Books of 2010: 1. Ender in Exile, by Orson Scott Card

When I signed up at the Westmount Library yesterday, I saw a copy of Ender in Exile on the shelves, just waiting to be read. Now, I'll be the first to admit that I'm not particularly well-read in the Ender series; I've read Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow, and that's about it. Having read the Wikipedia entries for the rest of the series, I realize there's a lot of context I'm missing from this book. There are characters developed in other books in the series that I know nothing about. So maybe that's why I don't have the same reaction to Ender in Exile as I had to the first two: I don't have the context for this one, whereas I didn't need context for the other two.

Which isn't to say Ender in Exile is a bad book. It's a fast read, certainly, but not a bad one. It was enjoyable, in that typical Orson Scott Card kind of way. But whereas I remember Ender's Game being extremely gripping, a true page-turner where I was emotionally involved with all the characters, Ender in Exile just didn't hold me the same way. I found that for people who are supposed to be super-intelligent, most of the main characters were written with fairly obvious motivations. Moreover, most of the point-of-view characters came across as petulant and whining. Whereas Ender from Ender's Game is doing his life's work (though he's just a child), Ender from Ender in Exile is a teenager whose greatest life's work is behind him, and that's just not as compelling a story, at least not to me. Valentine, his sister, is just along for the ride, and the rest of the main characters are only important inasmuch as they relate to Ender.

So... not a bad book, but it's probably not going to go on my top-ten list for the year.