Ender in Exile by Orson Scott Card (Book review)

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 1^st 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 1^st & 2^nd 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