A review by niniane
Ender in Exile by Orson Scott Card
4.0
The writing is beautiful, of course. This book paints pictures of how a leader may be revered by others but feel great angst internally. It also shows hyper-competent people doing their best to solve challenges, which is always fascinating to read. I finished it in just a few sittings, and it is a page-turner, of course. One would expect no less from Orson Scott Card.
I rated it 4 instead of 5 stars for two reasons.
One problem I have is that Ender Wiggin always seemed a bit wooden to me. There are times that he makes jokes, and then my heart softens and I think he would be fun to be around. The scene in the book where he feels desire toward a young girl is the only time when he exhibits human weakness and the desire to do something selfish, and that was the moment that I liked him the most. Because he was the most human at that moment. The rest of the time, he's just being perfectly selfless and perfectly strategizing and perfectly responsible and perfect perfect perfect. Card writes pages about how Ender is adored by his whole jeesh, and I feel like a cynic because I (the reader) do not adore him! I would take Bean over Ender any second! At a certain moments of the Shadow series, my heart ached and I felt deep grief. When Ender suffered in this book, I just feel like "Eh." He's too perfect!
The other issue is that one third of the book is about the problem caused by another admiral. From all I can tell, this other admiral was arbitrarily chosen by Graff, and his weaknesses were known before he was selected. Why did Graff not foresee this and just send a different admiral to begin with? Two years of Ender's life was spent perfectly strategizing how to deal with this foolish admiral. Bah.
The book was riveting and entertaining, but for me, it pales in comparison to the Shadow series. Long live the Shadow series! May life extension occur and Orson Scott Card live to 150 years old, so that he can write 60 more sequels to the Shadow series! He can write a book to go between Shadow 4 and 5, and Shadow 3 and 4, and then rewrite Shadow 5 with a new ending (since he's said he doesn't care about consistency) and then write dozens more Shadow sequels.
I do like Ender. But I love Bean.
I rated it 4 instead of 5 stars for two reasons.
One problem I have is that Ender Wiggin always seemed a bit wooden to me. There are times that he makes jokes, and then my heart softens and I think he would be fun to be around. The scene in the book where he feels desire toward a young girl is the only time when he exhibits human weakness and the desire to do something selfish, and that was the moment that I liked him the most. Because he was the most human at that moment. The rest of the time, he's just being perfectly selfless and perfectly strategizing and perfectly responsible and perfect perfect perfect. Card writes pages about how Ender is adored by his whole jeesh, and I feel like a cynic because I (the reader) do not adore him! I would take Bean over Ender any second! At a certain moments of the Shadow series, my heart ached and I felt deep grief. When Ender suffered in this book, I just feel like "Eh." He's too perfect!
The other issue is that one third of the book is about the problem caused by another admiral. From all I can tell, this other admiral was arbitrarily chosen by Graff, and his weaknesses were known before he was selected. Why did Graff not foresee this and just send a different admiral to begin with? Two years of Ender's life was spent perfectly strategizing how to deal with this foolish admiral. Bah.
The book was riveting and entertaining, but for me, it pales in comparison to the Shadow series. Long live the Shadow series! May life extension occur and Orson Scott Card live to 150 years old, so that he can write 60 more sequels to the Shadow series! He can write a book to go between Shadow 4 and 5, and Shadow 3 and 4, and then rewrite Shadow 5 with a new ending (since he's said he doesn't care about consistency) and then write dozens more Shadow sequels.
I do like Ender. But I love Bean.