Book Review: Ender’s Game

Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card is, and more than likely will remain, one of my favorite books of all time. The issues it addresses are timeless to me and I considered it more prophecy and fiction. It is one of two books (the other being Starship Troopers) from the Marine Corps’ Commandant’s Reading List that I read prior to my enlistment in that same military service. For those that haven’t read it it’s very hard to describe it without giving away any spoilers.

The first issue that stands out to me is the recruiting/ conscription of children into military service. Almost universally we, as human beings, are against the utilization of children in front line combat, but when should training begin? Arguably eighteen year olds are still children; I know I was still naive and impressionable at that age, in some cultures adulthood begin much earlier, in few others older. Should the ability to serve coincide with reaching adulthood? Isn’t training reciprocal in effect, and therefore beginning it earlier would result in better trained soldiers, correct?

The second major issue that reaches me is the divide between soldiers and civilians. While one depends on the other, they are not interchangeable. Soldiers not being accepted by those they defend is not a new issue, and certainly not just an American one. Napoleonic soldiers were shunned by their hometowns for going off to war, the Legions of Rome released men primarily only into the lands they conquered, and in many cultures becoming a soldier was a one-way affair, you joined until you died. It’s ironic that picking up arms to defend something completely separates you form that thing.

The final major issue is that of genocide. Mankind has committed it before, we are in the process of committing it, and we will likely commit it again. Not just among subspecies of humanity but of those we share our habitat with. Survival of the fittest is simply a species prospering over all others, but we take it further and completely eliminate species that never, or no longer, threaten our dominance. Will we do this when we encounter alien life… I believe that outcome to be more likely than some peace-mongering “Gene Roddenberry-esque” Star Trek fantasy.

In short, Ender’s Game is one my short-list of “must reads”. It definitely should make even some of the most callous warrior-types think, inform the ivory-tower types, and make everyone in between a little more leery of the world that is, and that which might be. It also serves as a gateway book into a branching and deep book series allowing you to immerse yourself in Card’s vision of a dark and guttural future. Ender’s Game is the only heavily military book of the series so take that either as encouragement or warning.