older than my son and have read many more sci-fi books and run across a few with a similar twist to them. Ender’s Game may have been the first to put forth this kind of idea but I am not sure.

My Summary (4/5): Overall I enjoyed this but not enough to continue with this series. I found the idea of parents being so disjointed from their kids unrealistic and also found the twists here predictable. I missed the inclusion of any strong female characters but do understand it represents the time the book was written in. I do think this was an interesting choice for my son’s teacher to have them read. There are a ton of interesting things for discussion here; from the society Ender lives in and the idea of alien life, to our society in the 80’s and how that influenced the story.