I am a big fan of Orson Scott Card’s writing*. I’ve been especially a fan of the Ender series (both the Game and Shadow cycles).
So with great excitement I got Ender In Exile the latest in this long, ongoing series. It’s set between Ender’s Game and Speaker for the Dead or so it claims. I’ll get back to that. Alone, the book is pretty dry, definitely not very interesting. It’s short compared to the other tomes — about half the size. He had nothing to say, I guess, though that’s not the conclusion because it was short, but because nothing happens. I read the whole book and I can’t answer the question as to WHY he wrote it? What purpose did it serve? We learn almost nothing new about any major character, nor does it shed anything new about the Enderverse. I just can’t see why he wrote it except to milk more money out of the series. He’s done a Robert Jordan and I am mightily
peeved.
The fact that once I start a book I read it in between one and three days and this one was started 8 March and finished 19 March should clue you in is to how riveting it was (not). It’s well written to be sure, but even so I cannot in good conscience actually recommend this book to anyone. If OSC and I were still in contact, I’d gladly tell him myself but it’s been nearly two decades.
It gets worse, though. In the acknowledgement at the end of this new book, he tells us it actually takes place between chapters 14 and 15 of Ender’s Game. He then goes on to apologize for the fact that there is some significant discrepancy between this new tome and the classic, legendary Ender’s Game. And here’s the kicker: future of volumes of Ender’s Game will have a newly re-written chapter 15. Yeah, he’s doing a George Lucas and just totally changing the original novel. FIE ON YOU MISTER CARD! FIE I SAY!
He’s also indicated that parts of Speaker For The Dead will also be re-written but I don’t much care because I can’t get past the first bit. Wow. This is revisionist history in a fictional world. Who knew?
PS: Liz have a safe trip to wherever you’re going. Congratulations on an absolutely stellar performance Barky at last night’s game. And a special thanks to Murph The Media Whore who gave us some great seats for the game last night: and I am mightily pleased your banner’s now got a victory going for it.
*Him not so much since he’s gone so extremist the past few years. But that’s neither here nor there. In previous reviews of his books, I had mentioned how he was getting more and more preachy.