Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card (Audiobook Review)

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Title: Ender's Game
Series: Ender’s Game, book 1
Author: Orson Scott Card
Narrator: Full cast
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
Duration: 11 hours, 5 minutes
Copyright: 2002
Genres: science fiction, military, aliens
Filed in: Audiobook reviews
Review copy provided by Kearney Public Library.

PUBLISHER’S 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.

MY THOUGHTS: "Ender's Game" is the best piece of science fiction I've read in a long time. A lot of other people thought so too; "Ender's Game" won the Nebula award in 1985, and the Hugo Award in 1986. These are the two most prestigious awards for science fiction novels.

“Ender’s Game” is the first in a long series of audio books by Orson Scott Card, an this particular recording was done to mark the 20th anniversary of the original publication.

NARRATOR: “Ender’s Game” is told from the perspectives of several different characters. For each perspective, a different narrator was used. I didn’t count, but there were probably at least eight different narrators for this audio book. Unfortunately, I don't know who they were, see below. Audible .com listed two of the narrators as Stefan Rudnicki and Harlan Ellison. Aside from that, I recognized the dull recitation of Scott Brick. Luckily, Brick only narrated a small portion of the audio book. The narrators did a goodjob overall; I particularly enjoyed the guy who read Ender’s parts, whoever that was, and the woman who read Valentine's parts.

SPECIAL FEATURES: The 20th anniversary edition of Ender's Game has an all new afterword delivered by author Orson Scott Card. I listened to about five minutes of it and got bored. Judging by how long I had to fast-forward, I’d say Card rambled on for at least half an hour, probably more.

As much as I enjoyed “Ender’s Game", the overall experience of this audio book was not great. There's no announcement at the beginning of each disk, something I really dislike in an audio book. Also, the story started right up on disk one with no introduction at all; the title was not even mentioned. Finally, I was very disappointed to find that the names of the narrators were not given anywhere in the production. I liked most of the narrators, it would be nice to know their names.

FINAL WORD: I didn’t like the way this audio book was put together, but I found “Ender’s Game” to be a fascinating story. Orson Scott Card grabbed my attention very early in the audio book and kept me hanging on right up until the end.

CHECK OUT THESE OTHER AUDIOBOOK REVIEWS:
Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card (Audiobook review)
Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card (Audiobook Review)
Xenocide by Orson Scott Card (Audiobook Review)
Children of the Mind by Orson Scott Card (Audiobook Review)

If you liked this audiobook review, you can purchase the audiobook here:
Get "Ender's Game"; Special 20th Anniversary Edition; Audiobook, Audio CD; from Amazon.com.

This audiobook review is based on the unabridged audiobook.
Audiobook review by Steven Brandt
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