Ender's Game: Creation, adaptations and more.

Ender's Game is Orson Scott Card's most popular novel. If you want to know the details of the story, and its adaptation, you are in the right place.

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30th anniversary edition.

Ender's Game, a novel by Orson Scott Card

Ender's Game (Ender's Game) published in 1985, is Orson Scott Card's most popular novel. It won two of the most prestigious awards in Science Fiction: in 1985 the Nebula Award for best novel, and the following year the Hugo Award for best novel.The novel emerged as a fictional short story in Analog magazine (1977), the short story received the Ignotus Award in 1977, and also garnered the 1978 Hugo and Locus Award nominations. It is set in a future where humans face extermination. against a hostile alien society called the "Buggers" (buggers, in the English version).

Andrew "Ender" Wiggin is recruited at just six years old to train at Battle School, a special station where gifted children prepare from infancy to lead the next war. Ender's Game It is the first of a series of five books known as «Ender's Saga«. In 1999 Orson Scott Card started parallel to «Ender's Saga«, to write a saga entitled «The Shadow Saga«, which consists of five other books.

Inspiration for Ender's Game

The first story of Ender's Game, published by Analog Science Fiction and Fact in 1977, it gives us a little glimpse of Ender in Battle School and Commander School: the complete story with scenes of Ender before, during and after the war and what his life was like.

In addition, it has some chapters where it describes the highly explosive political situation in which the earth is submerged when Ender returns. In a commentary on the 20th anniversary audiobook of the novel's release, as well as the 1991 definitive edition; Card says that:

"Ender's Game was written specifically to establish the character of Ender in his role as Speaker in The voice of the dead".

In the 1991 introduction, Card comments that Isaac Asimov's Founding Saga influenced both the short story and the novel. Historian Bruce Catton's work on the American Civil War was also very influential.

Plot of Ender's Game

It is the year 2070 and humanity is at war with the buggers (an extraterrestrial race, named for their resemblance to insects).

After failing his first invasion (of exploration) of the solar system, which is close to exterminating humanity, an alliance is established to face the threat, with the creation of a multinational military unit, the International Fleet (IF), surrendering the government of the planet to the "Hegemony", dividing then into three bodies: Hegemon, Polemarch and Strategos; fighting for dominance in war.

By this time, humanity has already developed the ability for interstellar travel, communication that exceeds the speed of light, control over gravity, and other mechanisms and weapons (many discovered after the first bugger invasion).

The second invasion, which differs from the first in that it was to colonize, was stopped at the last moment by strategist Mazer Rackham. But decades have passed and humanity lives with uncertainty while awaiting extermination by a possible bugger invasion.

Andrew "Ender" Wiggin is a gifted boy from the United States, who was recruited by the International Starfleet for training and future leadership in the fight against the Buggers. Ender is the youngest of three children, born in a society with birth restrictions due to overpopulation, where families cannot have more than two children.

Andrew was conceived with permission from the government, since his two older brothers were also prodigies, so it was agreed that when he turned six they would come back for him to train him and prepare him to be the best commander in history.

His personality is greatly influenced by the fear and rivalry towards his brother Peter, who detests him for being superior to him, and the love and compassion of his sister Valentine. At the battle school (a space station used as a military training complex for minors), he quickly becomes a born leader, astonishing his teachers and peers, rising from the position of underage cadet to Commander of the Dragon School.

As Ender continues his training, his brothers seek to change the public opinion of the world, through participation in computer forums, under two pretended personalities, Locke (in charge of Peter) and a xenophobic demagogue named Demosthenes (in charge of Valentine).

In the (original) short story only a description of Ender's experiences within the Battle School is shown, whereas in the novel more complete and classic science fiction themes are addressed from a more psychological point of view.

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Mazer Rackham is one of the most intriguing characters in Ender's Game, his role is quite significant in the novel. He is a legend of the International Fleet, the organization that trains special cadets and is in charge of protecting the planet earth. Mazer was given the job of destroying the second bugger fleet and became a legend for this action.

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Promotion of the cinema version.

novel awards

  • Hugo Award, best novel, year 1986
  • Nebula Award, best novel, year 1985

book reviews

Ender's Game was reviewed in 1991 by its author, Card. Who made many small changes to better reflect the political climate of the time, including the fall of the Soviet Union. In the next world of "Ender in Exile," Card notes that in chapter 5 many details were changed for use in later novels and short stories. To accommodate this, Card rewrote chapter 15, and stipulates that a revised version of the book be released soon.

Adaptations of "Ender's Game"

Ender's Game has its film adaptation, but it also has a saga with parallel novels, a comic and even a video game:

Movie

Produced by Warner Bros, who had a project based on the original novel. When the film was in pre-production phase it was going to be directed, in principle, by Wolfgang Petersen. But, after several months without any news, his name disappeared from the IMDb website, which hinted that the director was possibly another (Ridley Scott, it was speculated).

The script was finished in May 2003 and was written by the same author of the novel, Orson Scott Card.

At the end of 2008, it was possible to read on the IMDB page that the film had been canceled, because the contract that Warner Bros and Orson Scott Card had signed had expired without an agreement. On November 14, 2008, Orson posted himself on his website with an explanation.

On February 25, 2009, he announced that he had finished the last revision of the film's script, which was sent to Odd Lot Entertainment, which put some producers to work in conjunction with Orson Scott Card for the filming of the film. Filming began in mid-2012 and the director was Gavin Hood.

Parallel novels

Card took up the story of Ender's Game with a parallel novel, Ender's Shadow. Where the events are exactly the same but seen from the point of view of another character, little Bean. This book is followed by a series of novels that develop the lives of Bean, Petra and other children who graduated from the battle school.

Ender's Game video game

The video game called Ender's Game: Battle Room it had to be distributed by all digital platforms. The developer company was Chair Entertainment. Very little was known about the game, except for its location, it would focus on the Ender universe, specifically in the Battle Room.

Comic

The famous American publisher, Marvel Comics and the author of the book, Orson Scott Card, announced on April 19 that a limited series version of Ender's Game as the first in a series of comics that will adapt his novels into the entire Ender Saga, which Card says is the first step in adapting the novel for visual media.

The first five series, entitled Ender's Game: Battle school will be written by Mike Carey, while the cartoonist is Pasqual Ferry from Barcelona. There are already more than 11 published.

The novel has been translated into 32 languages, such as Japanese, Polish, Norwegian, Danish, Finnish, French, Serbian, Swedish, Thai, German, Estonian, Korean, Chinese, Czech, Catalan, Bulgarian, etc.

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