ENDER IN EXILE

The character of Ender as depicted in the original novel was in some ways drawn from my son Geoffrey, who was five and then six when I was writing that book. He is now thirty years old and the father of two children (with the good offices of his wife, the former Heather Heavener). To my great relief, Geoffrey was never called upon to serve his country in war.

So in examining what Ender's experience might be like, I have drawn upon much reading, of course, but also from correspondence and conversation with good men and women who have served our country in Afghanistan, Iraq, and other trouble spots where our responsibilities as the only nation with the strength and the will to help beleaguered people against tyranny have been fulfilled. You bear a burden for us all, and I salute you.

I grieve for those who have fallen, or who, surviving with dire injuries or broken hearts, have been deprived of much or most of the future that you once dreamed of. As a citizen of the United States, I bear some of the responsibility for sending you where you have gone, and certainly reap the benefits. Like Ender, I might not have known what was being sacrificed in my name, but I recognize the connection between us.

And for those of you who are visibly whole after your service, but who bear inward changes that no one sees, and carry memories that no one shares, I can only hope that I have done an adequate job of representing, in Ender Wiggin, something of what you feel and think and remember.

Coming in 2009 from Tor Books and Hatrack River Enterprises: The Ender's Game Companion, written by Jake Black. This encyclopedic volume is thoroughly researched, and features entries on the characters, planets, technology, and more from the Ender's Game Universe—the novels, short stories, comics, and screenplay. The following is a sample entry from the Companion.

HUNDRED WORLDS

The Hundred Worlds was the name given to the different planets settled by humans during the 3,000 years following Ender Wiggin's victory over the formics: Albion, Armenia, As Fábricas, Associated Planets, Ata Atua, Baía, The Belt, Calicut, Córdoba, Cyrillia, Descoladore, Divine Wind, Etruid, Gales, Ganges, Hegria, Helvetica, Honshu, Jonlei, Jung Calvin Colonies, Lusitania, Lybian Quarter, Memphis, Milagre, Mindanao, Moctezuma, Moskva, Nagoya, Oporto, Otaheti, Outback, Pacifica/Lumana'i', Path/Tao, Qu, Reykjavik, Rhemis, Rov, Saturn, Shakespeare Colony (formerly Colony I), Sorelledolce, Stumpy Point, Summer Islands, Trondheim, Ugarit.

Ender's and Valentine's Travels

Shortly after defeating the formics, Ender left Earth to govern one of the colonies in the Hundred Worlds. The first colony he visited, as seen in Ender in Exile and "Gold Bug," was Shakespeare Colony, also known as Colony I. The term "Colony I" will be changed to "Shakespeare" in future editions of Speaker for the Dead and Xenocide. This change is being made, in Orson Scott Card's words, "to accommodate the 'true' story" as written in Ender in Exile.

Ender and Valentine didn't stay in any one place too long. Their galactic travelogue is as follows:

Earth

Shakespeare Colony

Ganges

Various planets, including Helvetica and others not yet identified, where Ender was not a speaker for the dead but a research assistant for Valentine as she wrote her books. (Ender had written The Hive Queen and The Hegemon in Shakespeare Colony, but did not list Speaker for the Dead as his occupation.)

Sorelledolce

Rov, where citizens of the colony first see Ender with Jane's jewel in his ear. He also lists his occupation as speaker for the dead for the first time here.

Various planets, including Moctezuma and others not yet identified, where Ender was a fulltime speaker for the dead.

Trondheim

Lusitania