There has been a lot of speculation about Ender in Exile. I have read complaints that Orson Scott Card has become sermonistic in his writings and overtime the quality of his written word had deteriorated over time.

I however, would have to disagree. Although I did note some tendencies in this book, a good example is how often 'marriage' and 'children' are brought up as the appropriate way for one to spend their life was a little aggravating, it none the less fit with the story.

Here we have Andrew Wiggin, called Ender. He born into a time where people were only allowed to have two children, and all children born are monitored to see if they will be of use to the military. However, Ender was a third. He was a third child in the family, the government found extreme potential in his brother and sister, but they needed a good mix of both of them, so they issued the Wiggins to have another child.

This caused Ender to be an outcast. Throw in his incredible intelligence and wit and it's already much worse. So Ender goes to battle school with thousands of other children just like him.

The problem is no one is 'just like' Ender, and he was picked with the sole purpose of saving the world from the Formic invasion. The best way to do this is to isolate him so that he realizes that when he needs help there will be no one to save him. However the irony in this is that although no one would save him, he still needed others to complete victory.

Including Bean. If we were to compare Bean and Ender the best way to say it is that Bean is a doer and Ender is a thinker. Bean was smarter then Ender in the sense that he could visualize everything where as Ender can analyze everyone and everything to full understand how they work. Both brilliant and together were a very deadly combination.

Back to the thought at hand, Ender was denied a childhood, he lived alone inside himself for a very long time trying to adjust to what he had done and how his life was and never would be normal. The idea of pressing the thought of marriage and children worked well for the story because it specifically is all the things Ender never got to really enjoy.

You could cater it back to the fact that Orson Scott Card is a mormon, or you could see it in the perspective of the story and characters.

I love Ender in Exile, and thought it was a wonderful book that brought me back into the story.