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Ingram Content Group

Ender's Game

Ender's Game

By Orson Scott Card

Series: Ender Saga

Recommended age: Teen & Up
Full Review & Content Notes

Story/Writing Quality

Adult Themes
PG-13 Explores heavy themes of child soldiers, extreme bullying, and the psychology of total war

MPAA-style ratings (G / PG / PG-13) applied Language Rating
PG-13 Moderate profanity such as "ba**ard," "d*mn," "h**l," and "a**".

Violence Rating
PG-13 Moderately intense; graphic fights with bullies- sometimes ending in death(implied only); destructive war between humanity and alien race.

Sex / Nudity Rating
PG-13 No sexual content; military school style community showering(only briefly described)

Substances Rating
G None

LGBTQ+ Content
Please note this is not meant to be a negative in any way — this is a way for our readers to make informed decisions about their reading choices. None

From New York Times bestselling author Orson Scott Card, Ender's Game--adapted to film starring Asa Butterfield and Harrison Ford--is the classic Hugo and Nebula award-winning science fiction novel of a young boy's recruitment into the midst of an interstellar war.

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.

Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game is the winner of the 1985 Nebula Award for Best Novel and the 1986 Hugo Award for Best Novel.

Ender’s Game was epic fuel for my imagination as a young teenager, and it remains one of my favorite books—the kind I feel compelled to reread again and again. Ender’s story is rich with complexity: the ethics of training child soldiers, questioning the cost and necessity of war, and the reminder that even one seemingly small person can spark monumental change. The characters are unique, compelling, and unforgettable. Truly, an American classic! Because of its themes, the book includes a moderate amount of violence and death, as well as mild language, but nothing overly graphic or explicit.” — Purely Fiction Reader Review

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