SpookyMonkey's Full Review: Orson Scott Card - Ender in Exile
Returning with another complaint, I see. I'm less than happy with my choice of reading material lately. Rather than blame others, which would be wholly irresponsible of me, I'm blaming everyone else from Orson Scott Card, Books-A-Million, Big Oil and Little Oil?
Little Oil? Comes in those plastic bottles, goes well on salad. They've got a hand in this, probably involving anchovies.
Right. Memory serves me incompletely these days, but I do believe I've written a review or two in praise of Orson Scott Card's works. Maybe I haven't. Most likely, I intended to, sat down to do it, said 'bugger it' and went out for a beer. The message here is that the intent existed and that's nine-tenths of the law.
I see your sabbatical has done nothing to repair the faulty wiring of the logical parts of your brain. No, but I fixed the toaster. It can now accomodate frozen steaks.
So let's get back to book business, shall we? Yes, let us. Ender in Exile is presented to us as an afterthought into the Ender saga. On a time line in the Enderverse, it occupies a series of points after <i>Ender's Game</i> and the destruction of the buggers...
SPOILER! I know, deal with it. Anyway, after Ender's Game and before Speaker for the Dead, ending shortly before Ender's arrival on Lusitania. It provides an account of the aftermath of the Bugger's destruction, the return of Ender and the armies to their respective homelands and the complexities of the consequences that are sprawned from within.
So what's the deal? Perhaps, like Card's later novels, he's set the bar far too high Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead. Both won Hugo Awards - and in consecutive years. I first take some exception for Card's need to add filler in between. The novels stood alone as complete. Should a revisiting of such subject material have an equally high bar of comparison? You bet your shiny bollocks it should.
The great thing about Card is that he had a brilliant knack for presenting the brilliance of children. Many novelists of the time and even today like to undermine the intelligence and capability of young children, dismissing their potential. Card isn't afraid to present youths as highly capable and equally destructive as their grown counterparts. Ender is calculating, humble, compassionate and driven.
And the novel presents him contrarily? The novel has a hard time dealing with the natural progression of Ender into adulthood. Reading about him bumble through puberty in the most rigid of ways is not only wholly unbelievable, but not enjoyable to read. Perhaps I just want to see him, for a lack of better terminology, screw it all up and act like a child rather than coolly wit his way through everything.
I doubt there is a natural way to show Ender in a time of his life where he is growing and developing because he either eliminated that stage of his life in early childhood or would have to do so in such a colossal way that it might disrupt the storylines of the sequels.
Excuse me, but I think your Schadenfraude is showing. It's okay, I wore boxers today. Maybe that's true though. Even the change of tone feels unnatural and constructed - again a result of knowing how the story will end. I got the feeling that the book was an attempt at purging some of Card's writer's guilt for leaving so much explained. And I think that the guilt is unneccessary.
You've got some brass on you for criticizing the motives of a multi-million published author. Dan Brown is welcome to bow down to the Altar of Monkey any time he wants to as well. He sucks.
I'll agree with you on that. Ender as a philanthropist is the natural ending to the story, but even slight changes in perspective (referral of the Buggers as Formics) and the bug-hugging apologist he turns into feels overplayed and underrewarded.
So, overall, you hated the entire book. No, not at all. I felt that there was not enough intention paid to the minor characters. We are given a couple of chapter's worth of material to cover how the characters who returned to earth deal with the lifestyle adjustment, hardly any attention at all to the content of the Hive Queen and Hegemon (the books written about the buggers and Peter, Ender's brother, respectively) - more dealing with the political aspects and red tape of the colonization of the outworlds - presented at the beginning of most chapters through a series of email transmissions.
So where does the book leave you? Mostly gassy. Disappointed. Inadequate. A little bit hungry. I think some things are better left unexplained and others would be better left explained properly. And then again, some things really aren't that important. But there was a lot of talking. And a lot of feeling. Some hugging. Not enough exploding.
That's morally reprehensible. I know. I want my books to have huge explosions. And less cuddling. Especially with Ender the bloody Xenocide. I'd better see gratuitous splattering and giblet rainstorms.
Worth the buy? Perhaps someone with a greater perpective and appreciation for the Enderverse outside of the first four books of the saga will enjoy this. But coming from a person who recently read and highly enjoyed his short fiction <i>Maps in a Mirror</i>, I know Card is a highly capable writer and a brilliant conceptualist. This book is just lacking.
Go back to your beer. I shall. Close the door on your way out.
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...More at HotBookSale
At the close of Ender s Game, Andrew Wiggin--called Ender--is told that he can no longer live on Earth. The 12-year-old chooses to leave his home worl...More at Buy.com
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.