TROOPS OF DOOM COMIC

Book.
By Orson Scott Card.
324 pages, paperback.
 
Earth has been attacked twice by an insect-like alien species, nearly destroying the human race and we survived mostly by luck. The government puts all their effort into breeding a new military genius to combat the Buggers. After decades of breeding and testing it is decided Ender Wiggin is Earth’s best hope, more importantly the last hope because time is running out. At six years old he’s taken from his family and immersed in the games of battle school to train him in the art of war. The Buggers are far from his only opposition. All the while the teachers make life as difficult as possible to toughen him up. Fellow cadets turn against him, jealous for defeating them in the games against all odds. Plus a brother who wants to kill him. It’s up to Ender to rise above it all and save the Human race.
 
Overall I really enjoyed Ender’s Game but I would have liked it even more if I had read it when I was a kid. With the main characters being kids themselves it would have been more relatable and easy to imagine being in Ender’s place. But still I would recommend it for science fiction fans, especially younger ones.
 
Spoilers ahead.
 
It took me by total surprise when I found out Ender had unknowingly killed his elementary school bully Stilson. Then find out he did the same thing again when Bonzo came after him in Battle School. Ender never wanted to hurt people, his brother Peter was the psychotic one, yet all along he was Ender who was killing other kids and was even responsible for the genocide of an entire alien race. That’s what I enjoy the most when reading or watching shows, surprises. Just before the final battle with the Buggers I guessed what was really happening. It wasn’t making any sense how the teachers were pushing Ender so hard he was obviously burning out and Petra broke, right before they planned to need him. Then it dawned on me, what if the games they were playing in Command School were real battles? That didn’t ruin the surprise because there was no way to really know for sure. I liked the ending, I thought it was fitting that after destroying a civilization Ender got to help build new one colonizing a planet.
 
The only thing I didn’t like, hated actually, was at the very end when Ender discovers he had a psychic connection with the Buggers all along. What the hell? It felt so out of place and unnecessary. The last eight pages could have been left out and it would have been perfect. (I had just finished reading seventeen books by Andre Norton where every single one had a main character with some kind of mind powers, it had gotten pretty cliche, so maybe I’m biased.)
 
One thing I still don’t know is what “Ender” means and where the nickname came from?
 
Let me know if you liked Ender’s Game and if you would recommend the rest of the series?