Ender's Game

Special 20th Anniversary Edition

By: Orson Scott Card

Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki, Harlan Ellison, Gabrielle de Cuir

Length: 11 hrs and 57 mins

Publisher's summary

Winner of the Hugo and Nebula Awards

In order to develop a secure defense against a hostile alien race's next attack, government agencies breed child geniuses and train them as soldiers. A brilliant young boy, Andrew "Ender" Wiggin lives with his kind but distant parents, his sadistic brother Peter, and the person he loves more than anyone else, his sister Valentine. Peter and Valentine were candidates for the soldier-training program but didn't make the cut - young Ender is the Wiggin drafted to the orbiting Battle School for rigorous military training.

Ender's skills make him a leader in school and respected in the Battle Room, where children play at mock battles in zero gravity. Yet growing up in an artificial community of young soldiers Ender suffers greatly from isolation, rivalry from his peers, pressure from the adult teachers, and an unsettling fear of the alien invaders. His psychological battles include loneliness, fear that he is becoming like the cruel brother he remembers, and fanning the flames of devotion to his beloved sister. Is Ender the general Earth needs?

But Ender is not the only result of the genetic experiments. The war with the Buggers has been raging for a hundred years, and the quest for the perfect general has been underway for almost as long. Ender's two older siblings are every bit as unusual as he is, but in very different ways. Between the three of them lie the abilities to remake a world. If, that is, the world survives.

Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game is the winner of the 1985 Nebula Award for Best Novel and the 1986 Hugo Award for Best Novel.

Browse more titles in the Ender Wiggin series.

©1977, 1985, 1991 Orson Scott Card (P)2002 Fantastic Audio, an imprint of Audio Literature

Critic reviews

• Nebula Award Winner, Best Novel, 1985

• Hugo Award Winner, Best Novel, 1986

"'Intense' is the word for Ender's Game." (The New York Times)

Rejoiced and Replayed

A rattling good scifi adventure in the best traditions of Wells and Asimov. It has a great story, compulsive narrativey, and many points to ponder. I found myself 'rewinding' the story many times, just for the sheer joy of the language.

Terrific!

If you like science fiction, even if you sort of like science fiction, you will love this audio book. From the performance to the storytelling, it was wonderful. I could not put my phone down and listened to this every chance I got. Didn't want it to end. I don't leave reviews but I felt compelled given the quality of this book to recommend it highly.

Really Enjoyed This One

Would you consider the audio edition of Ender's Game to be better than the print version?

Great Book - Read it and listened to it. Great in both forms- lots of suspense and I didnt want to put it down.

Would have given the performance a higher review if...

I really had a hard time listening to Valentine's actor/voice. The whiny tone of her voice and how she always let her sentences trail off was just flat out irritating to me.

However, that said, the story was a solid 4, and I would have given the narration a 4, if it wasn't for that one actress.

Poor Kid

Where does Ender's Game rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

i really liked it. i usually listen to a more adult sci-fi stories but this one really drew me in even though it was writen for young adults.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Ender's Game?

the twist when he realizes that he had been fooled the whole time.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

i think it took its sweet time wraping the end up.

Hard to be sad it's over with such a satafying end

I can't talk about all of the amazing things in this book. you will love the narrator, and the plot twists, and the lessons you'll learn along the way. I hink you'll finish this faster than you might other audio books, I couldn't but it down, i honestly lost sleep because I became ender. I was someone who felt how I felt but just 8n an exaggerated situation and it seems that everyone, all ages, can relate to ender, and maybe even some of the worse or better traits of the side characters. the narration starts smooth, and then you see pretty interesting, but still 2D characters, become 3D, and then 4D ,you can see how time has changed them, you can see from every possible angle. I want to see,if at the end if this book, you can't assign someone in our life to every solungle one of these book characters.

The performance lacked

I personally didn’t care for the performance. The characters age from young children but the voices did not change. The voices irked me throughout the book. But the story itself is thoroughly dystopian.

bookmarks

you can't make bookmarks or clips and you can't return to the beginning or any other part without deleting the book off your device and then re downloading it

Too much talk of nakedness and genetalia.

Too much talk of nakedness and genetalia.
If Card would have just left that and the foul language out, it could have been really great.
Also, a lot of grotesque death threats.

awesome book - a must

I love that in this book there are different speakers for different characters. There are twists and turns you will never anticipate . This is truly one of the greatest science fiction books ever written.

there is also a movie based on the book which was well done, even though it leaves out some deep understanding revealed in the book.