I’ve been a big fan of Orson Scott Card’s Ender series since I read it a few years ago. Ender’s Game is just brilliant storytelling, and Speaker for the Dead is equally good, perhaps even better themes and story woven through it. So when I saw Ender In Exile on the library shelf, it was a no-brainer to pick it up.

Ender In Exile is not a book you would want to pick up and read as a stand-alone story without having at least read Ender’s Game first. EIE takes place somewhere in between two of the final chapters of Ender’s Game, telling the story of the teenaged Ender Wiggin. Once he had defeated humanity’s mortal enemies and then had his reputation dragged through the mud in court martial, he then travels off to become the governor of a colony on another planet. A good bit of the story is told in the form of emails exchanged between Ender, his parents, his siblings Valentine and Peter, and Ender’s former military commander. Ender manipulates situations with seeming effortlessness, always nobly wanting the good and right thing.

EIE will be interesting to you if you’ve read and enjoyed the other books in the Ender series. If not, I’d probably stay away from it, and would recommend Ender’s Game instead as a good introduction to Card’s work. I think it’s time that OSC come up with a new story and series.

[You can purchase Ender’s Game and Ender In Exile from Amazon.com.]