Ender in Exile

Last updated
Ender in Exile
OSCenderinexile.jpg
First edition
Author Orson Scott Card
Cover artist John Harris
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Series Ender's Game series
GenreScience fiction
Publisher Tor Books
Publication date
November 11, 2008
Media typePrint (hardback & paperback)
Pages465
ISBN 0-7653-0496-1
OCLC 223884539
813/.54 22
LC Class PS3553.A655 E498 2008
Preceded by Ender's Game
Shadow of the Giant  
Followed by Shadows in Flight  

Ender in Exile is a science fiction novel by American writer Orson Scott Card, part of the Ender's Game series, published on November 11, 2008. It takes place between the two award-winning novels Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead . [1] It could also be considered a parallel novel to the first three sequels in the Shadow Saga, since the entirety of this trilogy takes place in the span of Ender in Exile. The novel concludes a dangling story line of the Shadow Saga, while it makes several references to events that take place during the Shadow Saga. From yet another perspective, the novel expands (or replaces) the last chapter of the original novel Ender's Game . [2] On the one hand, it fills the gap right before the last chapter, and on the other hand, it fills the gap between the last chapter and the original (first) sequel (both named Speaker for the Dead ). Ender in Exile begins one year after Ender has won the bugger war, and begins with the short story "Ender's Homecoming" from Card's webzine Intergalactic Medicine Show. Other short stories that were published elsewhere are included as chapters of the novel.

Contents

Plot

One year after the Buggers (Formics) were defeated and the Battle School children have returned to Earth, Ender is still unable to return with them because there would be wars over which country would keep Ender to use for its own ends. Ender is offered the governorship of the first human colony to be planted on one of the Buggers' former worlds, a planet that will eventually become known as Shakespeare. His sister Valentine decides to accompany Ender on his journey because she is sick of being controlled by her older brother, Peter, and because she wants to restore the relationship with Ender that she had lost when he left to go to Battle School.

On their way to the Shakespeare colony, Valentine begins writing her History of the Bugger Wars books while Ender has an unspoken power struggle with the captain of the ship, Admiral Quincy Morgan. There is also a romance between Ender and a girl named Alessandra. Once the ship lands on Shakespeare, Ender, who had spent much of his trip learning the names and lives of the colony's residents, takes charge of the colony and wins the colonists over.

Ender serves as governor of Shakespeare for a few years. Near the end of his time as governor, Ender and a young boy from the colony named Abra go to find a site for a new shipment of colonists. Ender wants the new settlement to be far enough away from the other settlements that there will not be competition between them right away, and so they can develop separately.

In the process of finding a location for the new settlement, Ender stumbles upon what seems to be the equivalent of a note from the Buggers. It is a structure made to look like a game he used to play in Battle School. When Ender investigates, he finds the living pupa of a Bugger Hive Queen that is fertilized and prepared to make hundreds of thousands of offspring upon its maturation.

The find leads Ender to write his first book as the Speaker for the Dead. The book, titled The Hive Queen, tries to look at the Bugger wars and their eventual destruction from the point of view of the Buggers. Later, Peter Wiggin, nearing the end of his life and knowing that Ender wrote the story, asks him to write one for him for when he dies. This book becomes known as The Hegemon.

After this, Ender resigns as governor and leaves the colony for another called Ganges. The leader of Ganges is Virlomi. Here he encounters Randall Firth, who believes himself to be the son of Achilles de Flandres, and even refers to himself by the name Achilles.

Randall spreads propaganda accusing Ender of xenocide in an attempt to discredit Virlomi and get revenge against Peter Wiggin, who he believes is responsible for his father's defeat. Randall tries twice to meet with Ender and discredit him somehow. On the second visit, his plan is to cleverly provoke Ender into killing him so that people will see how violent and dangerous he is, but Ender does not attack.

Instead Ender tries to convince Randall that he is not Achilles' son, but that he is in fact the son of Bean and Petra; hence where he gets his gigantism from. Eventually, Ender manages to convince Randall of his parents' identity by allowing Randall to brutally defeat him in a one-sided fistfight, the entire time asserting that he could never hurt his friends' child. Randall ends up changing his name to Arkanian Delphiki amidst his guilt for Ender's horrifying wounds.

After Ender heals a bit, he, Valentine, and the Hive Queen pupa board a starship to go to a new place. [3]

Original publication as short stories

Several of the chapters of the novel were originally published in electronic form as short stories in Card's webzine Intergalactic Medicine Show  :

Relationship between "Gold Bug" and "A Young Man with Prospects"

According to Card while he was writing the short story "The Gold Bug," he started to think about how Ender got to the colony. As a result, he came up with a story idea which involved a power struggle between Ender and the ship's captain. However, since Card did not want the story to be only about Ender and the captain he decided to put a mother and daughter on the ship. When he first began writing about Alessandra and Dorabella Toscano, it was supposed to have been the opening for that story, but as he sat down to plan the scenes, they developed into a story of their own, which became the short story "A Young Man with Prospects," [7] published in February 2007 [4] and later incorporated into the novel as chapter 5.

Characters

See also

Related Research Articles

<i>Speaker for the Dead</i> 1986 novel by Orson Scott Card

Speaker for the Dead is a 1986 science fiction novel by American writer Orson Scott Card, an indirect sequel to the 1985 novel Ender's Game. The book takes place around the year 5270, some 3,000 years after the events in Ender's Game. However because of relativistic space travel at near-light speed Ender himself is only about 35 years old.

<i>Enders Game</i> 1985 novel by Orson Scott Card

Ender's Game is a 1985 military science fiction novel by American author Orson Scott Card. Set at an unspecified date in Earth's future, the novel presents an imperiled humankind after two conflicts with an insectoid alien species they dub "the buggers". In preparation for an anticipated third invasion, Earth's international military force recruits young children, including the novel's protagonist, Andrew "Ender" Wiggin, to be trained as elite officers. The children learn military strategy and leadership by playing increasingly difficult war games, including some in zero gravity, where Ender's tactical genius is revealed.

<i>Children of the Mind</i> 1996 novel by Orson Scott Card

Children of the Mind (1996) is a novel by American author Orson Scott Card, the fourth in his successful Ender's Game series of science fiction novels that focus on the character Ender Wiggin. This book was originally the second half of Xenocide, before it was split into two novels.

<i>Enders Shadow</i> 1999 novel by Orson Scott Card

Ender's Shadow (1999) is a parallel science fiction novel by the American author Orson Scott Card, taking place at the same time as the novel Ender's Game and depicting some of the same events from the point of view of Bean, a supporting character in the original novel. It was originally to be titled Urchin, but it was retitled Ender's Shadow prior to release. Ender's Shadow was shortlisted for a Locus Award in 2000.

<i>Shadow of the Hegemon</i> 2000 novel by Orson Scott Card

Shadow of the Hegemon (2000) is a science fiction novel by American writer Orson Scott Card, the second novel in the Ender's Shadow series. It is also the sixth novel in the Ender's Game series. It is told mostly from the point of view of Bean, a largely peripheral character in the original novel Ender's Game but the central protagonist of the parallel narrative Ender's Shadow.Shadow of the Hegemon was nominated for a Locus Award in 2002.

<i>Shadow of the Giant</i> 2005 novel by Orson Scott Card

Shadow of the Giant (2005) is a science fiction novel by American writer Orson Scott Card, the fourth novel in his Ender's Shadow series, also called the Bean Quartet.

Andrew "Ender" Wiggin is a fictional character from Orson Scott Card's 1985 science fiction novel Ender's Game and its sequels, as well as in the first part of the spin-off series, Ender's Shadow. The book series itself is an expansion, with some changes to detail, of Card's 1977 short story "Ender's Game."

The Ender's Game series is a series of science fiction books written by American author Orson Scott Card. The series started with the novelette Ender's Game, which was later expanded into the novel of the same title. It currently consists of sixteen novels, thirteen short stories, 47 comic issues, an audioplay, and a film. The first two novels in the series, Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead, each won both the Hugo and Nebula Awards.

<i>First Meetings</i> 2002 book by Orson Scott Card

First Meetings (2002) is a collection of science fiction short stories by American writer Orson Scott Card, belonging to his Ender's Game series. Tor Books republished the book in 2003 under the titles First Meetings in the Enderverse and First Meetings in Ender's Universe and included the more recent "Teacher's Pest", a story about the first meeting of Ender's parents.

<i>Enders Game</i> (film) 2013 American military science-fiction action film by Gavin Hood

Ender's Game is a 2013 American military science-fiction action film based on Orson Scott Card's 1985 novel of the same name. Written and directed by Gavin Hood, the film stars Asa Butterfield as Andrew "Ender" Wiggin, an unusually gifted child who is sent to an advanced military academy in space to prepare for a future alien invasion. The supporting cast includes Harrison Ford, Hailee Steinfeld, and Viola Davis, with Abigail Breslin and Ben Kingsley.

<i>Hot Sleep</i> 1979 novel by Orson Scott Card

Hot Sleep: The Worthing Chronicle (1979) is a science fiction novel by American writer Orson Scott Card, part of his the Worthing series. Card's novel The Worthing Chronicle (1983) covers some of the same ground.

<i>InterGalactic Medicine Show</i> Speculative fiction magazine

InterGalactic Medicine Show was an American online fantasy and science fiction magazine. It was founded in 2005 by multiple award-winning author Orson Scott Card and was edited by Edmund R. Schubert from 2006–2016, after which Scott Roberts took over. It was originally biannual, but became quarterly in 2008 and bimonthly in 2009, except for a brief hiatus in 2010. The magazine ceased publication in June 2019.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Orson Scott Card</span> American science fiction novelist (born 1951)

Orson Scott Card is an American writer known best for his science fiction works. He is the first and only person to win a Hugo Award and a Nebula Award in consecutive years, winning both awards for his novel Ender's Game (1985) and its sequel Speaker for the Dead (1986). A feature film adaptation of Ender's Game, which Card co-produced, was released in 2013. Card also wrote the Locus Fantasy Award-winning series The Tales of Alvin Maker (1987–2003).

<i>A War of Gifts: An Ender Story</i> 2007 novella by Orson Scott Card

A War of Gifts: An Ender Story is a 2007 science fiction novella by American writer Orson Scott Card. This book is set in Card's Ender's Game series and takes place during Ender Wiggin's time at Battle School as described in Card's novels Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow.

"Ender's Game" is a science fiction novelette by American writer Orson Scott Card. It first appeared in the August 1977 issue of Analog magazine and was later expanded into the 1985 novel Ender's Game. Although it serves as the foundation of the Ender's Game series, the novelette is not considered to be properly a part of the Ender's Game universe, as there are many discrepancies in continuity between it and the novel.

<i>Orson Scott Cards InterGalactic Medicine Show</i>

Orson Scott Card's InterGalactic Medicine Show (2008) is a science fiction and fantasy anthology edited by Edmund R. Schubert and Orson Scott Card.

Ender's Game is a series of comic book adaptations of a series of science fiction novels of the same name written by Orson Scott Card and published by Marvel Comics that began in October 2008. However, some have new content never before released in the novels. The series, like the novels they are based on are set in a future where mankind is facing annihilation by an aggressive alien society, an insect-like race known colloquially as "Buggers" but more formally as "Formics". The central character, Andrew "Ender" Wiggin, is one of the child soldiers trained at Battle School to be the future leaders of the protection of Earth. The year is never specified, although the ages of the Wiggin children are bound to change throughout space, taking in the relativity of space and time.

"Gloriously Bright" is a science fiction short story by American writer Orson Scott Card, set in his Ender's Game universe. It tells the story of Han Qing-jao and Si Wang-mu as they interact with Jane, the gods of Path, the Starways Congress, and the knowledge of OCD. It appears in the January 1991 issue of Analog Science Fiction and Fact.

References

Notes
  1. Card's Bibliography at the hatrack.com
  2. Orson Scott Card - Online Radio Interview with the Author at theauthorhour.com
  3. Card, Orson Scott. Ender in Exile. New York. Tor Books. 2008.
  4. 1 2 Orson Scott Card, "A Young Man With Prospects" Intergalactic Medicine Show, February 2007.
  5. Orson Scott Card, "The Gold Bug" Intergalactic Medicine Show, July 2007.
  6. "More Red Ink: Alien Contact Anthology -- Story #9". 29 June 2011. Retrieved 2013-10-31.
  7. Orson Scott Card, "How One Story Can Give Birth to Another" Intergalactic Medicine Show, February 2007.