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)

Amazing Journey Through Psychology

This masterpiece blends science fiction with everyday psychological themes and ideas relevant to society regardless of when this will be read. This novel will remain a brilliant work through the test of time. Additionally, it opens the doorway to the masterful Ender's Quartet series of books that Orson Scott Card produced to expand on this universe.

Couldn’t get enough!

What a clever book! I loved the narrator too. I want MORE!!! Kept me engaged the whole time, such a twist at the end!

Amazing story and Performance

I've listened to this story multiple times over the last decade. The story is well written, well performed, and true modern classic.

Dark, Cynical, Uniquely Interesting

New favourite book. Not family friendly. A little pretentious. Almost every character is presented as a genius incapable of losing, but really they just get lucky and have plot armor. So it's all a bit far fetched, but consistently fascinating. One of my pet peeves with sci-fi is that the aliens never feel foreign enough, but the author did an amazing job at making the aliens truly feel alien.

Great voice work. Particularly by the guy who reads the bulk of the book.

Overall great, but ...

This is a great book, but Gabrielle De Cuir's performance was overly melodramatic, and a real distraction. She has a great voice, but her melodramatic performance became a huge annoyance.

I didn't notice the melodrama in her performance at first, but once I did, as much as I wanted to, I just couldn't ignore it. I disliked her performance so much that I haven't been eager to continue the series. I recall I had to put one of the chapters she read on 2x speed just so I could get through it faster.

I think the problem stems from her ending every sentence with a downward pitch, which to me makes the emotional state of the character sound sad and/or regretful in places where its not called for, or appropriate. De Cuir can't seem to just read a line straight without the melodrama. Maybe she wasn't aware she was changing her pitch at the end of every sentence, but in that case that's where a director should have stepped in, and made her stop.

Phenomenal Storyline

I really liked how well-rounded the story is, connecting several perspectives to create the whole picture. Honestly very impressed.

amazing

This book is brilliant. it's well written, and the narration by multiply voice actors is insane, it really brings each character to life with a unique voice. best audiobook I've ever listened to!

The Best Science Fiction Book Of All Time

All other Science Fiction is measured by Orson Scott Card's masterpiece. Decades before Ready Player One, we had Ender Wiggins. The plot is superior, the characters deep, the twists are pre RR Martin. Since I read this in the 80's, I have told everyone I know about it and I lost count of how many times I have read the hard copy and listened on CD and download.

Rudnicki is to Card, as Muller was to King, Porter to Mayberry and Runnette to Tufo.

Simply Brilliant!

I cannot believe this was written in the 80's. This book is captivating, entertaining, humorous, heart warming and emotional. I found myself wanting more, watching Ender grow up and the trials he goes through at such a young age tugged at my heart strings. I really liked the story of Peter and Valentine as well. Honestly, I'm glad they made a movie because I probably would not have picked this book up otherwise. I always read the books before a movie and I can't be sure the movie can do the book justice but I will definitely be seeing the movie.
The narration was perfect. I am a very picky listener and don't like trying new narrators because they can absolutely ruin a book. These readers did an amazing job. I never got confused on the characters and it flowed seamlessly.
Onto the next. I am a Orson Scott Card fan for life now!!!

HAPPY LISTENING!

Very Entertaining

I loved this book. It's engaging from the get go and keeps the pace going. I found that I couldn't wait to go to the gym so I could listen to a little more.

Ender is a great character. A true leader. Great character development so you get inside his head and find out what its like to be the very best.

The use of several narrators is interesting, but unnecessary. I thought the narrators did an excellent job with the exception of one female that was overly dramatic. I found her a bit difficult to listen to. Narrators make or break an audiobook. And even with the one drama queen narrator, this book is well worth a listen.