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Ender’s Game

Orson Scott Card

56 readers recommend it across 35 discussions

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Original Hacker News comments, in the readers’ own words.

therealdrag0
I get what you’re saying. But I still read because it’s such a habit and part of my identity or something lol. There were some years I was hitting 50-75 books (and not small ones! GoT and godel Escher Bach etc) but now I’m down to a more sustainable pace of around 20 a year, and I’m pretty liberal about quitting books. If I’m getting a sense that it’s a 3/5 book then I just quit and move on. But even then I feel like I’m having an unquenched thirst for an absolute banger like Dune and Enders game. I’ve been thinking about doing a full year of just rereading books I loved like that from decades ago.

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przefur
If I were to choose three fiction, those would make the cut. Fiction: The Invincible by Stanislaw Lem - It shed light on me in regards to microelectronics, swarm intelligence. Nothing ever eased my learning curve more for genetic algorithms like this short novel! It is also a good read in general. It also taught me that the difference in scientific vs force vs emotional approach to unknown. Would recommend as a springboard from a day-to-day acitivities. Roadside Picnic by Boris and Arkady Strugatsky - a Soviet sf classic, I've read it 3x already. It tells a story about a closed zone where 'aliens' left their artifcats, and how that changed people around them. Ender's Game - I don't think there is an explanation needed. It is a total classic. It helps a lot to understand outsiders, not just aliens but a humans too. All of the above are either hard or soft sf.

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Zanni
Ted Chiang's Stories of Your Life and Others is the best, single-author collection of short stories I've ever read. If you like that, you might also enjoy The Lifecycle of Software Objects, an absolutely heartbreaking novella about simulated children, and his follow-up collection Exhalation. Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game is fantastic, and it's follow-up, Speaker for the Dead is even better, and my favorite science fiction novel of all time. They won back to back Hugo and Nebula awards. Card is a polarizing figure for his outspoken political opinions, but if ever the art should be separated from the artist, it's Speaker, which is an incredible exploration of empathy and responsibility, in addition to being a gripping, action-packed, science-literate read. Many more in this series, if you get into it.…
alexpotato
Ender's Game and the "side-quel" Ender's Shadow. Every single time I've reread either I've found some part of the book that resonates precisely with a situation I'm going through in my life. Even parts I thought didn't apply to me at the time, upon rereading struck a chord. For example, when I was younger, I identified with Ender but as I've gotten older, I identify more with the adults in the book. Especially now that I have children. On a side note, the 25th anniversary edition has an introduction that has some gems all of it's own. Notably, there is a line where Card mentions something along the lines of: when I was a child, I never thought of myself as being less of a person than an adult. I just thought of myself as a smaller adult person. That has always stayed with me since I read it and have always tried to apply that mental model of childhood to any interaction I have with children. It has been particularly impactful now that I have my own children.

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alanfalcon
I find myself re-listening to large portions of my audible library fairly often. I pick up so much more on additional read/listen-throughs. I listen to or read Snow Crash at least once a year. I just enjoy most everything about it. Anathem required a couple listens, and a third listen was just for comfort food. The Altered Carbon trilogy has depth and sublime world-building that I have now enjoyed at least a half dozen times. I second mentions of Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency (and will mention The Long, Dark Tea Time of the Soul as well). Ender’s Game is also comfort food for me. Breaking from the speculative fiction reco’s above... The Power of Vulnerability (Brené Brown) is more lecture series than audiobook, but as for non fiction I’ve recently given multiple listens to, that tops the list. I borrowed “Landline” from the local library, read it twice and then bought it so I could continue to read it when I want to. I think I was in just the right age group and life situation for this novel to hit home for me. Your mileage may vary, but IMO read it without knowing anything about it in advance if you’re going to read it. That means don’t read the back cover etc.…
bostik
Asimov's original "Foundation" - it's effectively a collection of 4,5 short stories. I recommend to remain at a discreet distance from the rest of the series. While good within the universe, they are ... different. "Ender's Game" and "Speaker for the Dead" by O.S.Card. (Do not touch Xenocide without a hazmat suit. And if you do, burn it before reading.) "Snow Crash" by Neil Stephenson. "Rendez-vouz with Rama" by Arthur C. Clarke. If you're up for some thought-provoking stuff, "Stranger in a Strange Land" by Heinlein. Not the easiest read but your carve-out basically rules out "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress". "Embassytown" by China Mieville. EDIT: I forgot "Hyperion" by Dan Simmons.
blumkvist
In Ender's game they are searching for the perfect specimen to transform into the perfect military commander. Very smart men are making elaborate plans how to entrap him in order to mold him into a lethal machine. They are searching for a commander who can end (not intended) unresolvable conflicts decisively and, above all, permanently. Not for a morally balanced/superior leader. Anyway, I read Ender's game first when I was young and I loved it for the action, mixed with philosophy. Now I enjoy the rest of the books a lot more then the initial one.

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grandalf
So assume that Ender's response was proportional considering the bullying he underwent. His fear of being attacked at first sounds like a child's paranoia, but when he kills his tormentors the reader sees that this scared little kid is quite lethal. We're left to wonder why he's lethal and soon we realize that he's innately good at executing force in a strategic way. We question his judgment a bit -- should he have avoided killing the bullies at all cost? But we realize that his judgment is no worse than that of any other kid, only his execution (no pun intended) is far, far better. He would have been devastated if he'd known the bullies died. I think this aspect of Ender was conceived as a great short story angle, but as the plot develops it gets a bit two dimensional. Card counters this by framing Ender as the embodiment of human ability -- justice, self-awareness, compassion.…
blumkvist
Good suggestions already ITT, so I'm not gonna repeat. All of Enderverse by Orson Scot Card is simply excellent. Ender's game is a nice peak into what goes on in the whole series. A mash between true strategy, relationships, personal development, philosophy and is very engaging. However the rest of the Ender series deal mainly with philosophy. Plenty of nuggets there. Additionally Shadow's saga is situated on Earth and is about strategy and competing. Highly recommended too.

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Bzomak
Some which I have re-read recently and still enjoyed: William Gibson's Sprawl trilogy Frank Herbert's Dune series Isaac Asimov's Foundation series Frederik Pohl's "Gateway" Robert Heinlein's "The Moon is a harsh Mistress" Some which I remember liking when I read them many years ago as a teenager: E.E. Doc Smith's Lensman series David Brin's Uplift series Peter F. Hamilton's Greg Mandel trilogy and The Night's Dawn trilogy Orson Scott Card's "Ender's Game" George R. Dickson's "Dorsai!"
mattkevan
Anything by Alastair Reynolds - his Revelation Space series is great, and House of Suns is a fantastic one-off. He's probably the closest to Ian Banks in creating galaxy-spanning civilisations across eons of time. Ian MacDonald is another good one. My favourite of his is The Dervish House, but his others are definitely worth reading. Charles Stross is good. Didn't get on with Accelerando, but his Laundry books are a fun mix of HP Lovecraft/Len Deighton/IT Crowd. Halting State and Rule 34 are good explorations of pervasive augmented reality and intelligent algorithms. Also Glasshouse as an exploration of post-singularity society. Never managed to finish a Cory Doctorow book though. I found William Gibson's Bigend trilogy a slog, but I really enjoyed The Peripheral - it's a fun read. Enders Game and Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card are fantastic, but the remaining books suffer from diminishing returns (with the possible exception of Ender's Shadow). There are a lot of books in the series, but basically, the series finishes wherever you get bored reading it. Anything by China Mieville is well worth your time.…
elorant
Everything from Asimov. The Mars trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson. The Culture books from Iain Banks. The Rama series from Clarke although it got tiresome after a while. The Sparrow and Children of God from Mary Doria Russell. Contact by Sagan which by the way is one of the very few sci-fi books that were successfully depicted in movies. Brave new world from Huxley. Old one but still highly relevant. The first ones from Gibson. The Enter series by Orson Scott Card. Bradbury's Farhenheit 451. This one is a classic. Revelation Space from Alaistair Reynolds who writes the most hardcore sci-fi I've ever come across.
poopchute
- Brave New World (dystopia/utopia, short read) - Pandora's Star (futuristic (2380), humans are immortal through rejuvenation and are colonizing new worlds using worm hole tech(I think they have 50 or so worlds), long read - lots of sequels if you enjoy the universe) - Ender's game (futuristic, the movie cuts off 1/2 the book that revolves around Ender's 2 siblings, both also are geniuses, short read - lots of sequels if you enjoy the universe)

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nl
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Fire_Upon_the_Deep https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Deepness_in_the_Sky It's easy to categorise these as wonderful and well written space opera, but that undersells them. Their author (Venor Vinge) invented the idea of the Singularity, and worked as a computer science professor. Both won both the Hugo Award. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ender's_Game As good as people say it is. Most of Richard Morgan's works (esp the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takeshi_Kovacs series). Not his fantasy books though. For fantasy books, Patrick Rothfuss is doing good stuff. The Kingkiller Chronicles is excellent. Read his other books before "Slow Regard of Silent Things", though, because that is one weird story. From more recent SciFi books: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Windup_Girl is excellent. I'm currently reading Ancillary Justice and I'm really enjoying it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancillary_Justice
bpizzi
Well I'm definitely into sci-fi literature. There's simply nothing else nowadays (being in my early thirties) which can caught my attention and limited free time. It's hard to sum it up to a couple of favorites... If you prefer hardcore sci-fi over the rest - as I do, those are definitely first choices: - Iain M. Banks Culture books ("Excession" being the best of all to me) - Simmon's "Hyperion" and "Fall of Hyperion" Some authors managed to bring some good pieces of space-opera without being too much cheesy: - Hamilton and his Void books, - and, of course, Herbert and the Dune stuff. But I must warn the casual reader here: those kind of books can get really massive. Second choices - but still really good books, would be stuff written by great guys like Asimov ("Foundation"), OS Card ("Enders game") or RC Wilson ("Spin").
waterhouse
Isaac Asimov's robot series (start with "I, Robot" and "The Caves of Steel") is good, as is his Foundation series. Ender's Game is also good; I've heard other people complain about the other novels in that universe (Speaker for the Dead and sequels, Ender's Shadow and sequels), but I liked them fine. Cryptonomicon is rich, fascinating, and entertaining. Dune is rich and pretty fascinating. Heinlein's "Stranger in a Strange Land" and "Time Enough for Love" are somewhat scandalous, but I thoroughly enjoyed them. Outside science fiction: P.G. Wodehouse's Jeeves and Wooster novels, as well as what of his other books I've read, are hilarious and brilliant; I would suggest "Right Ho, Jeeves" as a starting point.
enra
After reading Game of Thrones I wanted to read more book series, so went with science fiction ones: Started with: Dune, by Frank Herbert (+ 5 books in the series) Continued to: Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card (+ 3 sequels) Now reading: Foundation by Isaac Asimov (+ 5 books) All those are pretty great in sense of that they take set in span of thousands of years, and touch bit different ideas around society, myths, religion, morals, physical and mental technologies. Other than that, been been enjoying some classic literature, Zen and Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, James Clavell, Haruki Murakami and books about Richard Feynman.
Casseres
The Unincorporated Man by Dani Kollin & Eytan Kollin. It's a sci-fi set a couple hundred years in the future where everyone is incorporated at birth. Just like you can own shares in a company, you can own shares of another person. It's my second favorite novel. It has some interesting ideas. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. Don't let the movie fool you. The book is very good. It was at one point it was on the suggested reading list for the United States Marine Corps.

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rendeiro
I will pick more than 1: Ubik by Philip K. Dick (it's hard to cherry pick his best work though, ask me a different day and I will choose The Three Stigmata or Do Androids Dream or something else) The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester (simply a good story and a great background) 1984 by George Orwell. What all these books share is the idea that sci-fi is about social, cultural and economic dynamics, not ships or time travel. That is my definition of sci-fi: An on-going essay about the evolution of the dynamics of society, using exotic technology/science merely as a catalyst. Runner up: Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card Could never finish (can't recommend): - Neuromancer - Cryptonomicon (Does the author feel entitled to mock the homosexuality of Alan Turing? Found that somewhat arrogant and in bad taste.)
jfaucett
I like a lot of Philip K Dicks stuff, "Do androids dream of electric sheep?" Also I really enjoy Jules Verne and H.G. Wells and dipping into the 19th century industrial revolution scifi that their works entail. If I had to pick a favorite though it would be Enders Game by Orsen Scott Card, although I haven't read it since I was a kid but I remember then I found it amazing.

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liquidcool
A book that often escapes even cyberpunk fans is John Brunner's "The Shockwave Rider". It was written in 1975 but is eerily prescient - at least I thought so when I read it in the 90's. Of course, I also recommend Gibson's books. And "Ender's Game"/"Ender's Shadow", even though they're not cyberpunk/cyber thrillers.

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salemh
Reality Tansurfing 1: The Space of Variations "Choosing" your own reality, positive mind frames, philosophy and actionable steps for goal attainment (no "Secret" wish fulfillment). http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1846941229/ref=as_li_ss_tl?... (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1846941229/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=xlracom-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399369&creativeASIN=1846941229) " Some of Zeeland's techniques are very simple and practical; e.g. his methods of combining rational thinking with intuition for making practical decisions. Other "tools" require a high degree of control over one's thoughts and/or emotions. Zeeland also advocates reducing the amount of mental self-talk in favour of listening to one's intuition, which has some similarity with the teachings of Eckhart Tolle [[2]]." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vadim_Zeeland The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0062508342/ref=as_li_ss_tl?... (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0062508342/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=xlracom-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399369&creativeASIN=0062508342)…
_b8r0
It's a toss up for me between Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card and A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini. Ender's Game is one of those books I never got round to reading and I thought it was incredible what they put that boy through. I got the main twist a bit earlier than I should've done but it was such a good story that it didn't affect me too much. I loved the manipulation of political debate by the other children, it reminded me of Fox news for some reason. A Thousand Splendid Suns is the tale of two Afghan women, one in Kabul and one from outside. It's incredible, harrowing and keeps you in a vice-like grip from start to finish. I loved it so much I bought a copy for my Mother in Law as I kept raving about it. If you liked the Kite Runner then you'll love this (it's by the same author).

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_b8r0
My younger self wouldn't have been interested in the books that interest me now. Instead I'd have to settle for some good fiction. Going back in time to around 12-16, I'd send one of: * Brave New World - Aldous Huxley * 1984 - George Orwell * To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee * Catch 22 - Joe Heller * Slaughterhouse Five - Kurt Vonnegut * Of Mice and Men - Steinbeck * Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury * The Call of Ctulhu - H.P. Lovecraft * Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card Some of those I actually read in school and loved (but wish I read earlier), others I didn't. I think any of those books would've interested me at the time. There's plenty of time for Rich Dad, Poor Dad, SPIN Selling and all the business books later in life.
tdupree
I thoroughly enjoyed the Foundation Series about a year ago and since then have been reading many of the books found in Asimov's Foundation Universe (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foundation_series#List_of_books... (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foundation_series#List_of_books_within_the_Foundation_Universe)). Right now I am reading "The Robots of Dawn", the third book in Asimov's Robot Series. I have gone in a kind of a strange order, first reading The Complete Robot, then the Foundation Series, the Empire Series, and now the Robot Series. I have enjoyed them all, I like Asimov's style. I also enjoyed Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card and will be reading the next book in the series "Speaker for the Dead" soon.

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blrgeek
Want to blow your mind? Fiction Keep an open mind, and a sense of wonder when you read these for max effect! Hitch-hikers guide to the galaxy. I was hooked at "The big yellow ships hung in the air just the way bricks don't." Dune - what does scarcity do to a society? Isaac Asimov - Robot series. Foundation series. All of his short stories, esp. The Last Question, Nightfall. A.C. Clarke - 2001 - series, Childhood's End, The Fountains of Paradise The Little Prince, The Count of Monte Cristo, Catch-22, Siddhartha, Ender's Game, Sundiver, Wodehouse.
esoteric
I remember reading something about him personally and tried to not let it taint my recent reading and then next year rereading of Ender's Game. I've forgotten what I was so upset about, thankfully, so I can still enjoy that and Speaker for the Dead for what they are. I don't often get really emotional when I read books anymore (I'm newly in my 30's), but Ender's game just hit me so hard. I'm glad for the experience.

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endergen
Ender's Game: Inspired my company: www.endergen.com. Who's goal it is make systems of play that augment intelligence as well as hopefully laterally solve world problems as you use them. Frakenstein: For the morality that you must take responsibility for the consequences of your inventions. Cryptonomicon: Inspired most of the work on endergen(See Ender's Game Above). Introduced me to the concepts of privacy/security implemented in technical form and the conflict between the two.
albertcardona
"The Forever War" by Joe Haldeman, among others. The book will put the timeline of your life into context, outline your limitations, and provide a grandiose example on the importance of communication. ("Ender's Game" and "Stranger in a Stranger Land" are among my top 5, but I thought the gem described above deserves attention.)

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Xichekolas
Ender Series - Orson Scott Card Rama Series - Arthur C Clarke Firestar Series - Michael Flynn 1984 - George Orwell Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs - Some guys at MIT (I know it's technical, but couldn't resist, it's just too good) Anything by Bret Easton Ellis, Greg Bear, Stephen Baxter, and the above mentioned authors.
Xichekolas
Favorite computer book: Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs - ISBN 0-07-000484-6 - Whether you actually like Scheme is beside the point. I got this book for an intro class into functional programming, and we only used sections one and two... but I enjoyed it so much I went through the rest of it on my own during Christmas break. Was probably the greatest experience I have had programming since first groking OO. Favorite non-computer book: Ender's Game - ISBN 0-812-55070-6 - I have probably read this about 10 times. All the other books in the series are good too, but it really stands apart from the rest. As an aside, the Economist is probably the best (IMHO) news source out there, as it actually goes in depth as to the causes of events, rather than just listing them with pretty explosions. It's also delightfully devoid of sensationalist stories normally found on TV News or Newspapers. Added bonus: you get a nice discount if you subscribe as a student. Not sure I could recommend it highly enough.