Ender in Exile

[keely_graesser]

So, who's read it? What did everyone think?

Personally I think the plot wasn't OSC's best but was still very engaging.  Overall the book felt to me like a family reunion of my favorite characters, so I was very pleased.  What's everyone else's thoughts?

Comments

[keely_graesser]

I fully agree about poor Ender's love life. Reading this book made me sad that he never got to have kids of his own and that he was - how old? thirties at least? forties? - before he ever found someone to love in Novinha.

As for Dorabella...people can do strange things when they've been abused themselves. I was sad to see that, by the end, she had not truly overcome the abuse as it seemed in the beginning. Sadly though, that tends to be human nature more often than not :( But yay for Alessandra ending up happy!

[kleenexcow]

I really enjoyed the book! I agree with you about the book being a reunion of old favorites. I love how he was able to tie everything in so nicely. It just fit. And how great were moments like when Petra and Ender were talking about what she was going to do when she got home--knowing as the reader that it was totally falseOne major quibble I had, however, was that scene between Sel and his female assistant--and really, the whole arranged-marriages thing on Shakespeare in general--was so useless. The woman is never mentioned so we can presume she died sometime during that period. That’s one of only two scenes that take place on the colony in the forty years before Ender’s arrival, and by the time that Ender gets to the colony, they’re back to normal ratios. It doesn’t affect anything at all and was so...passionateless, since she just wanted to sleep with him for his genes, and he was able to completely refuse her. IDK, I love Orson Scott Card A TON, but the weird thing he has for marriage/love/sex being just about breeding always puts

[keely_graesser]

I think the Petra and Ender scene was actually my favorite. And it broke my heart when he told her he loved her and she didn't believe him!

I agree with you about that scene with Sel. I, oddly enough, fell asleep last night thinking about that and how we never heard about the girl again. I think the scene was meant to show you Sel's character but you got more of that from his interactions with the first governor and then Po.

As for the breeding issue OSC has (which I think stems from his Mormonism but I'm not sure) it REALLY screams at you in the latter Homecoming books. Dunno if you've read those or not, they're good if you can get around some of OSC's obvious social beliefs thrown in.

[hanakomatsuki]

I read Ender in Exile the night that I got it, staying up late to read it. I looked forward to finding out about those "lost years" before Speaker, which was my favorite book until this one took its place.

In Exile, Ender read like Ender, in that he was the perfect mix between the character he was in Game and who he will become in Speaker. That was definitely my favorite part of the book, that Card still had a handle on this character who I've come to know as a real person.

Unfortunately, this book seemed to want to cover a lot in terms of plot. The plot of the space ship, what happens on the colony worlds before and after Ender arrives on each one, the Hive Queen being known as a book with power, and the near-end of Petra's story. (There might be other things that I've missed. Only read the book once and am slowly going through it again a second time.) Some parts that I wanted to see expanded on, like Ender's time on Ganges which was said to be the main plot of the book. Yet, the story of the book is still on of my favorites

[keely_graesser]

I agree that the Ender character was perfectly portrayed here! One of my favorite things about this book was being able to truly see events from Ender's eyes - especially when he spoke to Peter to write Hegemon.

I, too, wanted more time spent on Ganges and felt that it was almost tacked on. I was also disappointed that many of the chapters were exact replicas of the short stories that OSC had released in IGMS, which I'd paid $2.50 an issue just to read. I think nearly a 1/4 of the book was that. I didn't mind terribly though because I tend to re-read the Ender books anyway, but I was surprised such a large portion was that way.

I agree with you about the plot too. If someone asked me what this book was about I think I'd be at a loss to describe it simply. I'd probably have to say just: "people".