Episode 59: Ender's Game

Ender’s Game

In Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game, we meet Ender Wiggin, a six-year-old boy who has been identified as a high-potential child soldier in a future human society readying for war with an alien species known as “the Buggers.” To prepare him for life as a military leader, high-ranking officials send him to Battle School, where they put him through a series of war games and simulations while isolating him from his peers in an effort to hone his fighting skills. Ender excels, and in the book’s twist ending, we discover that he’s been given way more responsibility than he expected.

On Episode 59, we consider the book’s real antagonist, talk about what Ender’s Game has to say about good and evil and the moral implications of war, and discuss the lack of representation and social progress in a book meant to portray a more evolved future. We also spend quite a bit of time at the top of the show talking about the author’s problematic politics.

This week’s guest is Katy Rose Pool, author of the forthcoming YA novel, There Will Come A Darkness. Follow Katy on Instagram (@katyrosepool) and Twitter (@KatyPool).

CHECK OUT KATY’S BOOK: There Will Come A Darkness

CHECK OUT KATY’S BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS:

The Merciful Crow by Margaret Owen

Red, White & Royal Blue: A Novel by Casey McQuiston

The Grace Year by Kim Liggett

The Cruel Prince by Holly Black

MORE READING:

“I Finally Figured Out Why I Hate Ender’s Game, The Cult Sci-Fi Novel That Everyone Else Apparently Loves” (Business Insider, 2013)

“Stranger in a Strange Land” (Grantland, 2013)

“Orson Scott Card Talks Ender’s Game in Rare Interview” (Wired, 2013)

“A Primer on Orson Scott Card and the Ender’s Game Controversy” (Vulture, 2013)

“The twisted mind of Ender’s Game” (Salon, 2013)

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