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Welcome to Battle SChool fellow trainees. It is time to join Ender Wiggins and satrt your training. This month's group read is Ender's Game, the classic by Orson Scott Card that is almost as old as me (doh!)

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

Weighing in at 15 Chapters and 324 pages (Starscape Trade Paperback edition), we'll split the reading up thusly.

Aug 1-Aug 7: Chapter 1-6 (pg 1-65)
Aug 8-14: Chapter 7-9 (pg 66-153)
Aug 15-21: Chapter 10-12 (154-226)
Aug 22-End: Chapter 13-15 (227-324)

I'll be posting weekly questions each Wednesday as we go along. Feel free to post your comments as you read, just mark any spoilers and try to keep your comments to the section identified for that week.

Let the battle begin. Good luck.

Oh no! Its nearly as old as me too!!!

Alrighty, we are 1/4 of the way through. Let's pose our first question.

Ender is the third child in a society where offspring is strictly limited to 2. How would this limitation affect your family plans if you knew you could only have 2 children?

For those who want something less deep, does anyone else think Ender is one seriously smart 6 year old? Does his intelligence, even with the genetic experiment, seem feasible to you or do you really have to stretch your imagination for this book?

Jim wrote: "Alrighty, we are 1/4 of the way through. Let's pose our first question.

Ender is the third child in a society where offspring is strictly limited to 2. How would this limitation affect your fa..."

Well this is a really important question as I'm the third in a family of four and my husband is the forth in a family of eleven so if our families had been limited by this neither of us would have been born. And that's a frightening thought.

As for Ender, I keep forgetting that he is a six year old until it's mentioned, I keep picturing him in his late teens. It's hard for me to imagine a 6 year old as that smart.

For me it is awkward to consider Ender as a 6 year old. Even for a genius, he seems way too mature for his actions.

I personnally wouldn't care for having a limit on my children but I understand that it already occurs in China. They currently restrict urban families to one child only allowing for second ones with certain exceptions. I know it leads to certain family planning practices. I have three kids so even though my oldest (14) drives me crazy with his teenage attitude, I wouldn't want to give up any of them.

I am not sure how I feel about a limitation on the number of children. I am not a parent. I did find it interesting that the "thirds" were discriminated against in this society.

I do struggle with the intelligence for Ender - he is way too smart and does so much for a six year old. I often forget about his age.

Greetings Battle school cadets, we are now halfway through the book (or if you're like me and don't like to read a good book slow, you're already done). Anyways, here are your questions for this week

1) In the opening pages, Ender observes that "Sometimes lies were more dependable than the truth." What does he mean by this? Do you think his observation is correct? What does this observation reveal about Ender?

2) What is the Giant's Drink? What does Ender conclude from this mind game? What does his play teach those who observe him about Ender? Who do you think is manipulating this game?

Discuss

How are people enjoying the book so far? Who is your favorite supporting battle schooler? Who is your least?

Good morning, all, just starting today -- I'll read fast to catch up! Can't wait to meet Ender.

I have already finished the book. It is interesting to see how the giant evolves.

Favorite supporting battle schooler? It varies because of the different roles that they play in Ender's life. I do like Eli but there are others I like as well.

I think Ender's comment about the lies means that even at 6 he is rather cynical. Also, if you look at it from the perspective of a child, a lie may be more truthful, such as with a parent's "maybe" or "we'll see" answer.

My favorite battle schooler is Alie and Petra. I like Alie because even in this hellish, competetive environment, he has compassion for Ender.

Okay, it is question time again. You should be nearing the end of the book.

1) What techniques does Ender use to train his Dragon army? What strategies does he take from his old commanders? What mistakes does he himself make? What does he do about his errors?

2) What is the special relationship between Ender and Bean? What innovations does Bean contribute to Dragon army?

3) Do you think Bonzo got what he deserved?

So what do you think of the book? How do you feel about Ender being used as a weapon and not knowing it? What about the colonization of the Bugger world and learning their perception of the conflict?

I really wasn't enjoying this book all that much, really was just finishing it because I hate to leave a book unfinished, right up until that little twist. I know it's been done before, or since if you will, but I didn't see it coming. It was a jaw drop moment for me and I couldn't help having my heart go out to poor little Ender. It was a truly terrible thing to do to anyone, never mind an eleven year old. I was disgusted at humankind's reaction to the aliens and the derogatory use of the term "bugger". It upsets me that in the future mankind might still be resorting to shoot first, ask questions later. It's made quite clear that we know very little about the attacking race and using children to wipe them out was very upsetting. And yet, I didn't doubt that this could happen. Child solders are, unfortunately, nothing new.

I actually knew the twist of the book before it came (someone had told me years ago), I just wasn't sure when it was going to happen. I almost felt like there was a lot of plot development put into his training at Battle school but they rushed through the actual battle with the buggers. I wasn't overly heartbroken at them manipulating Ender. What I found more interesting that the conflict was essentially caused by a communication misunderstanding. A great number of our conflicts are caused by misunderstandings. The conflict in Iraq dragged out in part largely because there was a failure to understand the Iraqi culture and how it was structured and would respond.

What I found most interesting was that the buggers figured out why they were being attacked so they could understand the miscommunication. As a result, they backed off in order to prevent future conflicts. In otherwords, they learned. The humans failed to learn and instead went on the offensive, destroying another race. It was a not so subtle jab at how far humans have to go as an "intelligent" speciies.

Apologies, all. This book didn't grab me yet. My son has read each installation many times; I'm sure I'll get there!

Jim wrote: "I actually knew the twist of the book before it came (someone had told me years ago), I just wasn't sure when it was going to happen. I almost felt like there was a lot of plot development put int..."

While I did intend to finish the book with the group and before the movie release, I read the last page yesterday afternoon. I agree, it was heartbreaking to learn that Ender was used as a weapon, unknowingly fighting the war for humans that couldn't seem to empathize with other intelligent beings. The image of the white, feathery cocoon was also heartbreaking. Honestly, it was tough to just get through, after emotionally investing so much into Ender - and it's a kids book!

Those last few pages, Chapter 15, Speaker for the Dead, really turned my opinion from a 3.5-star rating to a 4-star rating. I've never learned to 'be ok' with a seemingly unfinished ending, and Card nicely sums things up with heart and healing, truths we lacked for the preceding 300 pages during Ender's training and resulting battle.

I understand that Card's other novels do not measure up to Ender's Game, but I'll likely give the next one a shot just to see how the story continues.

Anyone else late to the review party?

Will you be continuing to have monthly group reads in 2014? I've been too busy to read along since the end of summer, but things are looking up so I thought I'd check in and see where things stand for the future group selections.

I'd imagine we'll keep doing group reads in 2014. It seems like we kind of trailed off during the last part of this year, but hopefully we'll be renewed and refreshed for the new year!