Ender’s Game, Orson Scott Card. Paperback.

Desolate, unnerving.

From the first chapter, it was clear how greatly Card has influenced the scores of dystopian novels that have followed this one. Ender’s Game shows us a future Earth reliant on training child soldiers for protection from alien lifeforms, but its themes of ignorance and power can be easily applied to life on Earth today.

I was moved by the portrayed psychological fallout of treating great power as a game, and shocked by the denouement: a catastrophic consequence of destroying the unknown simply out of fear. While this story isn’t as openly horrific in its pinning of children against one another as, say, The Hunger Games, its subtle violence and psychological manipulation make it that much more disturbing—and impressive.

Favorite Quotation: “Perhaps it’s impossible to wear an identity without becoming what you pretend to be.”