Ender in Exile
by Orson Scott Card
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Book Reviews of Ender in Exile
Book Review: Satisfying Sort of Sequel
Summary: 5 Stars
Ender In Exile addresses the largest gap that remained in the Ender Universe. Author Orson Scott Card has been busy writing other novels and comic books, (maybe working on a long-overdue screenplay now that the technology exists to demonstrate the Battle School), but this is the story long-term fans of the series have wanted to hear. New fans should read the original Ender's Game first, but won't be hurt either by following the original sequence or jumping ahead to the next chronological story (this one).
Set in the period immediately following Ender's Game, we follow the thought processes and actions of most of the key characters in the original on Ender's journey away from Earth and out to the Hundred Worlds. Card displayed future scientific advances like wireless communications connectivity for the common folk in the first book, and uses encrypted e-mail exchanges between parties to very effectively lead into each chapter here. Just enough new science and old to make this not just plausible, but highly believable.
As much time has elapsed since Card authored the first text, slight differences exist, but overall the finale is rewarding despite the reader having knowledge and foresight of the timeline. Card states he will address the minor differences by updating the original works in future editions, something practically unheard of these days.
Overall I rate this novel at 4.51 stars out of 5.00, rounded up to 5. I would have liked to have read a chapter that included the conversations between 16 year old Ender and his brother Peter, near death when they finally reunited. Otherwise, a highly enjoyable read and highly recommened for any fan of Ender or Card.
Book Review: Filling In The Blanks
Summary: 4 Stars
The timeline is set immediately after Ender's Game, and before Speaker for the Dead. Following Ender's defeat of the Formics, he has become a living legend at the age of 12. But because of possible political fallout, Ender cannot go home to his family. Instead, he will travel to a former Formic world with a group colonists and become governor.
It has been several years since I've read the previous installments in this saga, so I found it a bit hard to remember several details from Ender's Game. This made it hard to keep track of certain characters, and understand their personalities and decisions. But the story was never hard to follow and remained an easy read.
Focusing on several key characters, the narrative bounced around their stories as well as many emails sent back and forth from the central characters. Deciphering the recipient and sender of the emails was difficult at times, and I found it frustrating when I had to go back and try to figure out who certain characters were. But that may have been another result in not having read Ender's Game in so long.
For fans of the series, this was an interesting look into the "lost years" between Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead. Thankfully, not just a filler, Ender in Exile is an interesting journey for a remarkable young man. This science fiction tale is not filled with action and adventure, but focuses more on character development and interaction. But the story was never boring; and I found it hard to put down. After finishing it quickly, I found myself wanting to go back and re-read the rest of the novels again.
Book Review: Dissapointing
Summary: 2 Stars
I am a huge fan of Orson Scott Card. I love all of his Ender and Bean books. I was excited when I found out that he was releasing a new book in the Ender series.
The disappointing part wasn't so much the story or the writing. I found both to be excellent as usual but what was most disappointing is I had already read almost the whole book. Those of you that are familiar with OSC's Intergalactic Medicine show probably know where I am going with this but for those that don't.
Every quarter OSC releases a short story in the Ender Universe. Which at the time I thought was awesome, since I love the story so much. However because I purchased and read every issue of IGMC I had pretty much read Ender in Exile before it even came out. The whole main plot with the Admiral aboard the star ship was already available on IGMC. So I knew the twist from the very beginning. At first I thought maybe this would be a more fleshed out version of the short story on IGMC and for the most part it was. There was more detail and the story had different characters perspectives that weren't in the short stories but I already knew the main plot points. Not only that but the whole beginning was a short story on IGMS as well. The part where John Paul and Teresa trick Peter and Valentine into keeping Ender in space. The only part that was truly new was the very end when Ender goes to confront Beans kid.
Basically the whole story feels like reading a bunch of well written short stories thrown together.
Shame on Orson Scott Card for taking advantage of his most die hard Ender fans.
Book Review: Great continuation...
Summary: 5 Stars
I've been a longtime fan of Orson Scott Card's Ender series (almost all of Orson's books, actually), and it was a pleasant surprise to learn that another book had been released. I've read both the Shadow series as well as the original Ender series. This book compliments both. While it is touted as a direct sequel to Ender's Game (and to some extent it is), within the author's note at the back of the book, Orson Scott Card reveals that he feels it's more a part of the Shadow series than a sequel to Ender's Game.
That being said, the book really does take off almost immediately after Ender's Game. The War with the Formaics has been won, and Earth is debating as to whether or not to allow Ender to return. Peter and Valentine, Ender's brother and sister, get involved, and it's very interesting to see how they feel.
The book continues by talking about the voyage that Ender and Valentine experience as they travel to Shakespeare, the settlement Ender has been sent to govern. We learn about his battles with understanding the Hive Queen and why they decided to let Ender kill them, and even find out more about Bean and Petra's lost child that is "forgotten" during the end of the Shadow series.
All in all, a fantastic book. I will say that it wasn't a book, at least for me, that kept me dying to read more, but it did hold my attention. I never felt like it was too slow, but it was exciting enough that I continued through it.
If you're an Ender fan, this one is definitely worth the read.
Book Review: Deeply alienated by Card's recent work.
Summary: 1 Stars
A disappointing, socially unimaginative flattening of a character and a world I once loved very much. This novel was rife with ideologically and spiritually conservative addresses to the reader that seemed to diverge from the far ranging and broad discourses of the other books, at least the way I read them so many years ago. I felt alienated by the Wiggins of this novel, theirs and the narrator's presumptions about people's personalities and biological determinism, the absence in this world of any challenges to what seem like universally unquestioned ideas about family, gender, sexuality, social order, ethnicity and race--it's like ages of progressive thought on Earth were erased in order to create a universe where stereotypes turn out to be God's funny way of using DNA.
What the narrator of this novel would have you interpret as the human individual's inability to escape her or his own genetic make-up is truly, to my eyes, an author's inability to let his characters be anything but allegories for an outmoded, oppressive conservatism at a time when authors should be offering something much, much better than an intergalactic expansion of the middle-class Anglo-Christian exceptionalism that has done so much to hurt the world.
There's my elitist, queer-nerd, politically irked two cents. A dedicated reader of the Alvin, Homecoming and Ender series, as well as many stand-alone works, it pains me a little to say this will be my last Card novel for sure.