Ender in Exile [Mass Market Paperback]

 

 

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Where did Ender disappear to after he saved planet Earth from the formics? What happened to Peter and his bid for world domination, to Valentine in Peter's shadow, and to the human race and its government between ENDER'S GAME and SPEAKER FOR THE DEAD?

Finally, Orson Scott Card provides the missing story in the ENDER series that readers have been waiting for! Card writes with his characteristic straightforward style that, though simple, belies the hidden ethical dilemmas presented to the characters every step of the way. And through it all, the story is as gripping as ENDER'S GAME and will keep you up all night until you reach the book's AWESOME conclusion.

Having saved the world from a race of super intelligent and ruthless fighting formics, Ender is exiled to the far reaches of space under the pretension of governing and developing a new colony for humans on a new planet. As always, the government plays an underhanded game in sending him off and all his doings, as Earth and its countries are still at war and unsettled after Ender and the other children of his Battle School won the war. Seen as "Earth's most deadly weapon," Ender soon guesses he will never return to Earth, his family, or any semblance of the life he once knew.

Instead, he begins to research his new obsession, the formic race he destroyed. The new colony he is going to is built on an old formic planet, so Ender goes willingly into hyperspace, aging only two years while everyone on Earth ages forty years. Valentine escapes the plans of Peter on Earth to join Ender in space and secretly, Ender is relieved to have someone he can trust. While Ender indulges in every spec of information on the formics and on the people of his new colony, Valentine waits patiently for Ender to confide his new plans to her while also beginning a series of historical novels on Ender, Battle School, and the Earth wars.

Upon landing on the new colony planet, Ender is hailed as a hero and a welcome source of leadership. He is also confronted with the best discovery he could have asked for - a species of creatures is found deep in a cave, hybrids between formics and a native creature. This is the closest Ender or anyone else has come to studying the actual formics themselves! Through his mental and telepathic communications with these creatures, Ender learns more than he could hope for about the planet and the formics history.

One day, Ender and a native person named Abra go off to explore the planet to find a location for a new colony. On this adventure, Ender discovers the answer to the question he has silently asked himself since he found out the game he played was really a war - "Why did you [the hive queens] let me kill you?"

The truth is more exciting than I can spoil for anyone who has breathlessly awaited this novel.

As always, Orson Scott Card intertwines the story of emerging governments, political struggle, and personal and moral dilemmas as the story of Ender unfolds. Kudos to him for not only continuing a series for over twenty books, but for doing so with inventiveness, brilliant writing, and a compelling story.

Reviewed by: Erikka Adams, aka "The Bookbinder"

Excluding "War of Gifts" and "First Meetings", this is really the ninth book in the Ender's Game series. This wraps up the entire series by solving some of the questions that we were plagued with at the end of both series', which include: "Where did Ender find the Hive Queen?" and "What happened to Bean's final embryo?" This book was written to detail what happened to Ender Wiggin, after he destroyed the "buggers" and saving the human race. This story details his adventures in exile.

The tale starts out on the colony ship, which is delivering Ender to "Shakespeare Colony" AKA "Colony I" where he is to become governor. However, the captain Quincy Morgan has other ideas. The captain has become hungry with power, and expects to lead the colony when the ship lands. He also has complete authority and power over Ender's future while on the ship, able to put Wiggin into stasis for the duration of the trip, a state of inactivity caused by opposing equal forces. While in space, time elapses more quickly than on earth, and Ender cannot waste any time in stasis when he needs to focus on getting to know his future colonists and dealing with world politics. After the ship lands and the citizens make it to Shakespeare colony, the rest of the book details the finding of the Hive Queen in addition to traveling to Ganges where the mystery of Bean's embryo is discovered.

I found this novel very dualistic, contrary to nearly all other Card novels. It seemed as though Card was distracted with all the details in the first half of the novel. It was evident that he was trying to make all the pieces fit without contradicting himself, and I think he neglected to focus enough on the story and instead plugged it with such things as a play within the novel on "The Taming of the Shrew," with his own characters playing lead roles. After the arrival at Shakespeare colony, it seemed like Card relaxed a little bit on the details and let the story flow a little more. At this point, the story told itself and couldn't help but get wrapped back up into the Ender universe.

The story is really about how a war veteran deals with the psychological aspects of post-war life. Ender was consumed with guilt for destroying the Bugger race, and he spent most of his time on the ship going through material on their lives. He was obsessed with the question "Why did they let me kill them?" The continued development of Ender Wiggin, not only in actions, but in thought processes is reason enough to read this novel. This novel became a pleasure because of it, and redeemed some of the poorer aspects of the story as a result.

Card repeatedly uses some offbeat humour that comes across as childish, in the novel. I understand his playfulness, but at times, it was uncalled for and not inkeeping with the story. At one point, Ender signed his name "Ended" in a note which was written "in case he died." It was a horrible attempt at humour, and was one of a handful of poorly placed quips. In addition, by the end of the novel I was really getting sick of Card's use of naming places, people and things. In addition to "Shakespeare Colony" and the character "Achilles", which were coined first in another book, he named an Italian family Toscanos - obviously a play on the Italian city of Tuscany. In addition, the town that this family came from was called "Monopoli." Is it just me, or does that come across as a playful but stupid?

In summary, this was ranked just better than "Shadow of the Hegemon" and "Xenocide" but worse than the other novels. While half of the story was boring and tedious, the story picked up after landing at Shakespeare Colony and the growing of Ender's intelligence. Some interesting insights into people and war rounded out the novel nicely and made it a good, if not impressive, read. Three stars.

Spudz
http://eclectic-indulgence.blogspot.com

At the age of twelve, Andrew "Ender" Wiggin saved all of humanity by winning a game. However, it never was just a game. Ender won a war by destroying all the "buggers". In the process, many died and young Ender must deal with the knowledge off all that has happened because of that. But often Ender's hind-sight keeps repeating the same question: Why? Why did the buggers and their Hive Queens, knowing Ender was coming to destroy them, remain where they were and allow themselves to be killed?

Had Ender gone back to Earth he would have been used as a weapon for his country or assassinated so he could never be used as such. Therefore, Ender becomes the nominal governor of a colony. The idea was for humans to colonize all the buggers' former worlds so that humanity's fate would not be tied to one planet. Valentine, Ender's sister, chooses to go with him. It is a forty year voyage by Earth's time. For those on the ship only two years will have passed due to the relativistic effects of near-lightspeed travel. Ender's primary hope is that he may find an answer to his question, "Why?"

**** The author, Orson Scott Card, lets readers see what happens after the war is won. The first section of the story shows why Ender has to leave and why Valentine goes too. The next section is the space travel with its share of troubles. Then comes the colony section, where Ender will find the answer to his nagging question in the form of "something" the buggers left behind. That item will give Ender the purpose his life seems to so desperately need. I make Ender's life sound so simple; however, it is anything but. Characters enjoyed during the original book (Ender's Game) make brief appearances and I, as the reader, am happy to see what becomes of them. The new characters are well developed and realistic. Nothing and no one came across to me as fake, though some parts of this story do seem a bit rushed to me.

Orson Scott Card is not only a masterful Science Fiction author. He is also talented at manipulating the minds of people and forcing them to do the one thing they seldom stop to do - THINK! ****

Reviewed by Detra Fitch of Huntress Reviews.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Tying it all together
Yet another sequel to the Ender Series, Ender in Exile ties all the books together in a well-written and entertaining storyline. Definitely a great read for any fan of the series.

Published on Mar 25 2010 by Nick

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic
Fantastic the whole way through. If the author were any one other then Card, lingering so long in one primary setting would have been dreary and boring, but here it's played so... Read more

Published on Dec 6 2008 by Ash

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