Book cover
Ages:
12
+
Engagement:
Author:
Orson Scott Card
Genre:
Science Fiction
Published:
1985
Page Count:
226
Where to Buy:
Ages:
12
+

Ender's Game

Ender's Game
#
1

Content Ratings

No Romance
There is no romantic content; all relationships in the novel are framed within military hierarchy, childhood friendship, and sibling bonds.
Intense Themes
Children are deliberately isolated, psychologically manipulated, and placed in extreme stress by adult authority figures; the novel confronts the ethics of using children as instruments of war and the moral weight of genocide.
Moderate Violence
The novel contains brutal fighting between children in the Battle School, including a scene in which Ender beats a bully badly enough to kill him; a climactic genocide of an alien species is revealed retroactively; violence is significant and morally consequential.
Synopsis

In a future where Earth has twice survived alien invasion, six-year-old Andrew 'Ender' Wiggin is recruited to an elite military academy in space, where children are trained through increasingly brutal war games to become commanders against an alien threat. Ender proves himself exceptional, but the psychological and ethical costs of his training escalate to a devastating conclusion. A propulsive and morally complex novel about genius, manipulation, and the cost of war.