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I'm reading Ender in Exile... about 75 pages in so far.
In the Afterword, Card says he has rewritten Chapter 15 of EG to clear up inconsistencies between the two accounts. He says the revised version of Ch 15 is available on IGMS, but I could not find it anywhere. Can someone point me in the right direction?
Also, Card states the inconsistencies are minor--involving the timeline--but I re-read the original Chapter 15 and the inconsistencies with Exile are actually quite substantial. In fact, the whole conversation between Ender and Valentine in Game doesn't make sense if you drop it into Exile .
(1) In Game, Ender recognized Valentine gradually when they met. in Exile, Ender already knew he was meeting Valentine because Graff told him.
(2) In Game, Valentine told Ender he could never return home. In Exile, Ender had already figured this out on his own.
3) In Game, Valentine convinced Ender to accept a governorship on Colony I. In Exile, Ender had already accepted the job before he met Valentine.
4) In Game, Valentine said she blackmailed Peter with pictures of dead squirrels to convince him to let Ender stay in space. In Exile, she subtly manipulated Peter into thinking of the idea himself (which cleared up another inconsistency in SotH, where Peter claimed it was his idea to keep Ender in space, even though Valentine wanted to bring him home.)
(In fact, now that I think about it, Ender was much smarter and more prepared in Exile than he was portrayed in EG ).
Posts: 187 | Registered: Jul 2003
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posted
I actually liked change number 4, however for some reason I really like how number 2 was before the change.
Posts: 856 | Registered: Jun 2007
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On the whole, I am enjoying Exile very much. (About 140 pages in right now). I'm particularly curious to see where Card is going with the realization that the Formics may have intentionally let Ender destroy them, which is a revelation that I don't think has been covered in any other books.
Exile is, by design, a connectiive story, which means most scenes are intended to fill in blanks or add some flesh to previously told events. And, of course, much of the material has already been published in short story form. Still, I've been surprised by how well the story is flowing and how much fun it's been to see all the IGMS short stories referenced and incorporated into the "canon". It's kind of neat that Exile can function as both a direct sequel to EG , and also a coda to the entire Shadow series.
After the original trilogy (EG, SFTD, Xeno), I have felt the subsequent sequels were hit-or-miss. The Speaker series was interesting for Card's geopolitical insights, but I felt the stories lacked emotional resonance, all except Shadow of the Giant , which I thought suddenly rivaled the earlier books in its power. I think Exile also represents a return to form, of sorts, for the series.
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