Ender in Exile
by Orson Scott Card
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Book Reviews of Ender in Exile
Book Review: Fans Be Warned
Summary: 2 Stars
First let me say I didn't actually read this book - I listened to the unabridged audio recording, and it was really a fine distraction during rush hour for a couple weeks.
75% of the action in Ender in Exile is either letter-writing or intense contemplation, and 75% of Orson Scott Card's prose is either dialogue or one of his character's stream of consciousness. The result is a lot of boring people shuffling around in a vague, colorless world.
When I was young I identified with Ender, loved him, and even in "Ender's Shadow" when Card described how Ender's touch could fill one up with light, I believed it and I could feel it through the pages.
But halfway through Ender in Exile, I realized that I was actually annoyed almost every time a character with the last name Wiggin spoke. I kept waiting for Ender to DO something besides brood, and for Valentine to DO something other than whine.
Face it fans, these characters have already been laid to rest. All Card is offering us here is a puppet show in which these thin characters use their intellectual gifts to arrive at Card's own conservative views on marriage, race, and genetics.
This novel reminds me of the car commercial where they resurrect Steve McQueen to sell you a Ford.
The only real joy I took from Ender in Exile, was in learning the specific fates of some of the other characters from the Ender and Bean novels.
Book Review: Hate to say it, but truth will out...
Summary: 3 Stars
I am an avid reader of all Orson Scott Card I can get my hands on. He is an incredible writer and I usually enjoy all his stories. However, as excited as I was about this book, I was more thoroughly disappointed in how it turned out. I guess it isn't all bad, but the Ender we all knew and loved and wanted to watch grow in Ender's Game is not the same Ender in "Exile". The flow of words, the conversations, the actions and even the storyline all pale in comparison to the original. Like most books, this can happen. But not with OSC. The remainder of the Ender's saga I absolutely loved and Ender's Shadow as well. But this book? This book made me realize that some authors just can't go back 20 years and recreate their story and have it be successful.
I was so stoked to be getting the rest of Ender's story that wasn't covered through the remainder of his saga, but this was a huge letdown. OSC literally ran through the story. It was very reminiscent of Star Wars Episode III where George Lucas went in the story, "Oh yeah, they have to be born, the mother has to die, the father has be burned to near death, and I only have 30 seconds left in the movie." Ta-da, the worst sequence of events in history.
I sincerely hope that should OSC choose to approach Bean and his trip in space and Petra's life on earth that he does so better than he did here. If you weren't in a rush before to buy this book, don't get in one now. Sadly.
Book Review: Recommended for fans of the Enderverse
Summary: 3 Stars
If you've read Ender's Game and the two series that followed, you'll want to pick up a copy of Ender in Exile, which fills in the time between Ender's unwitting destruction of the buggers/formics, and his future travels that begin with Speaker For the Dead. We see the seeds of Ender's future planted here, events set in motion which set a direction for his life in years to come.
Unfortunately, this book suffers from being a transitional, "fill in the gaps" volume, one that was never really necessary in the first place. The result is that far too many pages are taken up with Ender, Valentine, Hyrum and other characters engaged in exposition. They talk, expound, plan and explain. I was over 200 pages into the book before I felt as though something was really happening.
This isn't a bad read -- but only pick it up if you have really enjoyed all the other stories that take place in the Enderverse. (If it's been a long time, you might find yourself struggling to remember some of the details that make up the past and future of the characters you will encounter here.) At times, I warmed to the feeling that I was getting a deeper look into Ender's psyche. Much of the writing is clever and intellectually stimulating. And, the narrative picks up toward the end, finally introducing some badly needed intrigue and a bit of suspense. It just takes far too long to get there.
Book Review: not what i was expecting
Summary: 3 Stars
i'm just going to make this as short and simple as possible. if you are ender fan and have read each of the books with a level of enthusiasm, i recommend you read this addition just for the sake of reading it alone. if you are a casual reader of the series, just skip it or wait until the book is available on paperback.
to be rather blunt, the novel contains little in the way of significant plot. if you can live with a novel loaded with characterization, this book is for you. if you look for a synergy of method between concepts of fiction, this book is just simply not worth it. whereas the plot is explained fairly early no attempt to address it is made until the last two chapters and is also resolved in that period.
it was good to see loose ends tied up and it was also refreshing to actually understand ender's love for the formics (buggers) and his difficulty in understanding them. i would normally rate this two and a half stars but don't have that option.
mr card, we still have about ten subjective years between exile and speaker (more if the short stories are taken in effect, especially financial advisor. it would have had to occur after the event on ganges being as he received a message from graff in transit.), maybe we can get some adventures of his speaking, including that of the speaking of the founder of the children of the mind of christ.
Book Review: Game Over
Summary: 4 Stars
Orson Scott Card's Ender in Exile details the exploits of Ender Wiggin in the intervening years after the events of Battle School and before the events of Speaker for the Dead. As Ender leaves all he has ever known behind forever (except Valentine...she joins him on his journey) to undertake relativistic voyages to other star systems, Card once again does an exceptional job of peeling back the emotional layers of a child that has experienced more in his short lifetime than most people will in a complete one. The underlying psychological trauma Ender deals with -- killing off an entire sentient species, however unwittingly -- is handled quite adeptly.
The only downside worth mentioning is that, at times, I wished Card had expounded on a few of his storylines. I kept hoping for a bit more detail, especially when it concerned Bean and Petra's missing baby. The thread wound up nicely, but I couldn't help wanting it fleshed out a bit more.
Ender in Exile is highly recommended to anyone who has undertaken Card's prior books in the Ender Universe. Within Card's pre-established framework of a universe where brilliant children were used as the ultimate weapon against a threat to all humanity, this novel does a superb job of enhancing and focusing events that were only peripherally touched upon in the previous Ender works.