391 reviews for:

Ender in Exile

Orson Scott Card

3.73 AVERAGE


Basically, the series is beginning to drag on.

it answers a few questions, and unfortunately, I need to know the entire story. hoping the last four books aren't as repetitive.

The Ender's Game series is my all time favorite and Ender in Exile definitely does not disappoint. I think it was much needed to fill in some of the time between Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead as well as answering some questions left off in the Shadow series. I definitely recommend if you are into the Ender's Game series.

Happiness! I missed Ender. This was like candy.

i love the ender series. begining kinda tedious, but overall great book

I actually quite liked this one! I was a bit burnt out from the rest of the series, so I'm glad I gave it a break before starting. There was a definite nostalgia element and it was nice to get back to young Ender again. Also, pretty satisfying to have a lot of loose ends tied up.

This is the second time that I’ve accidentally re-read an Enderverse book. I got about halfway through and realized that I’ve read this before. I think I forgot about the story because the vast majority of the story is so forgettable. There are some important themes here about the relationships between parents and children, but overall this story spends way too much time getting to the last 20% where things actually get interesting. The funny thing is that the author’s afterword admits that the story was originally supposed to quickly progress to that portion of the story before he decided to extend the earlier part of the book. I wish he would have stuck with his original plan.

I’ve always enjoyed the ender prequels and the shadow series way more than the actual ender sequels. I know I’ll need to eventually reread some of them when the final entry comes out, but I’m not looking forward to it.
adventurous medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Really mid, kinda forgettable. I feel like OSC was just treading water at this point. 

far from being one of the best in this series/universe, but still had its potently emotional moments. the beginning and the end drag but the middle is typical (in a good way). the best part about the ender/bean books is that all the manipulating and outwitting seem organic and not cheap or for the sake of a "gotcha" moment; that wasn't always the case here but i still enjoyed the further characterization of ender in the end.

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.

A lot of fun getting way more backstory. After reading this, I went back and re-read Enders Game and fell in love with it all over again!