Review: I first read Orson Scott Card’s most recognized novel, Ender’s Game, in my freshman year of high school, and immediately fell in love with it. It’s one novel that withstood the test of time when I read it again as an adult, as it was after all meant for an adult audience, despite the young characters. I eagerly read the rest of the series, but only Ender’s Shadow came close to recapturing characters I loved so much. I picked this up from my library with the hopes that a younger version of Ender would once again capture my imagination.
With Ender in Exile, we find Andrew (Ender) Wiggin, the boy whose brilliant military strategies saved the world from the alien Buggers, coming to terms with how he has caused the deaths of millions while thinking he was only playing a war game. The entire novel is neither a prequel nor a sequel, but another side by side companion that takes place between chapters 14 and 15 of the original Ender’s Game, and throughout the Shadow series. Card even wrote a new version of chapter 15, to be printed in subsequent editions to match this latest novel, which is an amazing addition to the Enderverse.
I loved seeing the evolution of Ender’s character before he became the sober Speaker for the Dead in the like-named second novel. In Exile, he’s still a teenager, but a brilliant one, full of guilt over all that he’s done and a need to understand the enemy he thought he exterminated. But the emotions in the book aren’t overdone; rather, they’re coupled with a hint of the spirit of the boy he used to be as he innocently conspires to keep his position as governor over an Admiral who would use him as a pawn. I couldn’t help but rub my hands with glee at that part, though there are also a few touching moments that remind the reader that despite his maturity, he’s still a teenage boy. A more final ending to the Shadow series also plays out here, and though it feels more like a short story added on to the ending instead of part of a full novel. But you won’t hear me complaining.
Card has once again mastered the character of young Ender, and this fully fleshed out version of his early travels will definitely be satisfying reading for anyone who was a fan of the original.
Thanks go to M. J. Corley for this amazing review and I hope to be reading more from this reviewer soon. Thanks
Publisher: Published November 11th 2008 by Tor Books (first published January 10th 2005)
Copyright: 2005
Pages: 380
ISBN: 9780765304964
Quick Review: 4 Stars out of 5.
Where I got the book: At my local library.
Why Did I read this Book: I’ve loved this series since I read the first.
Synopsis: 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…
Author Biography: Orson Scott Card is the author of the novels Ender's Game, Ender's Shadow, and Speaker for the Dead, which are widely read by adults and younger readers, and are increasingly used in schools.
Besides these and other science fiction novels, Card writes contemporary fantasy (Magic Street, Enchantment, Lost Boys), biblical novels (Stone Tables, Rachel and Leah), the American frontier fantasy series The Tales of Alvin Maker (beginning with Seventh Son), poetry (An Open Book), and many plays and scripts.
Card was born in Washington and grew up in California, Arizona, and Utah. He served a mission for the LDS Church in Brazil in the early 1970s. Besides his writing, he teaches occasional classes and workshops and directs plays. He recently began a longterm position as a professor of writing and literature at Southern Virginia University.
Card currently lives in Greensboro, North Carolina, with his wife, Kristine Allen Card, and their youngest child, Zina Margaret.
FYI: The Movie Trailer for Ender's Game.
Great review, sounds like a very interesting book.
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I have read Ender's game and Enders shadow, but not speaker for the dead or Ender in Exile. I just love the way Orson Scott Card writes! I bet this is a good book to put on my list.
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