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A review by cinnamonwhirl
Ender in Exile by Orson Scott Card
3.0
I have mixed feelings towards this book. Not as good as Speaker which in turn was not as good as EG but certainly bridges the gap well between the two and shows us how Ender matured and became more the man we meet in Speaker.
Having only read EG and Speaker I do feel most of the second half of the book was lost on me and I regret not reading the rest of the books first. Now I shall have to find and read them all then re-read Exile over again (or at least the second half!).
To those who complain that Ender is too so-calledly perfect throughout these books it's worth remembering that was the whole point set out in EG. He was effectively bred that way and of course that makes him harder to relate to that's why as a character he is held apart from everyone be it self inflicted or no.
However what I did not enjoy was the removal at least at the beginning of any choice that female colonists should have had by right to abstain from being made into baby factories. certain aspects of the novel such as this coupled with characterisation of most female characters made what should be a forward thinking sci-fi futuristic novel into a kind of 1700s prairies-in-space kind of feel complete with ideology. also no thought seemed to have been given in the slightest that while the gender statistics were equal (which are scientifically never 50/50!) that not all of the population are heterosexual anyway? I understand that it's a work of fiction but for someone to make such oversights and assumptions in this day and age leaves me astounded and quite disappointed in an otherwise talented author. That said speaker was not much different on that front either.
Having only read EG and Speaker I do feel most of the second half of the book was lost on me and I regret not reading the rest of the books first. Now I shall have to find and read them all then re-read Exile over again (or at least the second half!).
To those who complain that Ender is too so-calledly perfect throughout these books it's worth remembering that was the whole point set out in EG. He was effectively bred that way and of course that makes him harder to relate to that's why as a character he is held apart from everyone be it self inflicted or no.
However what I did not enjoy was the removal at least at the beginning of any choice that female colonists should have had by right to abstain from being made into baby factories. certain aspects of the novel such as this coupled with characterisation of most female characters made what should be a forward thinking sci-fi futuristic novel into a kind of 1700s prairies-in-space kind of feel complete with ideology. also no thought seemed to have been given in the slightest that while the gender statistics were equal (which are scientifically never 50/50!) that not all of the population are heterosexual anyway? I understand that it's a work of fiction but for someone to make such oversights and assumptions in this day and age leaves me astounded and quite disappointed in an otherwise talented author. That said speaker was not much different on that front either.