Ender's Game

For anyone who knew me then, it's no surprise at all that I was obsessed with Ender's Game in middle and early high school. If you count re-reads and count the Harry Potter books individually, I've probably read more pages of Ender's Game than anything else.

Middle school Matthew was smart enough to be near the top of his classes, but young and arrogant enough to think that intelligence is all that matters. So the story of Ender appealed to me, in which a young boy is trained to be a master strategist to defeat an alien race and save planet earth. I picked it up now for a few reasons: sentimentality and nostalgic escapism while it feels like the whole world is on fire, for one. But it and its sequel, Speaker for the Dead, were the only books to win back-to-back Hugo and Nebula awards until NK Jemisin's Fifth Season did a few years ago. I loved the fifth season books and had never read Speaker for the Dead, so I thought I'd go back for another dip.

In the eight years or so since I last opened the book, the world has changed a good amount, and I was afraid I wouldn't like Ender's Game now. But I was glad to find it was all still there. It's a blatant military hero/messiah complex, don't get me wrong, but still a great read. The tensions of “who's the real enemy” are good, and Ender's internal turmoil over knowing how much violence is necessary to prevent future aggression but not wanting to be a killer. The global politics is more intricate than I remembered, and I (perhaps naturally) enjoyed the snippets from the adults more this time around. And the clever application of military strategy works very well in the Battle Room scenes. Card's inclusion of representatives from all over the world feels a bit token-ish at times, but also has its beautiful moments like Ender and Alai's shared “salaam,” and it serves to reinforce the image of a momentarily unified planet earth. It's a real shame that Card has trended in a much more nativist direction from what I can tell, especially since this book's portrayal of Alai was pretty influential for me as a kid of seeing The Other in a positive way.

I also felt like I grasped the final bit much better than as a kid. The “twist” still feels terrific, and like the only real way forward, but all of the more philosophical stuff about his status as a Speaker for the Dead clicked better for me this time around. Especially in my work as a climate activist, I feel like the concept has a lot to say to our world. We'll see what I think after reading the sequel.