Ender in Exile by Orson Scott Card

Read the full review here

Ender in Exile by Orson Scott Card is the ninth book in the Ender series. Chronologically it fits between Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead, but to understand its content you will want to have read the entire Shadow series, the spin off of Ender's Game that follows Julian Delphiki (Bean).

I was afraid, picking this book up twelve years after having read Ender's Game, that I would be disinterested in returning to this part of Ender's life. I thought I would be lost and confused, forgetting important plot points.

I was very wrong. It was more like a reunion with long lost but never forgotten friends. I immediately recognized the banter between Peter and Valentine, between Petra and Ender, and I loved it. I fell in love with the characters all over again, and all they needed to do was show up.

I loved this novel. I love the depth Card gives his characers. And I love the deep, intellectual jabs Card includes that would be so easy to just look over if you don't get them. Things like a verbal exchange where Ender is referred to as a knot and says he is a Gordian Knot, to just cut. References to Shakespeare's The Tempest tickled me, a joke about Caliban made me lol.

In the end, this book was a stunning reminder of why Card is my favorite author.

5 of 5 stars