by Cassandra

‘Ender’s Game Alive: The Full-Cast Audioplay‘ is a seven-hour audioplay adapted by Orson Scott Card, based on his best-selling science fiction novel, ‘Ender’s Game’. Those who have read ‘Ender’s Game’ will happily recognize all of their favorite characters, including Ender, Bean, Valentine, Colonel Graff and others.

‘Ender’s Game Alive’ is more than just an audiobook. This audioplay is comprised of well-delivered dialogue given by distinct voices, background sound effects, and a beautiful score. There is no narrative. Overall, ‘Ender’s Game Alive‘ is more pleasant to listen to than most audiobooks. The dialogue flows as if it were normal conversation, as opposed to the sing-song quality of some audiobooks which often put listeners to sleep. The different accents from international battle school students add a richness to audioplay, while the special sound effects in the background are appropriately understated. Ender’s scenes of physical confrontation sound real in a way that will cause most people to cringe and the score between the audioplay’s chapters fits well with the content of each chapter, although I suspect eager listeners might find it a little tedious.

Janis Ian and Rex Linn (Dap)

Most of Ender’s thoughts and emotions are revealed through discussions between Colonel Graff and Major Jayadi. Major Jayadi is a brand new character, but her large role in this audioplay never seems forced or out-of-place. Additional background is given to several of the characters. In this adaption of ‘Ender’s Game’, Sergeant Dap is particularly hilarious, which make his scenes among my favorites.

Unexpectedly, most of the content from ‘Ender’s Game Alive‘ is complementary and not contradictory to the original novel. ‘Ender’s Game Alive‘ is the best adaption of the ‘Ender’s Game’ story to date. I enjoyed this adaption better than that of the novelette, original novel, author’s definitive edition, and the comic books. Almost every scene and well-loved line from the novel is included, with a few extra scenes to compensate for the lack of narrative. The best part of ‘Ender’s Game Alive‘ is that incorporates story elements from the Enderverse better than the original novel. Certain lines hint at story lines from ‘Teacher’s Pest’, ‘The Polish Boy’, ‘The Gold Bug’, ‘Ender’s Shadow’, ‘Shadow of the Hegemon’, ‘Shadow of the Giant’, ‘Shadows in Flight’, ‘Earth Unaware’, and ‘Speaker for the Dead’. Fans who are careful listeners will notice that ‘Ender’s Game Alive‘ hints at how exactly The Hive Queen made her philotic connection with Ender. Additionally, there is a spoiler to the Second Formic War! These are the two most important elements of the Enderverse revealed in ‘Ender’s Game Alive‘, although there are many other gems of information to be uncovered in this adaption.

Kirby Hayborne (Ender) and Janis Ian

Although the actors who voice the battle school students sound young, they do not sound young enough to be six and eight-years-old. Voices of children that young would probably be distracting and I believe believe the producers of ‘Ender’s Game Alive‘ made a wise choice to cast older actors. I have no real criticisms of ‘Ender’s Game Alive‘ because it is just as witty and delightful as the original ‘Ender’s Game’ novel. ‘Ender’s Game Alive’ is reasonably priced and I would recommend it to anyone who has ever hesitated to read the original ‘Ender’s Game’ novel as well as fans who already love the story. ‘Ender’s Game Alive: The Full-Cast Audioplay‘ by Orson Scott Card is currently available on Audible, or you can pre-order it for October 29th on Amazon.