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Ender in Exile
by Orson Scott Card
Everyone hates this book, but I have only three issues with it:
Other than these things, honestly, I was happy.
I love Ender, and I love that he's the purest burdened savior empath, but also gets to be a snarky little jerk with Valentine. I wish there had been more of that, but I very much enjoyed the amount I was given. The contest between Ender and the power-hungry captain was fun to read, and, of course, Ender's inevitable victory. Honestly, I would straight up lose my mind to see Ender in full dress uniform just like the colonists did. I was interested in the new colony, its people, and their gradual discoveries about the Formics as well.
The latter half is the worse half, in my opinion. But it does make way more sense to me this time through, since I have read Shadow of the Giant now. Whew. I was very confused by Virlomi last time.
After having read this again, I do wish I could go on to the actual Ender sequel trilogy. Unfortunately, my foggy memories of reading the first bit of Speaker for the Dead years ago make me too afraid. I've gone this far into the extended Ender universe without ruining my love for Ender's Game itself, though, so it's probably inevitable. I'll make my way there eventually.
• The one breeding kink chapter. Like... why? The chapter had absolutely zero impact on the rest of the book, was narratively useless. But for some reason, we apparently HAVE to have at least ONE scene of a woman throwing herself at a super-smart man and begging to have his super-smart babies. Card needs to get over this kink, or at least confine it to his FetLife account and not his published writing.
• The subplot near the end with Bean's lost son just seemed extremely empty. You're telling me this kid is Bean-smart, has reached the age by which Bean had created order on the streets of Rotterdam, gone to school, defeated the Formics, helped Peter take over half the world, and started a family, and the best Achilles/Randall/Arkanian can do is write angry posts on the internet? Very strange. How did he not figure out by now that his mother's stories were all insane lies?
Also, the confrontation is just strange and anti-climactic. Why can't Achilles kill Ender? Because he's Bean and Petra's child? Last time I checked, they were both fully capable of killing people they considered to be their enemies. It just seems like Card's pernicious genetic determinism coming out again. If Achilles had had a son, would he have been genetically doomed to be a psychopath and a serial killer because "its in his genes"? This perspective is just plain wrong.
• Valentine was criminally underused. She was such a potent relationship for Ender in Ender's Game while not even actually present for most of the book; since she's actually HERE during this book, it just feels wrong to have her spend most of her time as a nearly offscreen presence. She only shows up really to misread Ender's actions and intentions and hastily accuse him of doing things he's not actually doing. This makes her look stupid, and is just a waste of her character. Isn't she a certified genius? Can't she give Ender credit for also being a certified genius?
Other than these things, honestly, I was happy.
I love Ender, and I love that he's the purest burdened savior empath, but also gets to be a snarky little jerk with Valentine. I wish there had been more of that, but I very much enjoyed the amount I was given. The contest between Ender and the power-hungry captain was fun to read, and, of course, Ender's inevitable victory. Honestly, I would straight up lose my mind to see Ender in full dress uniform just like the colonists did. I was interested in the new colony, its people, and their gradual discoveries about the Formics as well.
The latter half is the worse half, in my opinion. But it does make way more sense to me this time through, since I have read Shadow of the Giant now. Whew. I was very confused by Virlomi last time.
After having read this again, I do wish I could go on to the actual Ender sequel trilogy. Unfortunately, my foggy memories of reading the first bit of Speaker for the Dead years ago make me too afraid. I've gone this far into the extended Ender universe without ruining my love for Ender's Game itself, though, so it's probably inevitable. I'll make my way there eventually.