This was a really great read. I would have, I think enjoyed it even more reading it as a 13 or 14 year old. Card mentions in the introduction that many gifted kids use the book as their Bible---identifying strongly with Ender. I had trouble seeing that for myself---though maybe the 13 year-old me would have easily made that identification. Now, though, Ender seems too perfect, too young and the one story too well worn (though I really liked this retelling) for me to identify completely with Ender's point of view.
With that said, really liked the sci-fi aspects of this book. Card mentions in the introduction how he was trying to figure out how fighting would be different in space. I think Ender demonstrated that most perfectly in the idea that there is no "down" when there isn't any gravity. "Down" is toward the goal. The orientation of the entry point's ceiling and floor means nothing once you are in a weightless environment: orientation is relative to your task.
I liked how Card visualized the internet. Granted his last revision for the copy I had was in 1991, but even then, few people had any vision of how the online world would emerge and dominate. He saw it as the primary location for human discourse, with entire symposiums held online. We haven't quite reached that point yet, but we are getting there.
The battle school appears to be a necessary outcome of the time the plot is set. With 2 invasions of aliens fought off, it is expected that militarization would be required to keep them at bay---a normal human response to an external threat that we are unable to understand.
Card concludes the story with redemption---absolution given by the enemy to the humans through Ender. Ender is the one---with enough empathy, survival instincts and smarts to save the world as a tween (a young Paul Atrides, Luke Skywalker or Neo) and later redeem human kind to bring back the enemy in the name of empathy.
A well written and engaging book.
8/10
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