Hate. Cruelty. Lies. Pitting one soul against another. These are the basic aspects of war. You toughen up someone for the nitty gritty, and they will be your super soldier. Fight and die for you without question. Sometimes, you have a rare one. You toughen them up, and they still have some thought left in them. Some "Why are we doing this? What am I getting from this? Is it all just a lie and a scam?" They still have some of their soul, and it can be their strongest point, or where you can break them the easiest. In Enders Game, you have someone with that soul.

Andrew (Ender) Wiggen. A Third. Someone created just for the military's means. First two children didn't fit the bill? Have another. Young Wiggen was small, but extremely bright. He could think steps in front of his enemy, consider the consequences of his actions in less time than it took the enemy to be sure of his first hit. Stilson, his childhood bully. Beat down and eventually died from his injuries. Bonzo. Killed almost immediately. That's the kind of damage you get from someone when you try to keep them confined, different from the rest. Ender gets promoted through the ranks, and the teachers bend the rules, trying to break him at every turn. But he fights on. And down groundside, his siblings are making a name for themselves as well. Valentine as Demosthenes and Peter as Locke, they influence the highest powers of the known world, and yet they are still children. Ender makes it to Commanders School, and meets up with old comrades from the Battle School, where they unknowingly fight the Third Invasion, known to them as just battle simulations of old battles. This finally breaks Ender, and he suffers until he finds a lone child of the Buggers on their old planet, and they communicate. He decides to do good, and he gets what they are saying transcribed and sent off to publishing, so people can see that this doesn't have to happen again.

In my opinion, this was an excellent book. I didn’t want to put it down, it was full of something. Maybe it was the way Ender stuck through everything. Maybe it was the way the teachers threw their challenges at him, and he succeeded with flying colors. But there was something there, something that urged me to keep reading until the end. My favorite scene? Hard to pick. There were so many good ones, ones that made me laugh and smile, or yell in frustration and want to throw the book across the room. I enjoyed the scenes with Valentine and Peter. The way they persuaded the higher ups to listen to them, even if they were just children. They have the government under their thumb, and the government doesn’t realize until it is too late. I also enjoyed the scenes with the Giants Game, a game that was supposedly unbeatable. It was a dark game, pulling out things that terrified and stumped Ender again and again. But he finally beat it. He got through the game, and reached the tower. He won. I would recommend this book to others, if you’re a fan of the SciFi genre, or like reading about war. It’s not for everyone, if you want puppies and kittens and rainbows, don’t touch this book with a 36.5 foot pole. Though it is dark, it is worth sticking with it to the end.

So in conclusion, Enders Game isn’t your typical read. Full of deceit and the manipulation of children, why would anyone want to read this? Because it is good, there is a message in the book. That through everything, all the heartache and pain, you can still be you. No matter what life throws at you, whether it be as simple as a failing test for us, or a Third Invasion for Ender, you can remain yourself and get through it. Just read it, and you’ll understand.