Ender in Exile (The Ender Saga, 5)

Amazon sort of has this sequenced wrong as they show it as book 5 of 6. But in publisher's note it is called the direct sequel and they provide a proper reading order for the Ender's Game series and the Ender's Shadow series. I realized when reading Xenocide I was missing some background facts. This book covers what immediately happens after the end of the Formic wars. Covers the beginning of peace and the beginning of colonization. It's full of transition from war focus to Ender's philosophical leaning.

Good Reed except for occasional subplot boredom Some of the supplies are necessary, but others just add to the volume of reading

Having read the rest of the Ender series and the Ender's Shadow series, I rank Orson Scott Card as one of the top writers of the late 20th century. Often, science fiction can become either too concentrated on the plotlines, a realization of teenage male power and sexual fantasies, or so immersed in the "technology" of the setting that the characteriza-tion takes a back seat. In Card's writing, there is a perfect balance of plot development and characterization. As opposed to popular genre fiction which focuses mainly on the plot (genre is the kind of plot), Card's work has the literary merits of Dostoyevski's Brother's Karamazov in his portrayal of the existential angst created by overly intelligent young people used as pawns by those who (except for Colonel Graff) usually don't deserve their power and influence making them clownish. But, Card's writing also has the allure of popular cultural iconography such as Star Wars in the setting, plot, and many of the concepts. In another time, Orson Scott Card would have been the Dostoyevski or the Alexander Pope excelling in whatever the mode of the time may have been. His characters do not exist to serve the plot--the reverse is actually true. And truly, in the post-modern age where the consumers of art are more interested in reality-based psychologically realistic "high art" productions, Card's own genius serves to portray the genius of his characters with incredible alacrity and insight. Do yourself a favor, buy everything Orson Scott Card has ever written--then read it all.

The Ender’s Game series was a beautifully and intelligently done series and I’m thankful I got to read it after all the books were released so there was no waiting. I read all five books in less than a month. I’m honestly a little nervous that any other science fiction books won’t measure up – that I won’t enjoy them as much as I enjoyed Ender’s Game – because I didn’t necessarily enjoy Ender’s Game for the science, although I did appreciate the heck out of it. Not only does OSC invent species, but he puts in the work to do so. The pequeninos have a completely unique method of reproduction and even death. The descolada have a completely unique method of communication. In fact, the pequeninos and the buggers each and also have their own means of communications, completely unheard of within the human species. DNA is a different thing in an alien species – able to adapt and change and send messages. I have heard a couple criticisms of the sci fi genre – that alien species aren’t different enough, aren’t varied enough, aren’t thought-out enough. OSC builds the crap out of his world. I buy it and I learn from it and it speaks to my human exprience – and yours I’m willing to bet. I can’t imagine that many other works of sci fi will live up to my now-high expectations. Of course that’s not fair and of course I’ll try. Especially armed with the recommendations of readers much more sci fi familiar than myself.

Mr. Card is great with writing politics, wars, and histories, and he has the charm to make people believe he knows everything and everything he wrote is how the real world has worked. The successful Enderverse has long gone into the sewer, and maybe less than a handful of books in the series are actually readable. Ender's Game, of course, is a classic and wonderful; Speaker of the Dead and Ender's Shadow are equally great; Xenocide is alright and quite emotional; however, the rest of the Ender's Shadow series and Ender in Exile went south and will never come back. The first quarter of the book is filled with excitement, and many Ender's fans like me crave for more fillers between Ender's Game and Speaker of the Dead. Finally, this installment should be a proper read to tie some left over loose ends, but tying loose ends is all this book ever has done. After Ender and Val take off on the ship with Morgan, the story starts to become extremely dreadful. Then, here we come, the mother with all the plots, and the daughter so smart and so naive. The voyage to Shakespeare takes 2 years in space and 40 years or so of Earth time, and to me, as a reader, I hope I have gone to stasis. The confrontation between Achilles/Randall/Arkanian whatever his name really is and Ender during the very last few chapters of the book somewhat brings back some excitement, but all of a sudden, Achilles/Randall/Arkanian whatever his name really is believes Ender that his real father and mother are who have been accused of murdering his fake father by his surrogate mother, despite that he has beaten Ender up like a stray dog, and voila, everything goes back to be all bubbly wonderful. Back to those loose ends, the book merely provided a back story of why Ender wrote the Hive Queen and how it got distributed and believed by most living humans. During the process, Mr. Card even tried so hard to bring up some deep and cheesy conversations between characters, but they only sounded cheesy.

A very good book if you enjoyed the Ender series. It was very nice to read about what happens to Ender before he transforms into Speaker for the Dead, and Card does an excellent job of explaining how an 11 year old boy could be named governor and then actually become one more in name. The only thing I found disappointing about it was that once again Valentine was pushed far from the spotlight. I realize that was not the point of the book, so it wasn't a great disappointment, but I would have liked a little more Val. That being said, it is a great book although you will have to have read Ender's game for it to make any sense. In addition, if you've read the Bean saga, this will fill in some more blanks. If you haven't there will be some parts that will make you scratch you head. All in all, another great Ender book from Card.

This book is more properly considered part of the Ender's Shadow series, rather than a sequel to Ender's Game. It is stylistically like the Shadow series, features many of the same characters, and ties up loose ends from those books. Card has found a clever way to do that, while centering the story on Ender and Valentine. Readers of Ender's Game will recall that Ender and Valentine left on the first colony ship because there were some good reasons Ender could not return to Earth. This book picks up just before that voyage begins. However, that voyage takes decades because of time dilation. So the events of the Ender's Shadow series all unfold during the voyage. That allows a different slant on those happenings, while also resolving much of what happened to Ender during that period. Ender still has some life issues to face, and this novel shows us how he faces them. I don't recommend this as anyone's introduction to the world of Ender. Read Ender's Game for sure before this. I'd also recommend at least the first couple of books of the Ender's Shadow series as prerequisites. The more of the series you've read the better you'll lke this, though I don't think you needed to read all the way through that series to enjoy this book. (By the way, it's unnecessary to read Speaker for the Dead and its sequels. They take place later in the timeline and you won't suffer any loss of enjoyment if you have not read them.) However, if you liked Ender's Game and want to know what happened to Ender as a teen in more detail, this is the story for you. And if you felt there was one major loose end at the end of Shadow of the Giant, you're right and that loose end plays into the story as well. I was pleased because the sequels to Ender's Game (Speaker for the Dead, etc.) really didn't give me a satisfying view of Ender's character. I concluded at the end of that series that Card really didn't like Ender that much, based on the life he lived in those novels. Perhaps I was mistaken, or perhaps Ender has grown on Card over the years, because the tone of Ender as a character is completely different here than in those books. There are some minor inconsistencies in this story and the other books and stories in the series. Card details these in the Afterword. The biggest conflict is with the story where the computer character Jane is introduced, which was in the collection First Meetings in Ender's Universe . For me these inconsistencies did not get in the way of the story. If you have read and liked just about any of the Ender books before, you'll definitely want to get this one to complete some disparate storylines. If you're like me, you'll read it fast. It just came today; I finished it before bedtime and felt motivated to write this review right away.

I read this in college and was blown away, not by anything sci-fi related (although it certainly is very well-written story), but by the moral example of multiple male characters in how to treat women well and honor chastity as an intrinsic good. I already believed in sexual integrity because my parents raised me right. But it is so rare to see it portrayed compellingly in fiction in any setting more recent than Regency Britain or more earnest and realistic than a Hallmark lite drama. As a 20-something I was genuinely _excited_ to see well-formed characters living out how I felt about virtue and true, selfless friendship with the opposite sex. It brought me to tears. It gave me further confidence to do right by women during my single years. It left such a deep impression on me that 18 years later, I have repurchased the book so that my teenage sons can read it. Orson Scott Card has depicted such championing of chastity in other works such as _Enchantment_ (the honeymoon) and _Pastwatch_ (a conversation between two scientists). Even while Card’s fiction sometimes crosses lines that I would not, when depicting misdeeds too ribaldly, you can tell it’s done ultimately with the purpose of highlighting the good by contrast. It’s one of my favorite things about his fiction.

Just finished reading this book. How does this man come up with such incredible stories? Just about to start the next book. It's lucky I have a Kindle as I can get the next book in seconds. Keep them coming pleaxe.

on ne peut en sortir. J'adore. Finalement pas forcément besoin de lire la série dans l'ordre. A recommander à tous

An excellently well written book, like all of OSC's books. Unfortunately I found myself disliking Ender somewhat towards the end of the book. His treatment of his parents was rude. John-Paul and Theresa used to write to him all the time in Battle School, sure Graff never forwarded the letters but he found out after he defeated the Formics. Yet he never responded, then all of a sudden he gets upset because they stopped writing to him and therefore didn't write to them for 50 years? Lame.

Las esquinas superiores venían un poco deterioradas pero con lo que me costó encontrarlo en inglés…..

Das Buch schließt direkt an "Enders Game" an. Das zwölfjährige militärische Genie Andrew Wiggin (Ender) hat gerade die "Buggers" (auch "Formics" genannt) besiegt und gilt als Retter der Menschheit. Dennoch kann er nicht zur Erde zurückkehren, denn rasch wird klar, dass ihn auf der zerstrittenen Erde unvermeidlich eine Karriere als neuer "Napoleon" oder schlimmeres erwarten würde. Wie in der Shadow-Reihe beschrieben, bleibt es seinem älteren Bruder Peter Wiggin vorbehalten, die Menschheit politisch zu einen. Ender selbst begibt sich an Bord eines Kolonieschiffes auf eine relativistische Weltraumreise. Auch hier spielen Ambitionen auf die politische Macht in der angeflogenen Kolonie eine zentrale Rolle. Gegen seinen Willen sieht sich Ender veranlasst, in die Ereignisse einzugreifen. Dabei besteht die eigentliche Herausforderung für ihn darin, die anstehenden Probleme unblutig zu lösen. Da die Ereignisse um "Enders Shadow" innerhalb der Zeit des relativistischen Raumfluges stattfinden, ist "Ender in Exile" zugleich eine Fortsetzung der "Shadow-Reihe". Von den zwei losen Fäden, die am Ende von jener Reihe offen waren, wird einer vollständig gelöst. Der andere - nämlich das weitere Schicksal von Julian Delphiki - bleibt weiterhin offen. Ob Card sich noch einmal mit dieser interessanten Figur befassen wird oder es lieber bei einem offenen Ende belassen wird, ist schwer zu sagen. Eine Begegnung zwischen Julian und Ender irgendwo da draußen in den unendlichen Weiten von Zeit und Raum wäre zumindest reizvoll ... Alles in allem hat Card mit "Ender in Exile" DIE Fortsetzung von Enders Game geschrieben bzw. ein wichtiges Bindeglied zwischen "Enders Game" und "Speaker for the Dead" geschaffen. Es wäre auch noch Platz für weitere Bücher. Und am Ende wünscht man sich eigentlich auch, noch mehr von Ender und überhaupt das "Enderverse" zu erfahren. Fünf Sterne ohne wenn und aber. Zumal Card auf dem Teppich bleibt und ein Abgleiten ins esoterische - wie leider in "Xenocide" und "Children of Mind" geschehen - konsequent vermeidet. Sehr eindrücklich ist auch die Schilderung einer unvermeidlichen Folge relativistischer Raumflüge: Am Ende jeder Reise erfährt man jeweils von den zurückgeblieben Freunden und Verwandten, die inzwischen verstorben sind oder doch zumindest einen Großteil ihres Lebens gelebt haben, während man sich selbst kaum verändert hat. Selten ist das in der Science Fiction so menschlich nachvollziehbar erzählt worden.