The story of a boy, successfully trained to destroy a whole race, coming to terms with what he will do for the rest of his life and how he can live with himself.
(Source - SF reviews)
(I’ve struggled with writing a review about Orson Scott
Card’s work because of his political opinion and how vocal he is against Gay
Marriage and LGBT equality but I’ve decided to put that to one side and
concentrate on the book – I will however revisit the subject of the author and
LGBT issues in the future)
Written by Orson Scott Card in 2008, 13 years after his
first novel (Ender’s Game), Ender in Exile is an interesting novel, chronologically set
after Ender’s Game with 8 other novels in between. If you originally read Ender’s Game when it
was released and then subsequent novels you will have notice some
discrepancies. This has been solved as
the last chapter of Ender’s Game has been changed and Ender in Exile fixes the
gaps in plot between the 1st novel & Speaker for the Dead. Check at the end of my blog on chronology and
best way to read these books.
In Ender’s Game, Ender Wiggins, the boy prodigy, offspring
of super-intelligent parents was taken from his home and trained to be a
commander of an army and leader from the age of six. He wasn’t really to blame for the genocide of
a race, his teachers were, but he spends most of this book coming to terms with
his actions. The intertwining plots of
political intrigue, power-mad individuals & World domination are but a
backdrop to the struggle going on in Ender’s mind of coming to terms with what
he has done and what he will do for the rest of his life. Exiled from Earth, family & friends he
finds himself stuck on a colonising spaceship sent to follow-up a previous crew
that have begun colonising Shakespeare, a planet previously controlled by the “Buggers”
(aka the Formics that Ender destroyed). The topic of genocide and a "just" war is interesting and if the novel was read by a class of teens would provide for a great discussion point.
(Art work by Aaron Johnson - See his work here)
I really liked how time passes in the book, Card has come up
with an ingenious way of describing time-travel, whilst on the ship time
travels much slower than in reality, 2 years on the ship is somewhere between
35-40 years in reality. This helps
sew-up a major plot hole in the series as there were some crazy time-jumps
making Ender hundreds of years old in subsequent novels. I think there is still
one plot flaw – Ender’s power hungry brother – Peter Wiggins – dies in this
novel, but he is still in the other three novels in the Ender Quartet (see
below for chronology) but I will have to re-read the full Ender Quartet to be
100% sure. This time-space-travel theory
helps describe changes in culture and politics on both Earth & Shakespeare
(the planet being colonised) which would take several decades in reality and 20
novels, but for Ender this only take the two years on the ship so can be
accelerated.
Ultimately this book is a cop-out allowing Card to fix plot
mistakes he has previously made although I suppose the end product is still a
good read, it’s a pity Card just didn’t plan the saga properly in the first
place. JK Rowling always knew what was
going to happen throughout all the Harry Potter books and had extensive
character descriptions completed before even starting to actually write her
books. Of course...I suppose as a
stand-alone novel this doesn’t matter and the end justifies the means.
Over-all, it’s a good read and if you enjoyed either the
film or book of Ender’s Game then you should enjoy this. It’s certainly a welcome addition to the
Ender-verse and I’ve only recently found the series of graphic novels published
by Marvel so I will be checking them out soon. This book loses points because
it is not as compelling as the other novels and is really only a place-holder
in the Ender-verse with nothing exciting.
It doesn’t have the same appeal and is not as much a page turner as
other novels in the series. If you
didn’t read it you would miss nothing major from the Ender-verse.
Series description and order to read the books in:
Checking out the whole Ender-verse (i.e. the Universe of
Ender) you will find its becoming a little complicated. So, let’s break it down.
· Ender’s Game was released in 1985 with 3 further
titles following Ender’s story (Ender Quartet).
· The Beam Quartet followed, 4 book published
between 1991-2005. Bean & Ender went
to school together and the first book of each quartet is set during the same
time. A War of Gifts is also set at the
same time.
·
Other titles have then been added to the
Ender-verse. Shadows Alive will
purportedly tie together both strands of the Ender-verse
If you decide to embark on the journey that is the
“Ender-verse”, ignore the publication dates and consider there are two
distinct strands. Ender’s story and
others as follows:
Ender's
Story
|
Other's
Story
|
1.
Ender's Game (Ender Quartet 1)
|
|
2.
Ender's Shadow (Bean Quartet 1)
|
|
3.
A War of Gifts (Zeck)
|
|
4.
Children of the Fleet (Command School)
|
|
5.
Shadow of the Hegemon (Bean Quartet 2)
|
|
6.
Shadow Puppets (Bean Quartet 3)
|
|
7.
Shadow of the Giant (Bean Quartet 4)
|
|
8.
Ender in Exile
|
|
9.
Shadows in Flight (Beans Children)
|
|
10.
Speaker for the Dead (Ender Quartet 2)
|
|
11.
Xenocide (Ender Quartet 3)
|
|
12.
Children of the Mind (Ender Quartet 4)
|
|
13. Shadows Alive (not published yet)
|
Although Card professes that any of the novels are stand-alone I would advise reading one storyline at a time. Both storylines are really interesting but also different. For a more Sci-Fi fantasy, with an old style space opera feel stick to Ender’s story but if you like the political intrigue and strategy of attempted world domination stick with the storyline of Ender’s class mates.
(To confuse matters even further there are also 2 trilogies
of the 1st & 2nd Formic Wars, set chronologically
before Ender’s Game, but let’s not go there.)
In conclusion, if you enjoyed either the movie or book of
Ender’s game it is worth a read, particularly if you haven’t read the other
books in the series. However, due to
this novel only being a place-holder and plot fixer in the Ender-verse I give
it 6 out of 10 planets.
John The Captain Ryan
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