Ender's Game: Book 1

Ender was never given the chance at a normal life. The government had given the Wiggins permission to have a Third in the hopes that he would be the right mix of aggressive, like his brother, and empathetic, like his sister. When they remove Ender’s monitor out of the blue, Ender thinks that he must have failed out. He is attacked by some other kids after school, one of which he fights until he is down and then he makes sure that he will never hurt him again. Later, Commander Gaft comes to the house and wants to speak with Ender. He wants to know what happened with the boy at school. Once Ender explains his thinking, Commander Gaft gives him an ultimatum, come with him and go to Battle School or stay here and live out the rest of his life peacefully. What will Ender choose?

I really enjoyed this book. It has been quite a while since I finished a book in less than a week since I have been losing focus on the books that I am reading. I'm not saying that they weren't good, but they felt more clunky than this one. Most of my thoughts are in relation to the movie since I watched it first. Just warning you. Also, SPOILERS IN THE NEXT PARAGRAPH!!!

The differences that I noticed in the book made the story so much more interesting. Valentine and Peter creating fake adults and gaining real influence in the adult world was really cool. Watching how much harder they pushed Ender in Battle School and then Command School was devastating. Ender getting to care for a dying queen on the new world once he had left everyone but Valentine was sad. Ender never getting to truly make friends with any of the children that he fought with hurt right to my core. The Ender in the movie still felt like he was human. The Ender in the book was completely destroyed and needed to get away from everything that he had previously known so that he could find himself once again.

If you enjoyed Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card, the next book in the series is Speaker of the Dead by Orson Scott Card. Other books like this one: Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken because both main characters are against everyone, Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins because both the main characters were lied to about something that changed their whole lives, and Cinder by Marissa Meyer because both the main characters never could return home.