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Mazer Rackham is a fictional character in the novel Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. He is described in the book as a half-Maori New Zealander. He was a twice demoted backwash commander who was assigned a small reserve patrol force prior to the second invasion. His victory over the buggers is used as propaganda to motivate the people of Earth to support the IF.

During the Second Invasion, the Formics attacked the Solar System, and destroyed the humans' main defensive fleet. Commanding a small reserve patrol force, Mazer Rackham fought and won the second war against the Buggers. He does so half-accidentally; near Saturn, he destroys the Formic Queen's ship. Because the Formics have a hive mind that revolves around the Queen, her death leaves the remaining Formics under her command without the will to do anything and they eventually die of malnutrition. Mazer Rackham's decisive and unexpected move allows the planning of the Third Invasion and for Earth to regroup after the long and resource-exhausting battle. Much of the technology used in the Third invasion comes from technology adapted from the intact Formic fleet.

After the abrupt end to the Second Invasion, the I.F. sends a fleet consisting of 'every last ship we could scrounge' to attack the buggers. With the faster-than-light communication called the ansible, Earth has more than half a century to find a brilliant group of commanders for the Third Invasion. They set up a program called Battle School, in which militarily talented six-year-olds are trained to become excellent generals. The lead commander will be taught personally by Rackham. Since he must be alive by then, Rackham is sent on a relativistic, time-slowing journey, to be brought back to become Ender Wiggin's mentor. He had to say goodbye to his wife and all of his friends, because they would be dead or very old by the time he came back. Fifty years (Earth time) later, he ages only eight years.

When Rackham returns from space to teach Ender, he tells him that Ender and his jeesh will have to command a simulated fleet against Rackham and several experienced pilots. These grueling battles slowly wear down Ender's desire to remain commander, and when Rackham gives him a 'final exam' in which Ender is hopelessly outnumbered by buggers orbiting a planet, he decides to get himself kicked out. He orders his squadron leaders to use Dr. Device, which disperses matter and spreads, causing a chain reaction only limited by the available mass, against the planet. Ender believes this will prove himself too brutal and uncivilized to command anymore. However, after he wins, Rackham congratulates him, informing him that these simulated battles were not simulations. Ender had just destroyed the homeworld of the buggers, which contained all the queens (and therefore the entire mind) of the bugger race. The point of the deception was to have Ender's youthful reflexes and creativity without the sorrow, and hesitancy, of sending real men and women to their deaths. Ender, realizing in one horrifying moment that he had been deceived into exterminating an entire race, passes out and remains unconscious for five days.

Rackham is a minor character in Ender's Shadow; he is only mentioned, and is not in any scene. In this parallel novel to Ender's Game, Rackham tells Ender that he doesn't have confidence in Bean's ability to handle a large army. As a result, Bean doesn't get any important assignments, allowing him to take the critical role of watching the general flow of the battle.

Rackham disappears until Shadow of the Giant. The story was that he was piloting the first colony ship, but he instead stays behind to assist the International Fleet. In the very beginning of the novel, he hands Han Tzu a lethal pen-blowdart, calling it the Mandate of Heaven. Han Tzu then assassinates the emperor of China and replaces him; the soldiers, knowing that he advised against every one of the bureaucracy's mistakes that resulted in China's ruin, do the rest.

However, most of Rackham's later role is his assistance to Bean. He convinces Bean to go on a relativistic journey so Bean can remain alive until they find a cure for his condition (Anton's Key). Bean does so; to comfort an angry and hurt Petra, Rackham tells her about his experience with the same thing (having to leave everyone he knows and loves so he can delay his death).

Although Shadow of the Giant ends the Shadow Quartet, Orson Scott Card has stated his intention of writing another follow-up novel. It is unknown whether Rackham will play a role in this upcoming novel.

Rackham is the main character of a short story, released in the first issue of "Orson Scott Card's Intergalactic Medicine Show", called Mazer In Prison. This short story, taking place before Ender's Game, details some of his experiences directly after the first victory over the Formics, during his time-slowing journey mentioned above.

Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game series
International Fleet	Admiral Chamrajnagar | Hyrum Graff | Mazer Rackham
Battle School	Petra Arkanian | Bean | Han Tzu | Alai | Achilles de Flandres | Ender's jeesh | Other Battle School students
Ender's family	Ender Wiggin | John Paul Wiggin | Peter Wiggin | Theresa Wiggin | Valentine Wiggin
Other	Novinha | Han Qing-jao | Si Wang-mu | Jane | The Hive Queen | Minor characters
Books | Characters | Concepts