I just read my first Sci-Fi novel. Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card. Fantastic is the word I would use to describe it. The story is on the brink of the impossible but yet you can see the sense behind it all.
The story revolves around the possible attack on the human world (Earth) by buggers whose primary agenda is complete annihilation of any other intelligent race. The protagonist of the book, Andrew Wiggin or more popularly known as Ender, begins his journey in the war against the buggers at the tender age of 6.
The book captured me because of the enthralling descriptions of the author of the unknown. I could almost envision the scenarios that he wrote about. What really blew me away was that S, who too has read the book and in fact made me read it, had almost similar notions of the sets that Orson Scott card wrote about. Now, I think that is powerful writing. The story runs through Ender’s life beginning at 6 and going upto the destruction of the bugger planet by him at the age 12.
The book deals with the training that Ender receives at Battle school and Command school to be able to become commander and manage squadron leaders his age or younger to eliminate the threat of the buggers. There were computer games one only dreams about, simulated battle sequences which were too fast for my regular human mind to comprehend and much more. In the book Ender is shown to be a fair human being with extra-ordinary learning capabilities. In my opinion, he comes across a compassionate person who reacts only upon being harmed and never by a desire for power or jealousy. These are true qualities of a leader.
But the task at hand was utter and brutal destruction of another intelligent race. Can a ‘compassionate’ commander achieve such? The trainers at the command school thought not. Though they also realised that Ender had extreme mental capabilities and the tenacity for surviving the inhumane training required for commanding a team of squadron leaders.
Ender destroys the bugger planet, not entirely knowingly, but most definitely skilfully.
There are a few more twists in the tale that follow. But for me the book was the expert writing which made the training of Ender Wiggin. A must read.
