Ender in Exile
by Orson Scott Card
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Book Reviews of Ender in Exile
Book Review: I really tried to like this book
Summary: 2 Stars
Orson Scott Card is an author like Jules Verne who will be read and lauded a hundred years from now. I really believe that, but I also believe that "Ender's Exile" will be to Card as "Song of the South" is to Disney.
(OK, OK! Don't be a hater!)
This book tapped into the collective unconscious of the Fan-base for the Ender series. Orson Scott Card tries to wrap-up loose ends, over-write previous inconsistencies, and answer popular fan questions that have arisen since "Ender's Game" was published.
It is really a book length version of chapter 14.5 from "Ender's Game."
"Ender in Exile" is wildly inconsistent in writing quality and from a purely "fun to read" perspective.
Spoilers follow.
Like George Lucas "scientific explanation" of the Force in "Star Wars I: Enter the JarJar," the whole Peter and Val conspiracy on Earth and the parents complacent roles in exiling Ender are even less credible when Card attempts to explain and justify them. Some things are better left vague. If you are 100 pounds overweight, don't put on Spandex(tm) and do a sexy photo shoot to show that you are not obese. Eeeeeeeeew!
The whole psychological battle between Ender and the captain of the vessel on the way to Shakespeare's planet is very well done and well worth the read. The story does not add anything to Ender-lore, but it is fun and reads like "Ender's Game" did at its best points.
Card did a great job with the character of Sal (the xenobiologist on Shakespeare planet). Sal is engaging, moral, and just a great secondary character. Again, the Sal character did not advance any plot points or add to Ender-lore, but the parts with Sal in them were fun to read.
The amplifications of Ender's limitless guilt about killing the Buggers makes less and less and less sense the more that Card talks about it through Ender. I've been in combat. I have sleepless nights. I still cannot relate to Ender on this point. The Buggers attacked Earth twice. Attack me once, shame on you misguided Buggers. Attack me twice, and death to you as an evil misanthropic species. Full stop. The more tightly controlled a force is, the more subject to the irrational whims of single entities it is. The hive queens took that tight control to the limit. Even if you felt that somehow the hive queens might just be currently misunderstood, you could never accept the risk of having a radical faction take over the race in the future after being savagely attacked by them twice. Did I mention that the Buggers tried to wipe out humanity twice?
Ender's character is engaging and interesting in this book, but Val must have been mainlining Drano(tm) between books, because her IQ is about 120 points lower than in previous stories. The only time she does anything clever in this book is "off stage" when she cracks Ender's passwords. While Card does a good job of describing some of Ender's hormone driven decision-making, Val comes off as a cardboard foil for Ender and continually says, "Ender, I know you better than you know yourself," and throughout the book she is continuously wrong.
Card tried to wrap up the series by explaining the great mysteries in "Ender in Exile," and, while some parts of the book are interesting and engaging, overall this is not a must read book, and it will likely be a disappointment for the non-fanatical readers of the Ender series.
In service,
Rich
[...]
Book Review: Enjoyable read, but thin, thin, thin plotline
Summary: 3 Stars
Ender's Game is my favorite novel, so read this review with that understanding. Ender's Game is not the best novel ever written, but the one I enjoyed the most because I could relate viscerally to Ender. This book doesn't reach anything close to that standard, but I found myself reading it in one day until 1 a.m., unable to sleep without finishing it. But then again, I'm an Ender lifer.
For starters, don't bother reading this if you haven't read Ender's Game and at least Ender's Shadow and Speaker for the Dead. Those are the three essential books in the Ender's Game pantheon, with the rest tending to get progressively lame. (Children of the Mind ending up in bigtime lame-o territory, sadly. Card talks in the afterward of this book about how he didn't bother to reread his old books, and I can see why! PLEASE, rewrite Xenocide and Children of the MInd! Or pay another writer to redo them.)
Back to the review: For Ender fans, Ender in Exile is a must read -- there are simply too many expository tidbits and loose ends getting tied. But the plotline is very thin. The new characters are garden variety Card staples -- young girl dealing with overbearing mother, adult who underestimates Ender (ENDER!) even after he's saved humanity, yada yada yada. Ender himself is always interesting, and keeps you reading for more. But Valentine is relegated to a bit part after a promising start. Graff makes several appearances as a sort of Father of Humanity Demigod which proves a convenient way for Card to chew through pages and adds some convenient act of god/act of Graff plot twists. But all of the characters seem like chess pieces in a puzzle of the Enderverse rather than having much in the way of depth or resonance. A lot of the book is simply Card remembering to check plot boxes -- "oh, right, I have to have Ender write The Hegemon, find The Hive Queen, yada yada yada." Perhaps the biggest problem is that very little is actually happening in Ender in Exile, although Card invents a couple of hurdles for Ender to deal with to give the book narrative momentum. But mainly we are reading to see what is going on with Ender -- how he transitions from war hero to humane Speaker for the Dead. Mostly he just seems to mope. I was hoping for a more interesting conversation between Ender and The Hive Queen, but Card is very sparing with Ender's internal thoughts, doling them out slowly to keep you wanting more.
Without giving away what actually happens in the book, it left me with a sense of deepening melancholy, and perhaps that is what Card intends? You do get the sense of intense loneliness that Ender must feel, even moreso as everything he knows save Valentine will fade into dust as he hops from world to world on his journey. Makes you want to embrace everyone you know, hard. And shed a tear for Ender.
One other thing - Card keeps fancying that he is improving as a writer with more experience, etc., and says so in his afterward as a reason not to reread his old books. I disagree. Let's face it, he has NOT improved as a writer since 1984. If anything he's gotten lazier and more arrogant in his religious/political viewpoints and stereotyping. Maybe it's time for a new editor, one who will challenge him more?
Book Review: Very nice gap-filler between Ender's Game and Speaker For The Dead
Summary: 4 Stars
Ender In Exile starts out roughly a year or so after the buggers (formics) were defeated and their home world obliterated into mere atoms. After the Bugger Wars, most of the battle school children are able to return home and attempt to re-adapt to a world they have all been away from for so long - everyone except Ender. Ender is offered little in terms of appealing choices after the wars are over. Among the choices include going back to Earth but being a pawn in Peter's political games, staying in isolation at Eros (training facility) for the rest of his life, or taking his sister with him on the human colony ships and traveling at relativistic speeds exploring/settling other worlds for humanity. Not surprisingly, Ender chooses to leave it all behind and take the 3rd option.
Ender In Exile does a nice job of filling in gaps between Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead as well as answering the little questions that readers might have such as what happened to Ender between the ages of 12 and 35? Where did he travel? What events lead up to Ender's chance for redemption on Lusitania? While these might not be the most burning questions in the world for those that have read the rest of the series, it was still nice to have them answered and explained in this one. Normally these add-on/supplemental books for previously written series can be a lukewarm deal at best. You run the risk of watering down the series with potentially unnecessary details and sometimes end up just confusing your readers/fan-base. In my opinion, Card does none of these with the writing of Ender in Exile.
I don't know if I can say the same for First Meetings in the Enderverse, but I have read and can speak for this one when I say Card does none of the typically disappointing things listed above. If you enjoyed the Ender's Game series (and have even read the Ender's Shadow series), then you owe it to yourself to pick up this book. I can't quite give it 5 stars since nothing can measure up to the original series, but this one certainly isn't a disappointing read either!
-Travis S.
Book Review: Ender in Exile
Summary: 4 Stars
Ah, another Ender book. I was introduced to the Ender series when I was in high school, and I quickly gobbled up every book in the series as it was introduced. I was sad when the final Shadow book was published; was this the end of Ender?
I am glad to see that Card has written another book in the Ender saga, and one that explains a section of Ender's life that we have not yet seen. It may be difficult to write a prequel; it must be even harder to write a between-quel. This story takes place after the end of Ender's Game, after the end of the Shadow series about Bean, but before the original Ender trilogy of Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, and Children of the Mind. Ender has defeated the Formics and is not returning to Earth, but rather is being sent to govern a colony on a planet formerly inhabited by the Formics.
I have been savoring this book. It's almost a sad thing to finish such a well-written story. I turn the last page and think, is that it? Surely there's another one. I especially enjoyed the treatment of Ender's parents in this book. After reading Ender's Game, it's easy to assume that the children in the story - specifically Ender and his sister and brother - are far more intelligent than their clueless parents. This book was a good reminder that Ender and his siblings received their intelligence from their parents, and their parents are far from clueless. In fact, Ender's parents are just as intelligent and conniving as their children, and they are able to shape their actions to save Ender from certain destruction on Earth.
If you have read the Ender books, I highly recommend this one. If you haven't read them, start with Ender's Game. You'll thank me later.
Book Review: Exiled from Earth - and the Flight of the Exiles
Summary: 5 Stars
Great follow-on from my favorite s.f. author. Reading this book makes me realize that O.S.C. can keep up the Ender saga indefinitely, and basically turn Ender into sci-fi's equivalent of Kwai-Chang Caine.* The Ender presented here is one that is consistent with all the other Enders, and represents Mr. Card's skill at presenting believable characters with realistic, identifiable motivations.
The only thing that left me puzzled was the structure of the book. The first part is Ender in space on the voyage to Shakespeare, arrival at that planet, and his work as governor. The second part, which is about the last sixth of the book, really should have been a stand-alone novella. It's a great read, and does have a logical chronological succession to the first part, but it's not really integrated into the rest of the book.
* As expounded by Samuel L. Jackson in "Pulp Fiction":
JULES: That's what I've been sitting here contemplating. First, I'm gonna deliver this case to Marsellus. Then, basically, I'm gonna walk the earth.
VINCENT: What do you mean, walk the earth?
JULES: You know, like Caine in "KUNG FU." Just walk from town to town, meet people, get in adventures.
VINCENT: How long do you intend to walk the earth?
JULES: Until God puts me where he want me to be.