Ender's Game vs. Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow

 Ender's Game and Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow

by Orson Scott Card and Gabrielle Zevin

Welcome to the human race. Nobody controls his own life. The best you can do is choose to fill the roles given you by good people, by people who love you.

On the surface level, Enders Game and Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow have nothing in common. In fact, the only reason I even thought about these two books being comparable was because I read them one after another, and both had an impact on me, but I wasn't sure what is was. 

Enders Game is a science fiction novel written in 1985, and is about one boy, Ender, being the only hope for the human race to defeat a war against a bee-like alien species. The training for this was was done through strategy games and fake battles, and training began at 6 years old for Ender. 

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow is realistic fiction and about two people coming together and creating a game that turns into a successful business but also about their lives and how gaming played into that. It was written in 2023 and very real and full of events that affect their relationships and how they each dealt with success and failure. 

After sitting with these books for a while, I realized they do have a common thread; Games. 

All three main characters interacted with games throughout their lives. They all used games as a coping mechanism, Ender when he was feeling alone and hopeless in his training, Sam when he was in the hospital after his mom and he were in a bad car accident, and Sadie after Marx died before they could get married or meet their child. 

After I thought about this, lots of themes started overlapping between novels. 

This quote from Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, "But it is worth noting that to be good at something is not quite the same as loving it.", describes both Sam and Ender. Sam who was great at mathematics and was going through college for it, and Ender who was considered a genius at war strategy, but neither loved it. Sam had the opportunity to change courses, unlike Ender who would be responsible for the loss of the war if he left or gave up, couldn't. 

Another quote, "Video games don't make people violent, but maybe they falsely give you the idea that you can be a hero.", from Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, also describes Ender. Ender was chosen, over his just as promising siblings, because he was gentle and compassionate. The games didn't make him violent, in fact, once he found out the games were real, it almost destroyed him because, while he knew he was training for war and to kill the millions of aliens, he figured he would have time to mentally adjust from just winning games to winning wars. 

Games and gaming have become a huge industry in our society. Even people like myself, who are not games beyond the Wii and playing Club Penguin as a kid, hear about the release of new games like Halo and that football one (?). Online player games where you play against people all over the world like Among Us and campaign games have grown along with the availability of the internet. Streamers making playing games live their careers! With the Oculus, we move closer to having our own Oasis (from Ready Player One). Games are not going away, and are reaching wider audiences every year. 

Games are blamed for a lot, like violent tendencies in teenagers, and the fact that kids don't play outside anymore, online bullying and more. After these ideas were introduced to older generations, they became close to the gospel truth, even after many cases of research were completed and didn't support this argument. They ignore that the problems are coming from the real world, not these fake ones on screens.

All I can say, is that every gamer I know uses games to connect with friends who might live far away, or to release stress, or just to enjoy their free time, just like how Sam, Sadie and Ender used them. I mean, is it really any different than watching tv shows? Maybe it's better because the player is engaged and making decisions instead of mindlessly watching shows that just plays for the watcher. 

Anyways, thanks for exploring these books with me, I enjoyed both of these books and recommend reading both! 

:)