"Ender in Exile" by Orson Scott Card

This book is part of the Ender's Game series and as I have read the first five books plus the parallel Ender's Shadow series, I figured it would be worth my time. I listened to this as an audiobook on my phone.

Summary: At the end of Ender's Game we get something of a denouement in which humans colonize the old bugger worlds and a few satisfying details wrap up the story. In this new volume, the last couple chapters of Ender's Game are expanded greatly. We get to see Ender dealing with his new status as the most honored and most feared human in existence, loved and spurned by the masses. We get to see what life is like on the second wave of colony ships as they rush to their new homes and trail blaze a new political path as people begin to live light years away from each other. This is the first time civilians have had to deal with the realities of relativistic speeds compounded with the technology of cryogenic freezing makes for some interesting problems with ages and seniority.

We also get a glimpse into the world of Peter and Bean who are the stars of Ender's Shadow. If you loved that parallel series, there is some material in this book you might be interested in.

What I Liked: Ender gains some insights as to how he really won the war against the buggers and does a lot of reflection. This book is the denouement readers needed after the intensity of the first book.

What I Didn't Like: Honestly, this book was boring. I listened to it as an audiobook which means I did not have to do anything to keep up a good pace. There is very little action, even non-violent action. What builds the tension is finding out what doesn't happen.

Rating: Not the best of the series, but if you have already read most of them, it answers a lot of questions.

Also Read by this Author: Ender's Game, Speaker For the Dead, Xenocide, Children of the Mind, Ender's Shadow, Shadow of the Hegemon, Shadow Puppets, Shadow of the Giant, Shadow's in Flight, The Memory of Earth, The Call of Earth, The Ships of Earth, Earthfall.

Reviewed by: Nick

"Shadows in Flight" By Orson Scott Card

I selected this audiobook because I have already read eight books in this universe and really love the main character, Bean. 

Summary: This is this fifth book in the Ender's Shadow series and takes place about 400 years after the events in the first four books. Bean is flying through space with three of his children at near light speed, so that they will age slower than their friends and relatives back on Earth. Without this intervention, they would surely die in their twenties as everyone else grew old. They spend much of their energy researching their peculiar and rare genetic disease which makes their minds and bodies grow at the a constant pace. Their brains are perpetually learning like an infant, becoming geniuses at toddler age, but the constant growth means they will not stop in adulthood. Bean, in his twenties, is at the edge of death as his heart struggles to supply blood to is enormous body, even at 1/10th Earth's gravity. These four adventurers discover an ancient Formic ship and explore it to learn all kinds of new things about their one-time enemy. This story spends a lot of time exploring the inner thoughts and vocal debates between the four travelers.

What I Liked: This book takes the time to answer some of the lingering questions from the other eight books and develops more background on the Formics. Card really did make an interesting and exciting world which is a treat to read about.

What I Didn't Like: This is a low tension book, compared to the earlier Ender's Shadow series, and it felt shorter (and apparently is shorter). On a different note, I should say that Orson Scott Card has expressed many political views that I personally find distasteful and disrespectful, and makes me hesitant to give him money.

Rating: I recommend the whole series from Ender's Game to this book, though this is not the most exciting of the series.

Also Read by this Author: Ender's Game, Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, Children of the Mind, Ender's Shadow, Shadow of the Hegemon, Shadow Puppets, Shadow of the Giant, The Memory of Earth, The Call of Earth, The Ships of Earth, Earthfall.

Reviewed by: Nick