Games And War

Went and saw the movie Ender's Game this weekend and was gonna do an awesome amazing post comparing it to the book by Orson Scott Card until I realized I have yet to do a rambling on this amazing book.  So to remedy that I will do my rambling now and movie comparison next week...maybe...anyways as always SPOILERS AHEAD!

Ender Wiggans is a third child in a future Earth where there is a two-child policy and special permission must be given to have any more.  Ender's parents are given permission because they have already produced two extremely smart children and the IF (International Fleet) needs smarties.  Why you ask does the IF need smarties, well some years back an alien force known in common terms as "the buggers" tried to invade Earth, resulting in two very destructive wars, won only when Mazar Rackham pulled of a mysterious ploy and destroyed the enemy ships.  This was the driving force uniting the world despite its still divided leadership.  The IF uses these child geniuses to help plan and eventually execute a preemptive attack on the bugger aliens.  Ender is chosen to go to Battle school at the very young age of 6 because of a fight he had.  He

fought a bully and not only won, but continued to beat him long after he was down, when asked why he didn't stop, he said he wanted to not only win this fight, but all future fights as well.  This places him in a different category then either his older brother Peter who was not chosen because he enjoyed violence, or his older sister Valentine who was not chosen because she could not use violence even when necessary.  It seems Ender has the balance they are all looking for. This is tested many times through out the book, with one of Enders greatest fears being that he will turn into Peter and hurt living things just for the fun of it.  At Battle School, Ender is purposely isolated mentally from his fellow peers, constantly being set against the older students, being singled out for praise in front of people who are desperately seeking approval. All of this lends to his mental isolation and loneliness.  Eventually he is introduced to the Game, a zero-G simulation where there are mock asteroids and the students play a form of capture the flag against each other.  Ender quickly learns new and inventive ways to use the tools at hand and the adults keep making it harder and harder. During his down time Ender plays a weird little mind game on his tablet that allows him to explore a fantasy type world, encouraging him to come up with alternative ways to beat an unbeatable game.  We learn that the game learns from Ender and is not controlled by any adult.  He is given command of a ragtag army of washouts and newbies whom Ender forms into an exceptional team who wins even when they are given crappy disadvantages.  Bean is one of these scrappy little students and he becomes Enders right hand man.
Eventually they pit him against a boy named Bonzo Madrid, who is a very aware of rank and power.  After beating Bonzo's team in the Game an altercation happens with Ender once again being forced to physically fight, this time he ends up killing the other boy (not on purpose).  After this Ender tries to quit and is sent home for some R&R.  Meanwhile back at home his brother Peter and sister Valentine have set themselves up as adult orators using the anonymity of the internet to publish essays and conversations.  These are so well done that they actually start influencing politics on Earth. Colonel Graff (the guy in charge of Battle School) tells Valentine that he knows it is her and Peter writing the essays but that he will keep quiet because he finds it useful.  He asks Valentine to convince Ender to come back to school, which she does.  Instead of going back to Battle school, Ender is taken to Command school and tutored by the war hero Mazar Rackham.  He is told that he will be doing simulations against Rackham and is given some of his old Battle School classmates as sub-commanders.  All of this isolation and pressure once again get to Ender.  At his final test simulation Ender sacrifices all of his resources to get the device to the bugger planet that will obliterate all life. Ender accomplishes this, hoping to be kicked out for undue ruthlessness, but is instead told that these were not simulations but actual battles.  They did not tell Ender or his crew because they did not want him to hold back anything.  Ender is understandably angry that he has essentially been tricked into ruthlessly killing thousands of men, not to mention genocide of another race. Life happens and Peter becomes Hegemon (a world leader) and Valentine joins Ender on a colonization exhibition to one of the buggers old home worlds.  Ender knows he cannot return to Earth because he will just be used again, especially if Peter gets his hands on him.  He arrives on the planet and feels a familiar buzz in his head, following it he finds a rough approximation of his old mind game.  He follows it through and finds a single dormant queen egg the aliens left to hopefully restart their species. They leave a message for Ender stating that they did not know Earth was inhabited by sentient beings as they only recognize collective consciousness.  The message goes on to ask Ender to find a place to hatch and raise the Queen, hopefully giving the species another chance.  Ender takes on the title Speaker for the Dead and does just that.

As always this is just the bare bones.  There is so much more to this story, even though it is not a long one, it packs a huge punch.  I find myself going back to this book many times, always finding another angle to it, finding another thing to think about, to consider. This book asks you to consider a lot of things, and sometimes it tries to justify things like violence, and lying, but mostly I think it lays out what happened and asks the readers to make there own call. The biggest theme of the book (in my own very limited to what I read and got out of it opinion) is what is considered justifiable for the greater good.  If taking a select few genius children and completely screwing them over ok if by doing so if you can save millions of lives?  What about just for the potential to save millions of lives?  At what point do we draw the line on the individual, or even small group vs the good of the many?  How do your views change when you look at the idea as a

generic one on paper eg. subject A shall be subjected to numerous mind isolation techniques, physical tests, and social pressure to produce a commander capable of saving the world, vs when you get to know subject A as Ender, and realize that what you call mind isolation techniques is akin to torture and you have to witness the whole process, look into those young eyes, watch the actual pain and suffering for the off chance you can mold him before he breaks into what you hope can maybe save the world?  Is genocide ever justified?  Does lying to Ender give him a free pass on the genocide?  Since he did not know that was what he was actually doing is he absolved from all responsibility or does he still have to answer for pulling the trigger regardless, and does the fact that he was willing to do it for a simulation mean he would have done the same thing if he had all the information?  Obviously I could go on and on and on and on, and I haven't even touched on his siblings, family, political, social or long term health aspects of any of this yet!  All that to say this book is a great discussion/heated debate starter.  It is a great leaping of point for many a conversation and I think that is exactly what this book needs is to be discussed, bu every body, so go read it and come back and comment so we can have that conversation, so excited! Also just because it is so cool I love all of the different strategies Ender and his team come up with during the various Games.  That type of thinking is very entertaining and intriguing to me and I could have read a thousand scenarios in the Battle Room!
What book do you go back to time and again?  Do you like books that tell you exactly what they are trying to say or do you prefer ones open to interpretation?  Am I once again proving myself to be the Queen Geek?