Ender in Exile

September 29, 2008
Set between Card's Hugo and Nebula–winning Ender's Game
(1985) and Speaker for the Dead
(1986), this philosophical novel covers familiar events, but puts new emphasis on their ethical ramifications. In the wake of his victory over the alien Formics, 12-year-old military genius Ender Wiggins is hailed as a hero, but governments opposed to the International Fleet, which trained him, intend to portray him as a monster. Ender winds up as titular governor of one of the new human colonies, where he struggles to adapt to civilian life and ponders his role in the deaths of thousands of humans and an entire alien species. His agonized musings aren't always sophisticated but possess a certain gravitas. Fans will find this offering illuminating, and it's also accessible to thoughtful readers new to the series.

November 15, 2008
The war against the insectoid formic aliens is over, the definitive battle won by 13-year-old Ender Wiggin through virtual technology and real-time game simulation. Now "Admiral" Wiggin has no home. Though called the Savior of the Earth, he is also a boy responsible for the genocide of an entire race of beings. Instead of living in protected isolation, Ender decides to travel colonized space accompanied by his sister Valentine and an artificial intelligence that would one day be known as Jane. Returning to one of his most popular series, Card fills in the gap between the original award-winning "Ender's Game" and its sequels, taking up Ender's story immediately after the war's end. Series fans will enjoy this thoughtful take on the life of a young man who has already accomplished his destiny.

Copyright 2008 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 1, 2009
Adult/High School-Here is Card's answer to all those readers who asked, "What happened to Ender?" between "Ender's Game" (1985) and "Speaker for the Dead" (1986, both Tor), a gap that covers nearly 3000 years. Twelve-year-old Ender Wiggin should be coming home to a hero's welcome after wiping out the dreaded buggersaliens who have twice defeated humanity in the pastin a fierce space battle. He is instead proclaimed a dangerous weapon and appointed titular governor of a colony world to keep him as far away from Earth as possible. His beloved sister Valentine joins him on the colony ship but is unable to penetrate the barriers he has erected around himself. Wracked with remorse at his genocide of the buggers, Ender searches for the reason the aliens allowed him to defeat them, knowing the answer will give him direction. As in most great speculative fiction, Card mines the depths of humanity's philosophical and political ideas through Ender's trials and discoveries. "Exile" brings together many drifting story lines from a number of other books in the series, so it's not for the uninitiated. For those who are familiar with Ender and his world, this is a wonderful treat to be devoured whole in a gulp and then returned to later to digest at leisure."Charli Osborne, Oxford Public Library, MI"

Copyright 2009 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.