Ender's Game

Ender's Game is a futuristic story of the future of Earth. It was written in 1977, and it's eerie to see the similarities between the world of the book and our world in the present day. In future America, couples are usually allowed to have only two children, and any additional children are considered a disgrace. In China today, birthrates are restricted to only one child per family. Also, when the Battle School was described as a structure floating in space governed under international law, I couldn't help thinking of the international space station. In 1977, the concept must have seemed radical, but we will probably have the technology to create something like the Battle School someday. (Whether we actually use it or not is another question.)

I think that the most frightening part of Ender's Game wasn't the use of children as fighters, but the way those children were manipulated and deceived. The government knew almost everything about Ender, and they knew exactly how to form him into a weapon for them to direct at their enemies. Rather than persuading him or giving him the truth and letting him decide, they lied to him. Through their deception, he unknowingly committed genocide. That's a heavy burden to rest on a twelve-year-old's shoulders.