Brandon reads a lot: Ender's Game Book Review

Sometimes you run across a sci-fi book that hasn't been made into a movie yet, allowing you to make up your own characters and visuals. Way better than CGI if you ask me.

Written in 1985 by Orson Scott Card, Ender's Game is about the child genius Ender Wiggins who's determined by the military forces of Earth to be our best hope at defeating the nefarious "buggers."

(Think the baddies from Aliens - which this book came out before - and you got it.)

The book traces Ender's journey beginning at six years old until he's old enough to go to Command School. Card then wraps it up with an ending that isn't expected by the reader and there's a certain morality in the pages final endings that probably every world and military leader should read.

The best thing about this book isn't the space battle simulations, the high-tech wackadoo going on at Battle or Command School. The interior dialogue of Ender, combined with the character of his sister Valentine, add a depth to the story you wouldn't find in any sci-fi thriller action movie. While I wouldn't say that the plot takes any spellbinding twists and turns (until the very end), the dramatic reveals of each characters' true being is what makes this a must-read.

You forget you're reading about a bunch of kids just a few pages in, and I'm assuming this was intentional by Card. In war, kids cease becoming kids and are forced to act like adults. You'll find this isn't a kiddie novel but a deep complex exploratory mind examination of kid that's destined to be basically Napoleon without realizing it.

I hear they're making a movie out of it and it should hit theaters in 2013, but it's good that I got the book read before that happened.

To buy Ender's Game click here.