Recommendations from our site
“It’s another book about a war that Earth is having with another enemy that is very bug-like. The military is recruiting incredible, almost savant-like children to become their officers and their strategists. Ender is unique from the moment that he is born, because he is the third child in his family and there are birth quotas: the only reason his parents are allowed to have him is because his brother and his sister already show incredible cognitive abilities, and there’s a belief that he will also be incredibly intelligent…there are a lot of simulated war games that he participates in. I remember reading this as a preteen, and thinking, ‘Wow, that is so cool, this training montage is really fun…’ And then I returned to the book when I was in my late twenties, and I realised that the entire book is about how an institution is turning ten-year-olds into soldiers who do not question their orders and who truly, genuinely believe that what they’re doing is right.” Read more...
The Best Military Sci Fi Books
A.D. Sui, Novelist
“Ender’s Game is a science fiction novel that has always been near and dear to my heart.” Read more...
Elliot Ackerman, Military Historians & Veteran
Ender’s Game appeared in 1985, around the same time as the action unfolds in Stranger Things. The parallels extend well beyond the publication date, with future humankind in peril after an invasion of insectoid aliens, ‘the buggers’, and kids recruited by the authorities to same the world… by gaming! Andrew ‘Ender’ Wiggin is trained as an elite officer, learning strategy and military leadership playing ever more difficult war games. It’s in zero gravity that Ender’s tactical genius truly shines. This book paved the way for more recent gaming metaverse renditions like Ready Player One. Like Stranger Things, in this book one is never quite sure whether the US military and the CIA are the good guys or the bad guys. One thing is certain though, the authorities turn to the only power in the universe who can save the earth from destruction by pervasive invasive evil—the kids and the games they play.
From our article Books like Stranger Things
