Ender Wiggin
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Andrew "Ender" Wiggin is a fictional character from Orson Scott Card's science fiction story Ender's Game and its sequels (Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, Children of the Mind), as well as in the second part of the spin-off series, Ender's Shadow. The book series itself is an expansion of Card's earlier short story "Ender's Game."
The book is set in a fictional universe where Mankind needs to defend itself against alien invaders.
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Ender's Game
Ender was the youngest of three children at a time of a strict two-child policy, his existence called for by a program aiming to produce commanders for humanity's war against the Formics. The generals had noted the exceptional but unusable abilities of his older siblings, Peter (who was originally said to be too aggressive and impossible to cooperate with) and Valentine (who was too kind and willing to compromise). Ender was born astonishingly talented and had a balance of Peter's ruthlessness and Valentine's personability.
At the age of six he was sent to the orbital Battle School that trained similar prodigies. He received the same education as other children, but the military had recognized him as their best bet for a supreme commander and often bent or broke its own rules to make sure Ender had not only the necessary skills, but also the right conditioning and character traits for their ends. Specifically, Ender was forced to rely totally on his own abilities, as opposed to resorting to the protection or guidance of adults. To this end, Ender was exposed to great emotional, mental and even physical danger, with the administration forbidden from taking action on behalf of his safety.
Ender breezed through academics, his main interest being the centerpiece of the school: a team-based three-dimensional laser tag in zero-g. He became first a masterful player, then a masterful strategist, and was eventually assigned command of Dragon Army, which became the most successful army in the history of the school. Despite the manipulation from the school's brass, he gathered a close-knit group of friends and acquaintances: namely, Julian "Bean" Delphiki, Alai, Shen, Petra Arkanian, Dink Meeker, Crazy Tom, Hot Soup, Fly Molo, Vlad, Dumper, and Carn Carby.
After graduating several years ahead of time, he was transferred to Command School on Eros. There he trained in interstellar fleet combat with photorealistic holographic simulators. After Ender mastered it in ordinary conditions, the game was changed from one with direct control of ships to one where he relayed commands to others—his friends and associates from Battle School—and by pitting Ender against the seasoned commander, and previous savior of humanity, Mazer Rackham.
With his trusted companions he took on a grueling series of simulated battles, and though they won every one he was pushed to the edge of his sanity and spirit. The final battle was against impossible odds above the Buggers' homeworld. Ender finally snapped. Disobeying direct orders, he destroyed the planet in the hopes of flunking out for savagery and excessive risk-taking. Only then was he told that, in fact, every 'simulated' battle against Rackham has been real: he had commanded real men, destroyed real fleets, and just now had annihilated the entire Formic race, an event that eventually becomes known as the Xenocide. Though surrounded by jubilant celebration, Ender felt only guilt over his victory.
A colony ship took Ender and his sister, Valentine, to the nearest Formic planet, where he discovered a milieu laid out for him, one taken (evidently telepathically) by the buggers from his dreams and nightmares during Battle School. In the heart of the artificial landscape he found a cocoon, containing a single bugger Hive Queen. Thus Ender was entrusted with the future of the race he (almost) drove to extinction. Communicating with the Hive Queen telepathically, he told the story of the Formic race in a short book called The Hive Queen. Later he did the same with his brother Peter, who had since become Hegemon of a united Earth. Both Hive Queen and Hegemon were written with insight and stunning compassion, and they tell their eponymous characters' stories from that person's point of view: who they tried to be, who they wanted to be, why they did what they did. Ender signed these books as Speaker for the Dead, and others were so taken by the idea that they too become Speakers, telling the story of the deceased person's life the way they would have wanted it told.
Shadow Series
Despite leaving Earth on a colonization ship after the Formics are destroyed, Ender's legacy lives strongly in both Bean and Peter Wiggin's minds throughout the Shadow series. They continually compare themselves to him, and both emulate him and strive to prove themselves in their own right, apart from any association with him.
Speaker Series
Eventually, Ender and Val leave the colony and wander the known galaxy as itinerant Speaker and historian errant, while Ender continually searches for a place to awaken the Hive Queen. This journey takes him eventually to the planet of Lusitania, where he and his loved ones are instrumental (over the next three books in the series) in establishing peaceful relations with another alien species and, eventually, preventing a second xenocide.
Beyond
Though the Shadow quartet ends before the vast majority of the Ender quartet begins, author Orson Scott Card has stated his intentions of writing a ninth novel, Shadows in Flight, linking the two.
External links
- Original "Ender's Game" short story
- Ender's Game page on Card's website with link to first chapter
| Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game series |
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| Alai | Petra Arkanian | Admiral Chamrajnagar | Bean | Achilles de Flandres Hyrum Graff | Jane | Bonzo Madrid | Han Qing-jao | Si Wang-mu | Mazer Rackham Andrew 'Ender' Wiggin | John Paul Wiggin | Peter Wiggin | Theresa Wiggin | Valentine Wiggin |
| Books | Characters | Miscellanea |