Ender in Exile
Ratings55
Average rating3.7
15
Ratings55
Average rating3.7
After twenty-three years, Orson Scott Card returns to his acclaimed best-selling series with the first true, direct sequel to the classic Ender's Game.
In Ender’s Game, the world’s most gifted children were taken from their families and sent to an elite training school. At Battle School, they learned combat, strategy, and secret intelligence to fight a dangerous war on behalf of those left on Earth. But they also learned some important and less definable lessons about life.
After the life-changing events of those years, these children—now teenagers—must leave the school and readapt to life in the outside world.
Having not seen their families or interacted with other people for years—where do they go now? What can they do?
Ender fought for humanity, but he is now reviled as a ruthless assassin. No longer allowed to live on Earth, he enters into exile. With his sister Valentine, he chooses to leave the only home he’s ever known to begin a relativistic—and revelatory—journey beyond the stars.
What happened during the years between Ender’s Game and Speaker for the Dead? What did Ender go through from the ages of 12 through 35? The story of those years has never been told. Taking place 3000 years before Ender finally receives his chance at redemption in Speaker for the Dead, this is the long-lost story of Ender.
For twenty-three years, millions of readers have wondered and now they will receive the answers. Ender in Exile is Orson Scott Card’s moving return to all the action and the adventure, the profound exploration of war and society, and the characters one never forgot.
On one of these ships, there is a baby that just may share the same special gifts as Ender’s old friend Bean…
Reviews with the most likes.
Set immediately after the events of Ender's Game, this sequel narrates Ender's life following the end of the Bugger War. The story deals primarily with the guilt that Ender feels as a result of having killed two boys while at Battle School, and the unknowing xenocide of an entire species.
Ender sacrifices his reputation by revealing the deaths of Bonzo and Stilson to the court martial, even though he is unable to understand why the buggers “let him win.” He travels out into the colonies to find an answer, and eventually lets himself be beaten up, partly to punish himself.
Orson Scott Card provides some further great lore on the wars during Peter's ascent to the Hegemony. I enjoyed the following up of many characters from Ender's Game, as well as the power the jeesh had on the new Earth. Insight into the way the colonies were created was also welcome.
I think this book falls down on the necessity of sticking with the previous timeline at the end of Ender's Game. Card's afterword notes that he is prone to making errors in continuity. The book suffers from spending a lot of time dealing with how Ender sees his parents and sister on his way to Shakespeare, and much less with his own redemption until the very end. Various plotlines on the ship appeared gratuitous to me - enjoyable to read, but not apparently necessary and diminishing from the “point” of the book.
Looking forward to exploring more of Ender's universe.
Not the greatest of books dealing with Ender Wiggin and those he's influenced. It is not a bad read and there is something to be said about reading it for three straight days to finish it but it just did not seem to be as captivating and eye opening as previous novels (especially those from the original four). There are moments when you come to a realization that seemed spectacular but it just didn't seem the same. There are interesting characters and moments but the greatest moments seemed to be when the narrative touched back to the original novel (Ender's Game) and saw those moments from a different perspective. If this book was meant to get one to wish to pick up that novel again then it did a great job at it. Now to find where I left my copy.
PS. What is this in the afterwood about altering a few things in the final chapters of “Ender's Game” to have it coincide more accurately with all other books and short stories. Even if it is just a name change on one page of a random colony, please, Mr. Card, don't begin to alter you books into “Special Editions” (a la Star Wars). Yes I am aware that revisions in novels have occurred since they were first invented. I just feel conflicted.
Whilst this is in the mainline Ender series, and contains a significant development for that storyline, on the whole this book is oddly placed. It feels like an epilogue to the first four books/ quadrilogy of the Shadow series, yet also spends a lot of time with characters who are only relevent for parts of this novella (Allesandra and her mother, starfleet captains and colony xenobiologists). This somewhat drags the reading excitement, although there is a clear throughline about Ender's emotional distance (from his family, friends, humanity) and suffering as he carries the weight of his actions from Ender's Game, and some solid world-building. A decent and almost fast read, I'm just not sure how to feel about Ender in Exile overall.
Series
6 primary books8 released booksEnder's Saga is a 8-book series with 6 primary works first released in 1985 with contributions by Orson Scott Card and Orson Scott Card.
Series
18 primary booksEnderverse: Publication Order is a 18-book series with 18 primary works first released in 1985 with contributions by Orson Scott Card, José María Rodelgo, and 3 others.
Series
16 primary books18 released booksThe Enderverse is a 17-book series with 16 primary works first released in 1985 with contributions by Orson Scott Card, Aaron Johnston, and 3 others.
