HOLY GUACAMOLE BATMAN!!!

Okay I'll skip the plot twist cuz that would ruin the book for whoever read this but anyway, the war is over and Ender is happy...ish. Peter successfully took over the world and Earth won't let Ender back on it, for fear that he could be too easily corrupted by people like Peter. People are flooding onto Eros to go off and colonize the Bugger's now empty home planet. Among them is Valentine, who askes Ender to go with her. He does. They zoom off into space. The end.

Ender's Game Part 10

Ender's army wins every battle, and is soon getting many more battles than everyone else in battle school, more that twice a day at some points. Dragon army is exhausted. One of Ender's star pupils is a tiny kid named Bean, how does everything better and faster than the other boys in Dragon army. But then, Ender gets in a fight with another boy, kills him, and is promoted. He is moved to Command School, even though Ender is only 10 or 11 and no one goes to Command School before they're at least 16. Before Ender and Graff shoot off in a rocket bound for Eros, the school's secret location, they take a 3 month pit stop back at earth, the purpose of which being to restore Ender's love in Earth, and help him remember what he is fighting for and why it's worth the sacrifice of his childhood. Ender also meets Valentine for the first time in several years, and she explains about Demosthenes and Locke, the aliases she and Peter had been using to try and take over the world. Then Graff and Ender leave for Eros, a tiny planet that was once a pit stop for the Buggers during the first invasion 100 years ago. There Ender plays on a game simulator, and meets Mazer Rackham, the hero that saved Earth during the second invasion 70 years ago, and should be dead by now, but through complicated faster-than-light space travel, managed to only age about 5 years, the purpose of which being for him to be alive to be able to teach Ender. They become companions and Mazer trains Ender hard, giving him actual challenges for the first time ever.

Ender's Game Part 9

Ender is unhappy, and he is stuck in the "Mind Game" at the part where he crushes the carpet-snake underfoot then looks in the mirror to see his brother Peter, who is eating the snake. Ender is like NOOOOOO!!! I'm not Peter!! So Colonel Graff brings in Valentine, Ender's last love in the world. She writes a letter to Ender telling him in no uncertain terms that he is NOT Peter. Ender is furious that they used his sister, forcing him to mentally throw the last sacred thing in his life with the rest of that crap, so to speak. But Graff's manipulation of Valentine works, and Ender beats the mind game, and is happy. But, like always, as soon as Ender is happy, they drag him out of the happy place and put him in some new, harder situation. Now the change is moving him from Rat army to Dragon army, where he will be commanding his own army.

Ender's Game Part 8

For a while Ender’s Game follows this basic pattern:
Ender gets promoted
Ender makes an enemy
Ender makes a friend
Training Montage!
CONFLICT!!!
Ender beats the crap out of the person who created the conflict.
Ender gets promoted.
Repeat.

Ender is pretty bored in Salamander army, except when he is with his training group. Then he is promoted to Rat army, the enemy and polar opposite of Salamander army. Instead of being strict, the commander of Rat army, "Rose the Nose", is lax and stupid, but somehow wins every battle. This is because of Ender's toon leader, Dink. Dink is awesome and one of my favorite characters so far. He is probably the first person to recognize Ender's true genius and tells the rest of his toon to do everything Ender says. But then....

Locke and Demosthenes

http://xkcd.com/635/
well, this pretty much sums up the past couple of chapters.

Ender's Game Part 7

Ender is at the game room, back to playing that weird maze of a game again. Now, with the giant dead and rotting, Ender is free to move about fairyland. He finds himself at a playground, with many other children, but they won't let him join in their game, they just laugh at him and call him names until they turn into wolves and eat him. Ender quickly finds that if he leaves they will folllow him and eat him again, so the only thing to do is kill them at the playground. Eventually he finds out how, he knocks them out and drowns them in a river. Ender now lowers himself down a well, which takes him to a door labeled "The end of the world" Ender opens the door and finds himself at a cliff. When he jumps off the cliff a fluffy cloud catches him and takes him to a castle where a mean snake says he is going to kill Ender. Just then, though, Ender receives a message via his desk saying that he is incredibly late and must report to Salamander army immediately. Which he does. He gets a very un-welcome welcome. Bonzo [the army commander] wants nothing more than to get rid of him. Ender isn't allowed to practice with the rest of Salamander and during battles he has to sit back in the corner until it's over. But Ender wants to learn, so he devises a plan. During free-play time, he practices with his fellow launchies and old friend Alai.

Ender's Game Part 6

In this chapter nothing much happens, Ender settles into his new quarters and cements his reputation as the freaky little genius of Battle School. Later, though, something interesting happens! We find out how the battle room works. It's basically this giant airtight vacuum that simulates the kind of environment you might find in outer space. You wear an airtight suit that magnifies movements and shoot at each other with lasers that freeze up your suit wherever they hit. Throughout their training the boys will be practicing mock battles in the Battle Room to prepare them for war. When Ender isn't training in the Battle Room, he's at his desk playing a simulated RPG game, where he plays an avatar that can be anywhere from a fish to a man, and overcomes obstacles thrown at him. It's called the "Mind Game" because it's meant to mess with your head. At the moment Ender is stuck at a place where he is a mouse, and a giant offers him two drinks. Ender's mouse self has to choose which to drink, but so far the game has been rigged so that he is always poisoned, no matter what. Eventually, in a rage, Ender jumps into the Giant's eye and burrows until he dies. Yeesh! Gruesome. Later that evening, when talking to his friend Alai, Ender recieves some startling news. He is to be 'promoted' so to speak, from his launch group to Salamander army. This is unheard of! No one is moved up until they are at least eight years old, and Ender isn't even seven yet! But he sighs, hugs his friend behind, and goes off to the game room to find out where he is supposed to go.

Ender's Game Part 4

Ender describes the flight up to the Battle School, and the strange experience of weightlessness. They say null gravity can be very disorienting to first time fliers, especially children, but Ender catches on pretty fast, realizing that he can't trust the floor anymore, and that it could just as well be a cieling or a wall. I don't think I could make my perspective flip like that on command, but it sounds pretty awesome. Later on in the trip Graff starts yelling at the boys (most around the age of Ender) calling them soldiers. Ender recognizes this as the beginning of the training process. The commanding officer would have to be against them before they could become friends. But Graff doesn't criticize Ender. Instead he praises him for figuring out how null gravity worked, and calls him the only kid with brains on the whole ship. But this turns out to be even worse than criticism for young Ender. Now the other kids have an enemy, and they quickly turn against him. Once again Ender is forced to defend himself and he flips a boy over the front of his seat and accidentally breaks his arm. Afterwards, at the Battle School, Ender pulls Graff aside to ask about the incident. Graff says he can't expect things to improve much over the course of his training. If you're smart, people are going to hate you. End of story. Poor Ender. :P

Ender's Game Part 3

The next morning, the second day Ender is home, quite an unwelcome visitor comes to the door. He asks to speak with Ender's parents. The man is a Colonel from IF (the International Fleet) described by Ender as the only military uniform that meant anything anymore. The children argue, because everyone knows that the man came to take Ender away, that he had passed the test after all, but Peter, jealous, says that it might be him they decide to take. The Colonel asks to speak with Ender, and Valentine throws Peter an "I told you so" look. Colonel Graff chastises Ender for beating up Stilson, saying he is now in the hospital because of the incident. Ender is ashamed, but wonders why they would send a man from IF instead of a school representative. Is it that serious? Ender's thoughts wander idly to what jail would be like, when the Colonel suddenly reveals his true reason for the visit-he has come to take Ender to Battle School. Taking off the monitor was only a test, to see how Ender would be able to defend himself without help, and he passed the test. Ender's parents think this is horribly cruel. To let us think, they say, that we get to keep all of our children, and then take him anyway? Graff talks to Ender alone, and asks if he wants to go to Battle School, because it is in fact his choice. Ender says yes, and Graff explains the specifics. Training is completed at age sixteen, and Ender gets his first leave at age twelve. Graff explains things about Ender's family that even he didn't know, because the monitor is listening all the time, even when Ender isn't. Graff says that his parents sacrificed a lot to have a Third. They were both born with religion, Ender's mother was a mormon, but has since denounced her religion and denies the fact she lived in Utah, and his father was born a catholic, the seventh of nine children, but now also denies this. Eventually, Ender gets in a car and leaves, NEVER TO RETERN AGAIN. DUM DUM DUUUUUUM....

Ender's Game Part 2

This is the shortest chapter I think I've ever seen, a whopping three pages long. But, packed full of lots of important junk. Now, Ender is home, monitor-less, and we get to meet his brother and sister. The infamous Peter proves himself to be just as evil as predicted, and starts beating Ender up from the minute he gets home. They play a game called Austronauts and Buggers, but since, naturally, the enemy never wins, it's more like Bullies and Victims. Peter tortures Ender for a while, until Valentine, their sister, comes in and begs him to stop. Peter does, but not before giving an elaborate speech on how he will eventually kill his siblings, when they're least expecting is. (DUM DUM DUMMMM) So far I'm not really liking this Peter character.

Ender's Game Part 1

Ender's Game begins with the dialogue of two guys, seemingly the leaders of some organization, the purpose of which has yet to be revealed. They are conversing about the possibility of Ender Wiggin saving the world from the "Buggers". Next, Ender (Andrew) is at the doctor, getting his monitor removed. This sounds a bit sick, but from the looks of it the aforesaid organization takes kids, implants these monitor thingies into the backs of their necks, and with these devices they watch whatever happens to the kids. Ender is happy to finally get his off, but later at school this poses a problem. Ender is a very smart and strange character, so he gets picked on a lot. But now, without "Big Brother" watching and protecting him, the other kids are free to pick on him. After school a gang of six year olds confronts him, calling him names like "bugger" and "third". Ender is forced to defend himself, and beats up a kid named Stilson. Ender is sad about this incident, and thoroughly disappointed with himself. The chapter ends with Ender being ashamed that he acted like his violent older brother, Peter.

Koolio

http://www.nauvoo.com/library/card-bookofmormon.html

This is a fascinating essay by Orson Scott Card on the BoM and how it influenced his writing. Surprisingly not preachy given the context, amusing, and genuinely interesting in my opinion.

YAHOOO!!

I am now on the webbernet.
Methinks it is celebration time.
^__^

MY GOALS:

Throughout the course of a few weeks, I will be blogging my thoughts and feelings on the book Ender's Game, which I have heard from multiple sources is an extremely excellent read. I will blog as I go along, and usually in segments of one or two chapters. Just as a hint, the less sarcastic my posts are, the better and more well written this book is. Also, since the majority of my life is spent on a computer, it is safe to assume that my description of Ender's Game and the characters in it will be moderately detailed. Therefore, I shall accept only an A+ on this assignment.