Ender in Exile is done. This was a slow book (in a good way), which honestly did not need a dramatic climax. Most of the characters were very well thought out and interesting, and it's a surprisingly heart-wrenching human drama throughout most of it. There came a point where I would have simply ended the book and been satisfied with this as an interquel.

SPOILER WARNING:

This story was also written to tie up several loose threads, including some from the Shadow series. As I'm following Ender's story first and never completed the Shadow series (stopping at Shadow Puppets), and as I'm going chronologically by the story instead of chronologically by release, there were several details in here that I had either forgotten in the intervening years or was completely unaware of. Most bizarre for me was the distracting fate of Randall Firth, the "son" of Achilles. Even in the spoiler section, I won't say much, but I was disappointed how an antagonist who gets so little time or attention through 4/5 of the book has a drastic effect on Ender's long-term reputation and is the subject of the climax. I think his story would have better served in a separate book, or else the various characters whose stories were being woven into this from the short stories should have actually remained only in the short stories, while Randall got a lot more attention. I had no emotional connection to him, and his own personal struggles and the influence he garners are simply beyond my ability to believe or care.

That said, it was a worthwhile book. My favorite plotline involved the Italian mother and daughter duo, Alessandra and Belladonna Toscano, and my greatest sadness while reading the book was knowing that Ender would not end up with the daughter, since I've already read the books that take place later wherein he marries a crotchety old grouch who depresses him beyond belief.