Ender's Game

Author: Orson Scott Card
Year: 1985
Publisher: Tor Books

This book has been in my TBR pile for years and I  just never got around to it. I'm glad I finally did. It's a difficult to explain book but in very basic terms, it takes place in the future. The earth is fighting against an alien race and there have been two previous wars with them and is now preparing for a third invasion against the aliens. The leaders have established a system where they pick children - literally babes out of the cradle - and start training them as soldiers. But now they need a commander for their army and they have chosen Ender Wiggins. Ender is brilliant, quick thinking and the last hope of the earth.

This is a very thought provoking book and not just in the sending children off to fight a war way. It has issues dealing with human rights, colonization, and our rights to destroy another civilization. I think I could re-read this book and get a whole list of new thoughts and issues from it. I was crying at the end of the book and I did not expect that to happen. I understand that there's a number of books that follow up Ender's Game and continue the story of Ender but I don't feel a desire to run out and read them. I feel that Ender's story is complete at the end of Ender's Game and that continuing the series would diminish it somehow. 

"Welcome to the human race. Nobody controls his own life, Ender. The best you can do is choose to fill the roles given you by good people, by people who love you."