It’s much to Orson Scott Card’s credit that Ender’s Game was written long before Harry Potter – makes you wonder if Rawling read Card. Ender’s Game is strikingly similar to the Harry Potter series. Like Harry, Ender Wiggen is a special child. Instead of being endowed with magic powers, Ender has mental powers. Nothing supernatural, he’s just smart. In fact, he’s the smartest person on earth.

In an earth set a century in the future, the world is at war with an alien race called Buggers. Earth barely survived the Buggers last attack, and their trying to do anything do win the next time they come. They begin genetic alterations to create genius children and send them to battle school where they grow up learning how to lead an army. Ender is special though, because he’s a super-genius among the geniuses.

Ender arrives at battle school at the age of six and quickly finds he excels among his classmates. Much like Harry Potter, Card has created a world where school is life. Ender has some friends who admire him, a lot of bullies who resent him and teachers who coolly oversee his progress.

When Ender and his classmates aren’t in classes, they’re in zero-gravity battle training where they play games of strategy and tactics. The battle scenes are effective in showing Ender’s intelligence and progress, but Card lingers on them quite a while. Many lengthy excerpts are dedicated to describing these contests and how Ender goes about confronting various problems. It’s kind of fun, but often feel like filler compared to scenes that forward the story or Ender’s character.

Like Harry Potter becomes over the years, Ender also quickly becomes dark, brooding and sharp. He has a good heart, of course, and that’s the main problem. Ender often discovers that, in order to be survive, he needs to vanquish his enemy – he needs to be ruthless, but he’s not a ruthless person. Ender’s inner conflict is convincingly portrayed as he struggles to follow his conscience while keeping his head above water.

Even more interesting is the depiction of leadership throughout the novel. As Ender grows, he learns how to be a leader. Ender’s Game exposes various myths of leadership while it also provides something of an optimistic outlook in Ender’s own behavior. Game’s finest revelation is the universally known but just as universally ignored truth that poor leadership is rooted in pride.

Ender’s Game isn’t aimed at children, but it’s told simply and clearly enough that older kids certainly could read and enjoy it. Intelligently written with some profound ideas and compelling characters, it’s undoubtedly one that adults will enjoy even more.

12/04