Ender in Exile

Exile is a bit of an odd book, taking place between two existing ones in the series and actually retelling Ender's Game's final chapter, where he travels to one of the first colony planets and finds the last hive queen. Large sections of it are cobbled together from short stories that were previously published, and the purpose of it is mostly to tie up a few loose ends and inconsistencies from both the Ender and Shadow sagas. Still, I had about as good a time as ever reading it, it wasn't as inventive or surprising as the other novels since I basically knew what had to end up happening, but I did enjoy it.

It's hard to blame the story for not being as enthralling as the others, as it doesn't have the opportunity for the amazing scientific discoveries of the first quartet or interesting global military conflict of the second. Considering that Ender spends most of the story just traveling to his destination and doing things we were already aware of, it actually managed to grip me pretty well, as I blazed through the nearly 400 pages as quick as I ever do with Card's writing. I'm not sure what it is, but he seems to read almost as easily as if I was complacently watching it on television. The conflicts at hand weren't particularly incredible, but it all fit together well enough. I did like the final resolution of the Achilles arc, although it might be the first time I thought I was smarter than one of the series' many genius characters. There's another book coming at some point down the road that should wrap up the series once and for all, and I look forward to reading it.