A review by dlberglund
Ender in Exile by Orson Scott Card
1.0
I nearly gave this book two stars, for I did care enough for the characters to make it to the end. Then I compared it to other books I had given two stars, and realized two was much too generous for my feelings toward this book. Large chunks were painful to get through, repetitive, poorly written, and just boring. I wish I had not chosen the audio book version, for while the voicing was fine, I was unable to skim or skip ahead with any confidence that I wouldn't miss any actual plot point.
Some background, as I understand it, in case you aren't well versed in the Ender universe. Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead were essentially written at the same time, feeding each other. Ender is the speaker for the dead, but that book skips to his solid adulthood. Decades after the books were written, and many (dozens?) of other books written as prequels and sequels and parallels...Mr. Card returns to those missing years in the life of Ender. We all want to know what happened, right?
What he wrote was an embarrassing mix of colony worlds, political and religious doctrine, fill in the blanks events or merge all of the other novels, and the occasional actual interesting piece of character development. I have long said that Ender's Game and Shadow are great novels, regardless of what you think of Card's personal views. This, however, is not. Long emails between characters serve as soapboxes for his personal views (worse, without actually moving forward the plot or characters). I would like to get my hands on an ebook copy just to do a word count on monogamy/monogamous. We get it already! One Man- One Woman! We can read the political bumper stickers between the lines. It is all just made worse because it is BORING.
There are a few scenes that are light and witty and smart. There are a few characters I would have liked to see more of (Sel, Abra, Dorabella), but many were tools.Valentine had real potential in the early parts, when she lived with her parents as a teenager. She too disappointed me as she just (by her own admission) lived Ender's life with him.
Sigh. A great disappointment, one that makes me unsure whether I can stomach any more of the series.
Some background, as I understand it, in case you aren't well versed in the Ender universe. Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead were essentially written at the same time, feeding each other. Ender is the speaker for the dead, but that book skips to his solid adulthood. Decades after the books were written, and many (dozens?) of other books written as prequels and sequels and parallels...Mr. Card returns to those missing years in the life of Ender. We all want to know what happened, right?
What he wrote was an embarrassing mix of colony worlds, political and religious doctrine, fill in the blanks events or merge all of the other novels, and the occasional actual interesting piece of character development. I have long said that Ender's Game and Shadow are great novels, regardless of what you think of Card's personal views. This, however, is not. Long emails between characters serve as soapboxes for his personal views (worse, without actually moving forward the plot or characters). I would like to get my hands on an ebook copy just to do a word count on monogamy/monogamous. We get it already! One Man- One Woman! We can read the political bumper stickers between the lines. It is all just made worse because it is BORING.
There are a few scenes that are light and witty and smart. There are a few characters I would have liked to see more of (Sel, Abra, Dorabella), but many were tools.Valentine had real potential in the early parts, when she lived with her parents as a teenager. She too disappointed me as she just (by her own admission) lived Ender's life with him.
Sigh. A great disappointment, one that makes me unsure whether I can stomach any more of the series.