A War of Gifts

A War of Gifts
An Ender Story
by Orson Scott Card

The human race is at war with an insectlike race. The first battles went badly, and now Earth prepares to defend itself against the imminent threat of total destruction at the hands of an inscrutable alien enemy. All focus is on the development and training of generals who can fight such a war – and win.

The long distances of interstellar space have given hope to the defenders of Earth – they have time to train these future commanders from childhood, forging them into an irresistible force in the high-orbital facility called the Battle School.

At the Battle School, there is only one purpose, only one curriculum: the strategy and tactics of war. The children are drawn from all nations, all races, all religions. There is no room for cultural differences, no room for religious observances, and certainly no room for Santa Claus.

But the young warriors disagree. When on of them leaves a Sinterklaas Day gift in his best friend’s shoe, that quiet act of rebellion becomes the first shot in a war of wills that the staff of the Battle School never bargained for.

This isn’t so much a book as it is an individually bound short story and I think that is something the reader needs to be aware of when picking this up. It is very quick to establish a handful of main characters in the story and proceeds to the main plot without taking much time to explain what is going on and why. There is an assumption made by the author that the reader is already familiar with the story of Ender Wiggin.

I didn’t have a problem with this at all because the Ender series and the Ender’s Shadow series are some of my favourite stories and have been some of my favourites for a long time. So I knew even before opening this little book who the majority of the characters were going to be. The only character I wasn’t familiar with from the main series was Zeck Morgan, the first character to which we are introduced.

I think having one of the main boys (which also includes Dink, Flip, and Ender) in this story being a new character, or a relatively unknown character, might help a new reader get into this world. I think it also helps that the focus of this story is mostly on the relationships of a select few and doesn’t really touch upon the greater concerns seen in Ender’s Game. However, because very little of that extended world is explained, it might be a little confusing as to why they are all in this Battle School to begin with.

I do think this is interesting as a self contained short story because it makes you think about the ties between religion and secular culture and the differences in those ties in different countries, but I don’t think it establishes context very well. As an interlude during a larger story, I think it’s fantastic.

So, if you have read Ender’s Game and are interested in another Battle School story, I’d suggest picking this one up. It’s short and reads quickly and is just as thought provoking and witty as Orson Scott Card’s other work. If you haven’t read Ender’s Game, I’d suggest waiting to read this story after Ender’s Game. I think it works better with that context than without.

The Lost Gate

The Lost Gate
Orson Scott Card

Danny North knew from early childhood that his family was different and that he was different from them. While his cousins were learning how to create the things that commoners called fairies, ghosts, golems, trolls, werewolves, and other such miracles that were the heritage of the North family. Danny worried that he would never show a talent, never form an outself..

He grew up in the rambling old house, filled with dozens of cousins and aunts and uncles, all ruled by his father. Their home was isolated in the mountains of western Virginia, far from town, far from schools, far from other people.

There are many secrets in the house and many rules that Danny must follow. There is a secret library with only a few dozen books, none of them in English – but Danny and his cousins are expected to become fluent in the language of the books. While Danny’s cousins are free to create magic whenever they like, they must never do it where outsiders might see.

Unfortunately, there are some secrets kept from Danny, as well. And that will lead to disaster for the North family.

Orson Scott Card creates an astounding urban fantasy about a clan of mages in exile in our world, living in uneasy truce with other clans until Dan’s birth brings the flames of open war back to life. For Dan North is a gatemage, the first in a thousand years, and he can open the locks that keep the North clan, and their enemies, away from their homeland of Westil.

You should all know before I get into the reviewing bit of this post that Ender’s Game, also by Orson Scott Card, is arguably my favourite book of all time. It differs on what I’ve been reading lately, of course, but Card’s Ender series is one that I fall back on whenever I need a book to reread. So I was incredibly biased before even opening the cover.

But I think even if Card didn’t write one of my favourite books ever, I would love this book. It’s somewhere in the midst of an unruly cross between Tithe by Holly Black and American Gods by Neil Gaiman. You’ve got the main character, Danny North, who doesn’t know what he is and there’s this whole other world that he’s a part of unknown to common humanity, like in Tithe, but it’s the same kind of jaded, fallen deities still fighting to keep their godhood in a world that no longer supports it that can be seen in American Gods. I love the depth and care that goes into building worlds like this and Card does not disappoint.

There’s also another story in this book. It’s not as prevalent as Danny North’s because he is the main character, but this other story is related to Danny’s path and that is the story of Wad, a young man with old eyes born from a tree and secreted into the kitchens of a palace in kingdom on a world that was once tied to this one. For the most part, he doesn’t remember who he was before, but he has abilities far beyond those of the people around him and he has ghosts in his head that he can feel sometimes.

Again, he’s not as prevalent in this book as Danny, so it took me longer than it probably should have to figure out his role in all of this. Towards the beginning of the book, I found that his chapters were slowing me down in my understanding of how the story fit together, but once I figured out the connection, I was actually looking forward to his chapters more than Danny’s. This didn’t detract from my enjoyment of the book at all, but you should be aware that the beginning might be a bit slow going with Wad in the mix until you figure it out.

If you are a fan of mythological fiction, you should check this book out. If you are a fan of self-discovery stories featuring teenaged folk in fantastical settings, you should check this book out. It was a great read and has encouraged me to seek out works by Card beyond the Ender series.

Ender in Exile

Ender in Exile

I have a long standing relationship with Ender Wiggin and his Battle School soldiers. In fact, there is a picture taken of me as an infant with a copy of the first book, Ender’s Game. Naturally, I had to pick up Orson Scott Card’s latest book in the series.

Ender in Exile has a bit of an odd placement within the Ender series. It isn’t a sequel, but it isn’t a prequel either. Essentially, this entire book is composed of “deleted” scenes from the last few chapters of Ender’s Game. It covers what happened between Ender’s defeat of the Formics and becoming the Speaker for the Dead. While that may have been a weird space of time to wrap my brain around at first, it quickly became an essential part of the Ender lore.

In this book, we get to see the details as to why Ender was never allowed to return to Earth after the Formics’ defeat and the twisted politics of Ender becoming the governor of the first IF colony on another planet. We get to see the psychology of Ender as he copes with being The Xenocide, the psychology of Valentine as she adjusts to the person her brother has become, and the psychology of the first colonists to other planets. This book also, surprisingly, includes some insight into the characters of Ender’s parents, who I had never really given much thought to. It presents that same analysis of human drives and sociology that is prevalent in the other books and it was fantastic to go back to that.

Despite the fact that it has been a few years since the release of the previous Ender’s Game book¹, it is easy to slip back into that universe. Card’s writing is as analytical and bitingly witty as ever and his dialog leaps off the page with its humorous sarcasm. Even though it took me far longer than it should have to finish it, I enjoyed every minute.
If you are a fan of the Ender’s Game series, you must read this book. It fills in some gaps and solves some thin plot holes at the end of Ender’s Game and during the time between Ender’s Game and Speaker for the Dead.



¹ And I somehow managed to miss that book. The latest release I’d read before Ender in Exile was Shadow of the Giant in 2005.