Ender's Game - Book Review

I recently finished Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card.  Instead of going into a lengthy plot synopsis here's a direct like to the Wikipedia article, which I feel gives an adequate enough description.

I personally loved the book.  Now, there are many that are not Sci-Fi fans in the least bit,  (although, its just as hard to believe that vampires and werewolves fight over some girl, but hey to each their own!) but it is actually not as Sci-Fi as you would expect.  It follows Ender Wiggins, who is 6 years old, who attends a special school designed to train children from young to become military fighters against a 100 year, on-going war against the Buggers.  It's interesting to follow the book through the eyes of a 6 year old, even though we quickly realize his intellectual and even emotional capacity is well beyond his age.  By the end of the book Ender is 11, so we have covered about 5-6 years of his life.  He is put through many trials, which are all strategically controlled by the government, and handles them better than most adults would.

The role of technology in the book is very important.  The children are monitored through devices on their neck - their thoughts, actions, and even actions of others that they see, are watched by the government.  At the school which Ender attends to receive training, they play games on their desks (which, from reading I assume emit the games 3D to the player), which also become personal, as well as is very significant in the end.  Another important aspect is the blogging that takes place, which essentially gives way to a new Religion and doctrine.  The original book was published in 1985, but there were drafts that were done in the 70's.  Card was wise beyond years to predict the impact of technology on society, especially putting so much emphasis on the blogs.  Now-a-days our society is incredibly dependent on social media, many of which are blogs, to receive and distribute information.

I thought the book was slow, believing that we were supposed to read about the impending bugger war, but realized that it was much more than the war.  In fact, the simulated battles at Battle School were written so incredibly simply (not much detail - froze my legs, shot the laser, battle over).  The books addresses a number of different issues and themes including compassion, humanity, the relationship between adults and children, as well as the mental capacity that we believe children should have versus their actual mental capacity.

All in all, it was incredibly enjoyable, where even non Sci-Fi fans would be able to appreciate it.  7/10.  I'm interested to see how the book translates to the big screen later this year in that we know the majority of the time many aspects are left out and its never as good as we read it.