Book: Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card (SF, YA)

Ender's Game is my all-time favorite novel and the only book I've ever literally read to pieces (I make a point to reread it at least twice a year).

Ender is a little boy sent to an off-planet Battle School where children are trained to make war in the hopes that a military genius will arise to defeat Earth's alien enemies. The novel explores universal issues such as individual freedom vs. social responsibility; free will; the importance of quality personal relationships; and the nature of intellectual and emotional giftedness.

Ender's intelligence isolates him from others and his circumstances force him to make painful, even violent choices. However, even the harshness of Battle School life and his teachers' ruthless instruction fail to destroy his compassion for others and his strong sense of self.

Card is a master of sci fi, and the zero-gravity training sequences of the Battle Room are not to be missed. His real strengths, however, are his compassion for his characters and his deep moral sensibilities. In Card's world, love and friendship and honor really mean something, and characters' conflicts and struggles work to build their integrity as well as to propel the plot.

I hesitate to classify the novel as Young Adult because of several scenes of violence, but feel that many young readers will relate to Ender's isolation and struggle to define himself as he faces the social pressures of being Different. (I first read it at the age of 26 and still found it compelling and emotionally true.) Grade: A+

(EG is the first novel in two different series, which I'll review at a later date.)